At that company we could all agree to hate the CEO and it was the reason I left. However, he was not the person to blame. It was HR 100%. They hated the software devs and how much they made compared to them. They didn't want to make exceptions for really good people because they were the last word and didn't have to. The CEO was a jerk, but escalating anything to him didn't help anyone, and you really didn't want him poking around... He was just a puppet anyhow. At most companies, you have a holding company that owns them. Once a year they would come in to that company and look over everything and make sure he wasn't completely destroying it (he was, but hid it well) and then they would leave. He was a jerk that made it known he was the all powerful OZ (that had no clue what we really did). One year I was selected to give a presentation to the board (the suits). They streamed in, sat down, and I showed off my teams stuff. At one point the CEO spoke up and interrupted me to say something and one of the suits told him, in front of everyone, "shut up <CEOs name> and let him tell us". He sat down like a beat dog and didn't speak again. There were power dynamics I will never know... But I did know who pulled the strings within our walls and for the most part it was HR running a fairly cruel shop because they didn't like us.