well, the man has his right to privacy.

Still, cancer and it's many treatments can cause unreal sudden weightloss, and even
'once well,' a person can look horrendous I've seen heart attack patients age like 20 years (visually) once all the hubbub has died down and the ticker is going great...
-so I see folks being alarmed.

Being CEO (exectutive officer) is not the same as chief Financial or Operating officer, --and being CEO doesn't mean that he's calling the shots at all...
---he could be a figurehead with somebody already in place already operating as a failsafe... most corps work that way, all intelligent ones do...

Either way? I do wish the man well, and am assuming that he's not at lack for proper health care.

Jobs is entitled to his privacy in my opinion.

I'm a huge Apple fan; I greatly admire Jobs. But it doesn't feel right to dog him about his health. He's a great visionary and businessman and will be greatly missed when he steps down. Having said that, it won't constitute the end of the world.

he looks pretty buff to me.

felicia,
are you calling Jobs a liar? 'cause it sure seems like you are. he said what the issue is & has been.

and, it's not like apple products have been a flaming pile of crap over this time period. or that their stocks and profits have been in the dumps.

so, no, he doesn't owe the public or the company anything, other than to do his job. which he has done.

I don't think he owes anyone any explanations. If he is gravely ill I'm sure he has everything in order, but there is no reason to make any sort of announcement that would do anything to cause a panic ( and let's face it... people overreact, especially in the stock market).

I sincerely hope that his health is going to improve. I can't imagine how stressful it must be to be fighting a serious illness and have the weight of an entire corporation on your shoulders.

Ed, it may come across that I'm calling him a liar but, really, I'm not that mean. I'm a fan, and the company turns out fun product. But the talk about Jobs' health has been churning since that day last year that he appeared on stage and was ghastly thin. He has a right to privacy, sure, and I hope that he regains his health. My point is that, in the cold, hard world of business -- especially one as successful as Apple -- there are other considerations unfortunately to be addressed.

Felicia: I can see your point in raising the question, and am still leaning towards He as a figurehead, but there being tons of greymatter and other players that can fill his shoes...

Re: sick at work...

I worked at a med facility a few years back and the CEO suddenly lost a ton of weight -that we did a lot of work with people who had cancer and such? fueled a lot of concerns (he didn't look 'hey great, you lost some weight' good, he looked 'whoah, dude, you okay?' skinny.
The whole place was buzzing and nervous about it, as he was also CFO -nobody was comfortable with it, even if their job was indirectly affected.

(In) the work setting, particularlly corp. where everybody is in cubicles and doing kinda mundane stuff, the aspects of co-workers becomes amplified... the smallest thing about people can balloon into issues that 'need to be addressed,' (like: weapons grade cologne (or) personal hygiene/appearance) stuff that in a less dense setting wouldn't be so noticed.

-further on that?
The 'bosses' or founders (or even ANY) vital member who's doing their job is seen as having the weight of the place upon them, and their health is scrutinized as '...oh, don't get sick, cause if you get sick, you're job can't be done (etc.)'(They're like 'parents,' and are supposed to be 'leaders.' ---kind of a compliment, but also can be a sign that a place doesn't have staff with replicated skills. (Everybody wants to be unique and vital: -but you need plug and play teammates 'just in case.'

The last thing?
I've been in tons of work situations where people really have to fight for their privacy,
(human services/ministries/med field)
--and, aside from desperately needing privacy in general (which is really hard to get) the design of medical coverage (where there's benefits,) can be used to determine IF a person HAS a job or not... (one of the reasons for the shift from HMO to PPO. (often the medical coverage is a 'balloon' package --where one or a couple of extreme health cases can deflate the whole shebang for everyone, ---and raise the rates for everyone and the company.
-I've had companies try to get me to fire people (just prior) to their surgeries,
or after having less than great medical status' come back (or kids/spouses diagnosed with major health concerns)
--because they basically did NOT want to have to pay into the insurance (when they were perfectly entitled to it and had been excellent employees.)

It's ugly, but money is money to most employers anymore.

I'll just add this to the mix: I swear I didn't see this excellent Michael Hiltzik column in Monday's LA Times until I read the paper Monday night. It, too, raises delicate questions about Jobs and Apple, Inc.