So Mark Hurd gets fired by HP and hired by Oracle. The story written today is about what it was like at HP under Hurd’s leadership. Not so good, apparently.

“The Voice of the Workplace, an internal measure of employee sentiment done every five years, showed more than two-thirds would quit if they had an equivalent job offer.” [Italics are ours.]

Hurd gets remarkably low ratings from HP peeps on Glassdoor, an anonymous employee review site. Seems his relenting push to make numbers demoralized people, leaving a “soul-less” culture — or at least a culture based on fear.

There are 300,000 employees at HP. And two-thirds want out? Ouch.

I was initially with Larry Ellisen on questioning the wisdom of HP’s board firing Hurd. But I’ve changed my mind. The story told when Hurd was fired didn’t make much sense. But a CEO who drives financial performance at the expense of their workforce should lose their job.

You don’t have a sustainable business when the people who are the business will jump ship for a decent alternative. The economy will recover. You can’t treat people like persistently pulled elastic and expect them to stay. Financial performance alone does not make a great company.