There's an assumption on most people's part that corporate CEOs are visionary, set the tone and direction for their respective companies, tend to focus on big picture items, while the worker drones attend to the minutiae.

Usually, this image is maintained when you see the CEO in action, their every word listened to intently with head bobbing appreciation by others lucky enough to be in their presence. CEO's have very important people trailing them, at their elbow, trying to get their "face" time with the big guy/gal. CEOs always seem to be in a rush.

CEOs have minions who attend to the details of their hectic lives. They have executive secretaries, who also have secretaries. They have grips who make sure their luggage or whatever is always at hand. They have personal chefs, a trusted chauffeur, and so on. They travel extensively.

There's a mystique surrounding the CEOs office and workers gossip relentlessly about the CEOs going ons. Who's in favor, who is out of favor, who is going to get canned, what the board of directors may think and how they will vote, etc. The inner circle hang out in the executive secretary's office vying for "just five minutes" with el jefe.

CEOs make gobs and gobs of money for the fabulous jobs they do. We know they're important. We know others think they're important. We're just not sure what they really do.

Well now the picture is getting more transparent for the rest of us. In addition to snooping on individual board of director members and influential members of the media, CEOs also find time to snark online at their competition using pseudonyms in online forums.

Whole Foods Market CEO John Mackey used the pseudonym "rahodeb," to jab and make disparaging comments about his rival competitor Wild Oats and others. Earlier this year, Whole Foods agreed to buy Wild Oats for $565 million, or $18.50 a share.

(No, rahodeb is not an ancient Egyptian's king name, it is however, a variation of Mr. Mackey's wife's name, Deborah).

Rahodeb posted over 1,394 entries on Yahoo Finance stock forums over the past eight years. Those postings came to light this week as part of the FTC lawsuit to block Whole Foods' takeover of Wild Oats. Below is a March 29, 2006 example of one of them.

1. Re: RAHODEB'S SELL ON OATS AT LOW 2/24 - The only thing time has told us about OATS is that it has lost $81 million in 19 years and $33 million over the last 3 years. You continue to ignore these facts. Why is that?<br><br>The stock is up on takeover speculation and nothing else. The company still stinks and remains grossly overvalued based on very weak fundamentals. The stock is up now, but if it doesn't get sold in the next year or so it is going to plummet back down. Wait and see.<br><br>You're also right that I have no shame. Why should I?

For the most part the posts themselves are not exceptional but for the fact they are written by Whole Foods' CEO. This fact does make them distinctive and sad at the same time. You would think a CEO's judgement would be more intact.

Now we know what CEOs do. We just thought they made better and more brilliant decisions than they often do.