Mini-Microsoft Cutting Room Floor: Pause Place to be Refresh

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Pause Place to be Refresh - MSPoll etc

Just a refresh to the unmoderated thread shadowing the latest quick post over at http://minimsft.blogspot.com/ .

138 Comments:

Mini, you're back! Missed you. Never realized what a *great* moderator you are until reading Cutting Room Floor comments (gag). Hope you get back to firing on all cylinders soon...

By Anonymous, at March 11, 2009 at 9:49 AM
...until reading Cutting Room Floor comments (gag)

Shut your festering gob, you tit! Your type really makes me puke, you vacuous, coffee-nosed, maloderous, pervert!!! Why, I oughtta PUNCH YOU IN THE THROAT.

By Anonymous, at March 11, 2009 at 8:07 PM
Yay, it's the throat punching guy!

::fist pump::

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 2:15 AM
Boycott the poll. Even though all the data is pored over and the comments read, what really changes? Having low participation will speak louder than low WHI scores (which everyone expects anyway.)

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 6:28 AM
Boycott the poll. Even though all the data is pored over and the comments read, what really changes? Having low participation will speak louder than low WHI scores (which everyone expects anyway.)

2 out of 3 have already completed the polls. No use of boycotting the poll now.

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 8:31 AM
Do what I did, check very unsatisfactory for everything having to do with higher management adn vision. Out of 8 managers I finally have a good one so I didn't tank him.

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 8:58 AM
There must be huge carrots or huge sticks awaiting company leaders for 'team percent complete' on the poll this year. The excess of repeat e-mail reminders from everyone in the chain and their grandmothers, and nearly random reminders in meetings, to "Complete the MS Poll" this year are completely off the charts.

I'm surprised there aren't reminders taped at eye level in front of the urinals.

Though if I see one, I swear I'm gonna aim at it.

Of course with the apparent lack of aiming skills apparent on the men's room floor each day by 2PM where I'm at, it probably wouldn't stand out that much.

Oh, and while I'm at it: to the guy who squats on the toilet seat--uh, you leave behind footprints--when you make a doody on the seat, please make an effort to clean all of it off. Wiping just *some* or *most* of it off just doesn't quite cut it.

There. There's my fkn poll feedback for the year.

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 9:06 AM
I've said it before and I'll say it again, "You damn well better fill out your poll and you damn well better fill it out positively."

Doing anything else will only cause your life to be miserable.

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 9:13 AM
don't be so tough on the poor toilet abusers, some of these H1B guys cmoe from places where a toilet is still a hole in the ground

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 10:17 AM
Almost every stock is up today...

...except Microsoft.

Way to go, SLT!

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 11:28 AM
"Yay, it's the throat punching guy!

::fist pump::"

+1

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 6:46 PM
some of these H1B guys

I'm the one who posted about the doody.

No, please don't make this an H1B visa issue. It's not. It's about one guy in our building’s wing (at least I'm assuming it’s just one), not an entire nationality or visa status.

I'm also irked by the fat Scotch-Irish looking guy from Altoona or wherever who sometimes leaves his dirty lunch dishes in the kitchen sink until the end of the day, but I don't consider that a reflection on all Pennsylvanians, and that doesn’t present quite the same inconvenience.

But anyway, it’s the story of one guy and his doody, please. That’s all. OK?

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 8:05 PM
thankfully I don't even know *who* this one guy is in a past building: in the adjacent stall, every day I'm sure, after doing his business proceeds to tear some TP and scrub, and scrub, and tear some more, and scrub, and tear some more, and scrub, etc etc etc for a good several minutes.

I would actually plan my exit so I could never see the face of that person.

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 9:40 PM
Mini. The poll "matters"?

Come on, we share the same level. You know that's not true.

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 10:06 PM
asfd

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 10:56 PM
Any volunteers to leak information on Windows re-org’s right after Win7 RC?

By Anonymous, at March 12, 2009 at 11:01 PM
I used to read Mini's blog as a Microsoft employee and kept doing so even after I left a few years ago but somehow never bothered with the CRF until now.In retrospect I should have. Anybody thinking about working at MS, please take the time to go through the comments here. It will give you a near perfect image of the Lord Of The Flies atmosphere that is now pervasive at MS.

By Anonymous, at March 13, 2009 at 7:48 AM
in the adjacent stall, every day I'm sure, after doing his business proceeds to...

Ha. Any oldtimers formerly from building 4 out there who remember "Exploding Man"?

By Anonymous, at March 13, 2009 at 8:30 AM
It's mini-microsoft...the poop story edition. And why not, we could use a bit of levity, and the CRF description does say "Things are a bit...looser here."

Any Partners out there, got any good doody stories from the executive washroom?

By Anonymous, at March 13, 2009 at 8:49 AM
Ha. Any oldtimers formerly from building 4 out there who remember "Exploding Man"?

Exploding man. Please tell us more :)

By Anonymous, at March 13, 2009 at 4:49 PM
It was intended to facilitate a more-open dialog...and I think it worked when I was at MSFT (almost 10 years--left in the past 2y) for my team.

I presented and gave my thoughts on the results + the deltas from the year prior...good discussion on both positives and negatives and great discussions afterwards in 1:1s, again both positive and negative. HR rep was present during the team meeting...I liked the format. A good manager has nothing to hide and should, in fact, endorse this type of feedback session.

I had bi- or tri-weekly meetings with everyone on the team, so there weren't any surprises--the surprises came at the skip-level...who really had no clue what my team thought of that person until then...

So, I guess the point is that:
1) Your HR person and manager have to take it seriously (my HR person was quite good--by the book, but ultimately, supportive and helpful)

2) Unless it's codified, you have basically no chance of making change (in that role, under that manager or skip-level manager). But, be fair--don't abuse the poll.

- agent mulder lives

By Anonymous, at March 14, 2009 at 2:37 AM
MSPoll does not work. The manager/lead on our team with the lowest scores for a few years got promoted! Now, ALL the managers/leads are from the same country, they cover each other's you know what, a conniving
, incompetent, too much office politics playing bunch!

By Anonymous, at March 14, 2009 at 9:14 PM
Welch Interview

This is a fascinating read in the context of what is going on at MS these days. Ballmer has been such a devotee of the Welch way of doing business (rank and yank, etc.). It will be interesting to see if anything changes now that Welch has changed his tune a bit.

By Anonymous, at March 15, 2009 at 12:55 AM
I looked at the white paper and support explaining the rationale behind supposedly upgrading and standardizing the toolset used for the MYCD and annual review.

This is a totally kneejerk reaction, but the reasoning and discussion there reminded me of that behind both the now-despised WASL and 'No Child Left Behind' endeavors.

This sort of approach might make for an easier top-down spreadsheet number-crunching view of things, but perhaps counterproductive in the real world of manager:employee interactions and conversations, just as those others have in general been a blight on real learning-based relationships between teachers and students.

By Anonymous, at March 15, 2009 at 6:16 PM
"I looked at the white paper and support explaining the rationale behind supposedly upgrading and standardizing the toolset used for the MYCD and annual review.

This is a totally kneejerk reaction, but the reasoning and discussion there reminded me of that behind both the now-despised WASL and 'No Child Left Behind' endeavors.

This sort of approach might make for an easier top-down spreadsheet number-crunching view of things, but perhaps counterproductive in the real world of manager:employee interactions and conversations, just as those others have in general been a blight on real learning-based relationships between teachers and students."

That whitepaper is a real piece of work, isn't it? :) Somewhere in the middle of reading it, as you're wading your way through all of the amazing backend tomfoolery it does, you actually forget that we're talking about a way to manage employee reviews -- which should not take a white paper to explain in the first place. :P Need a whitepaper to explain your review system? FAIL.

This is exactly what happens with all of our products... people don't see the value in them, but we'll show them by god through convoluted ads and messaging campaigns that make no sense and leave people more confused than when they started.

All because we don't like the answer our customers give us to the simplest of questions, do you like the shit we're selling? Ditto with the review system: employees don't like the shit they're being sold, but instead of fixing it HR attempts to explain again and again why it's wonderful and amazing, and tries to make us feel stupid for not getting it.

By Anonymous, at March 15, 2009 at 6:38 PM
On one hand, management makes a huge deal every year about filling out the MSPoll and going over the results a few months later. On the other, the only real change they can ever point to that came directly from the poll was the return of towel service in the buildings. Which is great if, you know, you gave a damn about the towel service in the first place.

As for the guy who said that negative feedback would bring misery (9:13 AM) I have yet to see anything remotely resembling evidence of that. Nor have I heard any stories about it, apocryphal or otherwise. So far as I can tell, they genuinely don't identify information from the poll to specific individuals (unless you identify yourself in the comments, in which case, well, that's your call). They just don't do anything with the information they get.

Except for telling us about how great everything is, of course.

By Anonymous, at March 16, 2009 at 12:49 AM
My manager last year got horrendous feedback. So, the promoted her and gave her more reports on a new team. Yay MSPoll!

By Anonymous, at March 16, 2009 at 10:49 AM
MS poll does work. I was in an org with *very* low scores and they canned the PUM after an otherwise successful release. .

Also read "First, Break All the Rules: What the World's Greatest Managers Do Differently" if you want some insight into why the poll is a good idea and why your manager should be concerned about your feedback.

By Anonymous, at March 16, 2009 at 8:58 PM
This is exactly what happens with all of our products... people don't see the value in them, but we'll show them by god through convoluted ads and messaging campaigns that make no sense and leave people more confused than when they started.

It's not just our customers we aim at. Remember the MSIT campaign, "ITs Amazing!"? They had some picture of a space shuttle launch(oops, might have been the one that blew up, hope they checked their sources!), to convince you that slow response in email, egregious networking problems and lack of working printers of any kind in a building were moments from being fixed. Yup, months later I was amazed they thought I was stupid enough to believe their elevatorware. I'm looking forward to their whitepaper.

By Anonymous, at March 17, 2009 at 12:29 AM
Just the fact that we'd spend cycles (or have to spend cycles) on an internal whitepaper speaks volumes. Wouldn't it be better to fix our damn internal processes, so we can focus on our external customers? Geez...

By Anonymous, at March 17, 2009 at 2:19 AM
Actually doing your job is a huge waste of time. Visibility is where it's at. Duh.

By Anonymous, at March 17, 2009 at 4:08 PM
Unless of course you like being kimmed.

By Anonymous, at March 17, 2009 at 4:09 PM
This blog looks scary but I have to say that many companies are in the same situation. Where I work now has thousands of employees and we do the same exercises. Having a poll is better than not having a poll. What I'd like to see is some support for the corporate customers. I went to the CIO conference and saw in a Microsoft truck a table that's new stuff. What good does a new "cool" tableware do for me when I try to do wsrp on MS Sharepoint and where is the support?

By Anonymous, at March 17, 2009 at 5:48 PM
Isn't it interesting that no one is posting in the "moderated" area? Mini, you do realize that you have to be a "team member" to post there, don't you? Is this a study of social behavior?

By Anonymous, at March 17, 2009 at 11:24 PM
As the 60-day internal search period winds to an end, can any members of the 1400 give status updates?

By Anonymous, at March 18, 2009 at 8:56 AM
"Isn't it interesting that no one is posting in the "moderated" area? Mini, you do realize that you have to be a "team member" to post there, don't you? Is this a study of social behavior?"

Hey Einstein, Mini is taking a break and not accepting posts in the moderated area at the moment, which is why he's pointed everyone here.

You're not insightful, you're not funny and you're not paying attention. I'm guessing you're a retail clerk in an Apple store?

By Anonymous, at March 18, 2009 at 12:57 PM
You're not insightful, you're not funny and you're not paying attention. I'm guessing you're a retail clerk in an Apple store?

Right, because Apple stores are an unsuccessful business venture known for their mediocre personnel; one in a series of failed Apple initiatives that the public ridicule. Can't Apple do anything right? Pathetic!

By Anonymous, at March 18, 2009 at 1:31 PM
I was able to land a position at a local startup. There's a funny story about not being able to be referred and trying to apply for a "lost" posting, but in the end I think the outside MSFT position will work out.

The DBM services were actually quite useful.

Some additional food for thought
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_12/b4124046224092.htm?chan=top+news_top+news+index+-+temp_top+story

By Anonymous, at March 18, 2009 at 3:45 PM
Hey Einstein, Mini is taking a break and not accepting posts in the moderated area at the moment, which is why he's pointed everyone here.

You're not insightful, you're not funny and you're not paying attention. I'm guessing you're a retail clerk in an Apple store?

Thanks for the response, jerk. I know mini was taking time off, but since he had a new post, I assumed he was back. My mistake.

Oh, and may the throat-punching guy pay you a visit...repeatedly.

By Anonymous, at March 18, 2009 at 4:41 PM
I was able to complete the poll even though I was given the lay off notice on 1/22. I also get to keep my badge until 3/23 as well as corpnet access.

My feedback was more negative than usual, especially the questions that focus on Microsoft and the leadership. go figure.

By Anonymous, at March 18, 2009 at 4:54 PM
"
Thanks for the response, jerk. I know mini was taking time off, but since he had a new post, I assumed he was back. My mistake."

I think you've revealed here what happens when you shoot-off a random snarky comment based on something you could have confirmed had you put even a few seconds of thought between you and your itchy keyboard fingers.

Are you sure you're not the throat punching guy?

By Anonymous, at March 18, 2009 at 9:52 PM
OMG...Ballmer is back on the Yahoo crusade. SHUT THE FUCK UP YOU BALD PRICK!!!!

By Anonymous, at March 19, 2009 at 7:50 AM
Second round of layoffs looming. Two different managers told me GMs have been given numbers, and are choosing lucky winners

By Anonymous, at March 19, 2009 at 8:06 AM
lucky winners is right, these lucky SOBs are getting to leave MS, getting fat severance and then unemployment

the poor shits staying behind get to have no raises, watch partners rake in the big bucks, shitty stock awards and watch the last of their stock options expire worthless

By Anonymous, at March 19, 2009 at 11:18 AM
Second round of layoffs looming. Two different managers told me GMs have been given numbers, and are choosing lucky winners

When? I know my group is getting hit but they won't tell us when or how many. It's like the glock of Damocles.

By Anonymous, at March 19, 2009 at 1:30 PM
> Are you sure you're not the throat punching guy?

Why I oughta punch you in the throat!

heh, glock of damocles :)

By Anonymous, at March 19, 2009 at 8:03 PM
"lucky winners is right, these lucky SOBs are getting to leave MS, getting fat severance and then unemployment"

the poor shits staying behind get to have no raises, watch partners rake in the big bucks, shitty stock awards and watch the last of their stock options expire worthless

Um, the poor shits staying behind aren't trying to find a job in this nightmarish economy. I would not be celebrating a layoff right now, even if it ended-up being a good thing.

By Anonymous, at March 20, 2009 at 1:07 AM
I don't know about other teams, but my group takes the poll feedback very seriously. We have a small strike team who looks over all the results and strategizes with management what we can do about the potential trouble points. We've changed processes, clarified processes and proceedures, and worked on increasing potentially weak communication between ICs and leads.

I don't know how other teams do it, but we take our MS Poll feedback very seriously and we take the pulse of the team very seriously.

For myself, I am extremely pleased with my group. But I slammed Microsoft as a whole. Accountability of senior management? Tell it to the people looking for work, who were canned before they had a chance to get in their opinion.

By Anonymous, at March 20, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Um, the poor shits staying behind aren't trying to find a job in this nightmarish economy.

+1

Every "opportunity" coming my way comes with about a 10 percent to 20 percent pay cut and a barely meh benefits package.

By Anonymous, at March 20, 2009 at 11:25 AM
Every "opportunity" coming my way comes with about a 10 percent to 20 percent pay cut and a barely meh benefits package.

For me, it has looked more like a 20-25% cut in base salary ($@#*$&%!, factoring in my typical annual review bonus, it only gets worse), and positions I'm considerably overqualified for that are several steps backward career-wise. I haven't found any openings comparable to my position at MS via networking or perusing on-line listings yet. At the moment, I'm not biting, although 5-6 months from now, it may be a different story.

After talking with a mentor, I concluded I'm better off "taking some time to explore entrepreneurship", because I do have several ideas that seem worth pursuing. In the meantime, the search continues. The thinking is that a longer search will have less of a negative impact on my takehome for the next 5 years, than stepping backward a decade in my career and salary level will. We both believe there are numerous positions with comparable levels of responsibility in the industry and that it's mostly a matter of ferretting out openings. I've broadened my search to the OEM community in Asia and am hoping that will help.

By Anonymous, at March 20, 2009 at 2:28 PM
>> Every "opportunity" coming my way comes
>> with about a 10 percent to 20 percent pay cut

That means you're either overpaid for what you do at Microsoft or have a really shitty network. With experience, even in this economy, a good Microsoft employee should expect a 20% pay RAISE.

By Anonymous, at March 20, 2009 at 9:07 PM
>> because I do have several ideas that
>> seem worth pursuing

I hope you didn't tell your mentor about them, because if you did, Microsoft owns them now.

By Anonymous, at March 20, 2009 at 9:09 PM
"Every "opportunity" coming my way comes
>> with about a 10 percent to 20 percent pay cut"

That means you're either overpaid for what you do at Microsoft or have a really shitty network. With experience, even in this economy, a good Microsoft employee should expect a 20% pay RAISE.

Bullshit, you're either a troll or you don't know shit from shinola.

There is *no* magic pay raise after Microsoft for the vast majority of people in this economy at any level from 59 through 65. Anyone who says differently is either a truly exceptional case or is lying through their teeth.

You, sir, need the throat punching guy to pay you a visit post-haste.

By Anonymous, at March 20, 2009 at 9:57 PM
I don't think anybody can make sweeping statements about whether you should get a pay cut or a raise when you leave Microsoft.
The one thing I have noticed in my time outside of MSFT is that ICs coming from MS tend to have their shit together and are usually great additions to the company. When it comes to management it's a lot more ambiguous. I've worked with several managers of managers that spent a good chunk of their careers at MS and a majority didn't cut it. What I mean by that is that they didn't bring anything to the table. A few of them were downright embarrassing. It was obvious they were players of the game, and really good at shaping the message that got to their own managers, but their technical skills were lacking to say the list. In an environment like MS that tolerates (and often rewards) failure it might've been OK. Where I work it isn't though and most of those guys are out the door after their first failure to deliver.

By Anonymous, at March 21, 2009 at 12:17 AM
the problem with Microsoft's complete lack of transparency is that it validates any rumours running floating around

case in point in my product group, told that there's no promotions available, i was disappointed but okay with it, wait til fall

then the rumour mills churns, another person who didn't get a promo either was told that they had to cut it at a certain number of people

disappointment turns to rage - what is the truth? management has a reason to lie, keep me chasing that carrot - with ZERO transparency, the rumour becomes the truth

By Anonymous, at March 21, 2009 at 1:44 AM
>> There is *no* magic pay raise after Microsoft

Who said it was supposed to be easy? I've pulled this off. You just need applicable experience and stellar references. I did. If you don't, you're doing it wrong.

My recommendation to others looking to get out - step outside of Microsoft technological box. Hardly anyone is using that shit out there other than on the desktop. Most Windows related jobs will not only suck, they will imply a pay cut. :-)

By Anonymous, at March 21, 2009 at 10:58 AM
"you just need" => "you just need to have"

By Anonymous, at March 21, 2009 at 10:59 AM
The one thing I have noticed in my time outside of MSFT is that ICs coming from MS tend to have their shit together and are usually great additions to the company. When it comes to management it's a lot more ambiguous.

EXACTLY!

This is why I don't want to go into management. At least I will have some transferrable skills should my position be terminated.

By Anonymous, at March 21, 2009 at 11:18 AM
Are any of you from a burning shipwreck called Live Search?

By Anonymous, at March 21, 2009 at 3:33 PM
Are any of you from a burning shipwreck called Live Search?

I'm pretty sure the throat-punching wunderkind is from that very shipwreck. It all adds up.

By Anonymous, at March 21, 2009 at 8:11 PM
more layoffs coming, not sure when but my manager was hinting its time for another round ... really sucks , its like anyone can hit you from behind , i wish i had a cube and not office, office sucks, its like being unaware of whats happening around.

By Anonymous, at March 21, 2009 at 9:39 PM
In Business Week's story on Ballmer's renewed interest in Yahoo, he stated that he is not necessarily interested in Yahoo's technology but its scale.

He was going to buy an entire company just to get the details on how to run a much larger Internet scale data center?

By Anonymous, at March 22, 2009 at 3:38 AM
In Business Week's story on Ballmer's renewed interest in Yahoo, he stated that he is not necessarily interested in Yahoo's technology but its scale.

He was going to buy an entire company just to get the details on how to run a much larger Internet scale data center?

Or is he deranged enough to think that buying Yahoo and *shutting down* its Search is a good plan to increase Microsoft's share of the search market? It's bewildering, this head-to-head Google obsession he has (that he's forced to water down when he talks).

All the money and time that has been tossed into this sinkhole, lost! In terms of profitability, a better approach would have been to slap some well-placed Google Adsense blocks on every microsoft.com Web page.

By Anonymous, at March 22, 2009 at 8:20 AM
scale = has more customers.

The dream is that with the combined user base of MS + Yahoo it would be possible to attract advertisers who turn up their noses at either of the companies' reach.

This is Microsoft's "OS/2 Warp" moment - even if the company has a superior product, the competitions' offering is so entrenched in potential customer's minds that they won't give the Microsoft offering a serious look.

HP did a lot of buying companies to get their customers (Apollo, Compaq) but a lot of customers went up going elsewhere.

By Anonymous, at March 22, 2009 at 9:22 AM
Continuing the "OS/2 Warp" moment...

Looking back, Microsoft's lack of competitiveness in the Internet business all comes down to the dead weight of protecting the Windows/Office cash cows.

For example Groove is a brilliant product and it was wise for MS to buy the company - however uptake of Groove is now crippled by the need to buy super-expensive Office licenses (even if one has a perfectly good license for a regular edition of Office).

It doesn't make a lot of sense to make a huge profit on software sold at monopoly prices, and then piss it away defending that monopoly.

If Windows and Office were priced to give the same kind of gross margin as other MS products it would deal straightaway with piracy and competition, and would boost profitability of those other products by reducing the misfeatures and "busy work" in their design and development - setting them free to do their best for each product's target market.

Unfortunately this would also lead to job losses for those doing the "busy work".

Will stop now in case I'm mistaken for crandrea.

By Anonymous, at March 22, 2009 at 9:39 AM
I fear that Ahab Ballmer is so backward-looking, when we most need a forward-looking CEO. We should be focusing on how to listen better to customers and how to make Microsoft more cutting-edge.

Being so obsessed with buying an "also ran" search company is getting us nowhere fast. I believe we have the smarts to devise or revise an awesome app or service -- why doesn't Ballmer have confidence in his own people and company?

Some research is also showing that traditional advertising on the Web might be waning. Therefore, why are we investing so much time, hassle, and spin? We should be looking two moves ahead and not swimming backwards against the current. It's time for Ballmer to try his hand at sports and get out of the way of technology.

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/03/22/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/

By Anonymous, at March 22, 2009 at 1:12 PM
scale = has more customers.

The dream is that with the combined user base of MS + Yahoo it would be possible to attract advertisers who turn up their noses at either of the companies' reach.

Internet search is not like shrink wrapped software though. Customers are not locked into the product through any financial expense.

If someone enters Yahoo.com in their browser and they end up at Live.com or Msn.com, they'll probably try Google.com if they do not like your brand.

By Anonymous, at March 22, 2009 at 1:28 PM
I believe we have the smarts to devise or revise an awesome app or service -- why doesn't Ballmer have confidence in his own people and company?

When you have the money to buy an existing product/brand, you save the time it would take to develop your own.

By Anonymous, at March 22, 2009 at 1:37 PM
Acquiring new products may save time theoretically, but MSFT doesn't have a great track record with acquisitions. Microsoft seems to add too much baggage and take off too much edge.

There's also a helluva lot of overhead with acquisitions. There's the efficiency lost during the transition period, and the Internet can't wait. Some examples are travel costs, aligning accounting systems (chart of accounts, databases, payroll, etc.), personnel churn (figuring out who's doing what, esp. if there are duplicate positions), communication challenges, corporate culture adjustment, and sometimes turfism. It's not necessarily the magic bullet, and I wish more people were capable of seeing the bigger picture.

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/daily-brief/2008/02/01/yahoo-microsoft-corporate-culture-problem-squared

Also, do we really have the money, when we've been laying off employees?

By Anonymous, at March 22, 2009 at 3:11 PM
These days, nobody is going to start a new venture by saying, "You know what we really need to do? We really need to build our new product using Microsoft's technology!"

So, when Microsoft buys those companies, later, someone inevitably has to re-do the whole thing to integrate with Microsoft's stuff. This is costly and time-consuming and the results are invariably inferior and less-liked by the purchased companies' original customers.

Even if Google's entire portfolio of assets was handed to Microsoft for free, it would still be a net loss because of the two years and hundreds of millions necessary to re-write everything for Windows servers and development tools, remove all the linux, etc.

If startup engineers naturally said (for example) "Let's use Silverlight! It's superior!" rather than being forced by some quid-pro-quo deal to choose it over Flash, things would be different. But those days are long gone.

Every acquisition is a slow, expensive forced re-write coupled with an aggressive bundling strategy (as noted above) that spoils the fun for customers and partners alike. Monopoly is the enemy of meritocracy; this is nothing new.

By Anonymous, at March 22, 2009 at 5:38 PM
If Windows and Office were priced to give the same kind of gross margin as other MS products it would deal straightaway with piracy and competition, and would boost profitability of those other products

If Windows and Office were priced at the same kind of gross margin as other MS products, then MS quarterly profit would drop by 90%, the stock would trade at around $5, and the next round of layoffs would be 40,000

By Anonymous, at March 22, 2009 at 6:40 PM
"There is *no* magic pay raise after Microsoft for the vast majority of people in this economy at any level from 59 through 65. Anyone who says differently is either a truly exceptional case or is lying through their teeth."

I left two and a half years ago as a L60 in the field in EMEA (so equivalent of L62 in Redmond?) gaining a 30% plus immediate rise and my comp is roughly double now what it was at MS. I was an IC.

Was I a superstar at MS? Apparently not. But I'm a comparative superstar where I am now.

Working at MS is like working in a fishbowl full of piranhas.

By Anonymous, at March 23, 2009 at 6:35 AM
The French national police force has slashed its IT costs by 70 per cent by cutting Microsoft out of the equation.

http://apcmag.com/french-police-switch-from-windows-to-linux.htm

By Anonymous, at March 23, 2009 at 8:53 AM
disappointment turns to rage - what is the truth? management has a reason to lie, keep me chasing that carrot - with ZERO transparency, the rumour becomes the truth

Lol, so you figured it out, eh? Welcome to the club. Every place does this somewhat, but MS must be right near the top. Personally, it was the worst place I've ever been for management opacity and out-and-out dishonesty. It's a foundation of the MS culture.

By Anonymous, at March 23, 2009 at 9:45 AM
I left two and a half years ago as a L60 in the field in EMEA (so equivalent of L62 in Redmond?) gaining a 30% plus immediate rise and my comp is roughly double now what it was at MS. I was an IC.

Was I a superstar at MS? Apparently not. But I'm a comparative superstar where I am now.
How does 2 1/2 years ago equate to the current economy? You missed a key piece of the statement you supposedly were refuting.

By Anonymous, at March 23, 2009 at 10:10 AM
>> There is *no* magic pay raise after Microsoft for the vast majority of people in this economy at any level from 59 through 65.

To everyone who keeps taking issue with this statement and offering stories about the killing you made when you left Microsoft two or five or seven years ago, I'd suggest that one of the key phrases in the original poster's comment was "in this economy." If you haven't looked for work within the past six months (or less), there's a very good chance that your prior experience and/or the sweeping generalizations you're basing upon it no longer apply.

If all you self-proclaimed superstars truly possess such Mad! Tech! Skeelz! that they completely exempt you from the laws of supply and demand, then mazel tov, I guess -- but anyone else thinking about switching jobs at this spectacularly inopportune moment in history is likely to find that there are a lot of equivalently-skilled people out there seeking the same positions, some of whom have been out of work for some time now and are ready to say yes to just about anything that will put food on their tables, and that your pricing power in the marketplace is going to be reduced accordingly.

At the risk of spoiling the vibe around here by attempting a reasoned discussion, I'd also like to point out that salary != total compensation, by a long shot. However unfashionable it may be to mention such things in this forum, working at Microsoft does confer a number of benefits that people at most other companies aren't currently enjoying:

1) A bonus plan that actually pays out, even in years like this one. Most corporate bonus plans -- among the well under 100% of companies that offer them in the first place -- tend to include a sizable "company performance" component that can send your payout to zero pretty quickly when business is bad, even if you've performed your own job flawlessly. As much as the yearly stack-ranking process gets vilified around here, it does at least have a check of some size waiting for you at the end of it -- and even if you work in an over-politicized group, you still know exactly which asses you need to kiss to make it a decent one. It's more control than most people get.

2) A stock plan that awards actual stock, rather than options. Yeah, our share price sucks, but unless you think Microsoft's going out of business soon, the stock you get will continue to be worth something, no matter how mad things get. Anyone who's ever found themselves being "compensated" with a yearly grant of underwater options would be happy to trade your stock-price-related complaints for theirs, I suspect.

3) The health plan. Whatever else MS does wrong on a daily basis, try describing how this portion of your benefit package works to anybody who lives and works in the real world (at least within the U.S.) and see how they react. Health plans like ours basically don't exist in America, so when calculating what that shiny new job of yours is going to pay, you'd be wise to factor in what will probably be a substantial deduction from every paycheck, plus copayments and deductibles, plus whatever percentage of every health-care bill won't be covered by your new provider even when it does start kicking in. (Hint: That percentage will probably be greater than zero.) Admittedly, if you're a single twenty-something in perfect health, the value of this particular benefit may not be all that high for you, except as a hedge against unforeseen catastrophes, but if you're older or not so healthy or (especially) have a spouse and kids generating medical bills of their own, then this is a potentially massive annual expense that you simply aren't paying by virtue of working here.

4) This will apply to fewer people than the preceding items, but if you work for MS in the state of Washington, and a new job would require you to move elsewhere, don't forget to deduct state income taxes from that new salary you'll be earning as well. Odds are, that percentage will be more than zero too.

For the record, I'm not some rah-rah, Kool-Aid-drinking, company-shirt-wearing type who thinks you'd have to be crazy to work anywhere but Microsoft; there are plenty of very good reasons to do so, many of which have been described in great and accurate detail by other posters here. But I do think that focusing on salary alone can lead to some really dumb decisions, so I just want to encourage people to take a slightly broader view when weighing whether they'd be better off staying or going. Personally, I moved to Redmond from out of state and took a cut in my base salary when I joined MS (during the boom times, no less), and yet my actual yearly take-home has been significantly higher than it was at my old job, for all the reasons listed above. I may occasionally miss having the old number to brag about, but that benefit only truly existed on paper. If you're looking to leave, just make sure you leave with your eyes open, and hold out for something that will make you genuinely better off. A paper fortune alone isn't worth much once you're actually trying to live off of it.

By Anonymous, at March 23, 2009 at 10:24 AM
>> A bonus plan that actually pays out, even in years like this one.

Yes. That's because execs and partners receive a considerable fraction of their income from bonuses.

>> A stock plan that awards actual stock, rather than options. Yeah, our share price sucks,

Right now would be a great time to switch back to stock options, no? Frankly, stock grants are kinda laughable until you reach L65.

>> The health plan.

MS dental plan is shitty compared to my new job. Health plan is nice, but not THAT nice. It's not like a $10 co-pay will seriously wreck your family budget.

>> This will apply to fewer people than

Scraping the bottom of the barrel there, eh?

I mean, I too could enumerate five good reasons for folks to stay at Microsoft, but compensation would not be one of those things.

By Anonymous, at March 23, 2009 at 8:26 PM
>> How does 2 1/2 years ago equate to the current economy?

Dude, we've been trying really hard to fill a couple of positions where I work. Compensation is actually 10-15% more than an applicant with the same experience would get at Microsoft (that's adjusted for the difference in bennies, there's more cash and bonuses are substantially more).

Believe it or not, even in this climate good people are few and far between, they command a pretty good premium and employers are ready to pay. You just need to have the right skill set.

By Anonymous, at March 23, 2009 at 8:31 PM
Can someone please comment about the future of CRM Online? Thanks!

By Anonymous, at March 23, 2009 at 9:33 PM
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13506_3-10201879-17.html

I assumed that the title of the article was misleading (most of the ones on cnet are).

Someone needs to make this guy pee in a cup. He is smoking some really good stuff.

By Anonymous, at March 23, 2009 at 11:19 PM
>> There is *no* magic pay raise after Microsoft for the vast majority of people in this economy at any level from 59 through 65.

>> To everyone who keeps taking issue with this statement and offering stories about the killing you made when you left Microsoft two or five or seven years ago, I'd suggest that one of the key phrases in the original poster's comment was "in this economy." If you haven't looked for work within the past six months (or less), there's a very good chance that your prior experience and/or the sweeping generalizations you're basing upon it no longer apply.

Alright, so explain me: I left MS 3 months ago and got a 40% pay raise after being told I was at the top of my range at MS!

Yes, I'm at the same job level. No, I didn't leave because I got laid off. I left because Live Search can't get it's act together.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 12:04 AM
> Yes. That's because execs and partners receive a considerable fraction of their income from bonuses.

Entirely possible. But the thing is, I don't care whether they're doing it for noble reasons or selfish ones. The check isn't going to bounce either way.

Are you saying that you only accept bonus money if you can verify the true motives behind it? Bummer.

My perspective comes from having worked under bonus plans that were a total crapshoot -- sometimes they paid out, sometimes they didn't, but either outcome was based on circumstances entirely outside your control. It sucked, and it was demotivating as hell. I'm well aware of the flaws in Microsoft's approach to bonuses, too, but it does have the virtue of being a bit more reliable than that.

[Insert someone's sad story of busting their ass all year for an asshole manager who took credit for all their work and then ranked them at the bottom of the barrel anyway. I know. And your cost-benefit analysis of the merits of staying vs. going should absolutely consider what you'd have to be paid in order to keep putting up with that crap, too, if it's happening to you.]

> Right now would be a great time to switch back to stock options, no?

I'm trying to come up with any scenario in which a thing that has immediate, tangible value would be less desirable than a thing which might or might not turn out to have value at some point in the future. Help me out here.

> Health plan is nice, but not THAT nice.

Let's see, you have nothing deducted from your paycheck and 100% of your medical costs are covered...but it's not THAT nice. So what kind of health plan, in your eyes, would be "that nice?" Would they pay you every time you went to the doctor, or what?

I agree, the dental plan is pretty run-of-the-mill. (I guess they decided it was a bad idea to be on the hook for the aftereffects of their all-you-can-drink soda plan....)

> It's not like a $10 co-pay will seriously wreck your family budget.

Assuming that's the only cost you ever pay, and there aren't any other limitations on what those copayments cover, then you're right. I haven't seen many companies offering that plan. You may have.

...And if you have, then those companies are offering a plan that's almost, though not quite, as good as the one at Microsoft. In which case, I'm still unsure exactly which part of my description you're disagreeing with.

I did mention the fact that the actual value of the health benefits to any given person will depend entirely on their circumstances. MS does pay lower salaries, in part, because of the presumed worth of the health plan that they're offering in exchange. If you're young, single and never go to the doctor, then you're probably getting the short end of that stick. It's not like I said that no one should ever go to work for any company that offers fewer health benefits than Microsoft does; I just said they should include that item in their calculations when determining whether a different job will actually net them more money.

> Scraping the bottom of the barrel there, eh?

No, the bottom of the barrel is the part where the recruiter tries to convince you that you're going to have a "global impact" because you'll be 1/90,000th of the company that builds Windows, and that fact alone will make up for any accompanying reduction in your salary. I think my arguments are well toward the middle of the barrel, thank you. :)

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 2:03 AM
"Alright, so explain me: I left MS 3 months ago and got a 40% pay raise after being told I was at the top of my range at MS!

Yes, I'm at the same job level. No, I didn't leave because I got laid off. I left because Live Search can't get it's act together."

What is it that you do, exactly? You're certainly not a Tester or PM, so I would assume you're a Dev with some kind of specific skillset that Search teams find sexy... and frankly, if that's the case, we (MS) are willing to pay you as much or more than GOOG would offer you because we freak-out about losing our Dev talent in search.

We inflate Dev levels every day to solve these random problems and keep talent from leaving the ranch, so I'm inclined to think that you're lying.

So, chief -- give some specifics or shut up and take your fantasies elsewhere.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 2:18 AM
"Dude, we've been trying really hard to fill a couple of positions where I work. Compensation is actually 10-15% more than an applicant with the same experience would get at Microsoft (that's adjusted for the difference in bennies, there's more cash and bonuses are substantially more).

Believe it or not, even in this climate good people are few and far between, they command a pretty good premium and employers are ready to pay. You just need to have the right skill set."

This comment is worthless -- and likely a lie -- without links to the job in question.

There's no reason why you wouldn't post a link to the job if you weren't just masturbating in fantasy land. So, links plz or shut the fuck up.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 2:20 AM
...Except that no one would lie about having been involved with Live Search. Not unless they were denying it, anyway.

Therefore, his story is true. Occam's Razor.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 2:42 AM
Can you health plan naysayers give one concrete example of a medical plan better than Microsoft's?

In the seven years I worked for the company, I didn't pay a dime for anything, including births of children, two surgeries, several trips to the ER, various prescriptions and countless doctor visits for my family of five. Nowhere I worked before, and likely nowhere I work again, will come close to offering such a nice benefit. Maybe the fact that I used the benefit has something to do with why I'm now looking for work.

Considering that all costs were company-paid, the only beef might be if the plan was thick with exclusions, and I never found that to be the case either. It covered many conditions that other company's plans avoid.

Too bad some of you don't have enough outside experience to appreciate the benefits you have.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 5:32 AM
Maybe part of the problem is a lack of creativity when looking outside MS. Or maybe an unrealistic opinion of one's own capabilities. Or maybe fear of the unknown.

If you're in consulting or sales, as in a customer facing person with good communications skills to back up your supposedly awesome technical genius, opportunities abound, even now. But only if you are actually good at what you do and can prove it. And most large-ish companies pay more than MS for similar levels of experience for these types of role. You don't believe me? Go look at SAS, Symantec, Oracle, HP, IBM, Cap Gemini, etc. I did and never looked back.

If you're technical and from the product group side of the house, opportunities outside are much more limited. You're already working for the world's largest software company, where your skillset has always been considered core and uber-important. In the midst of a recession you had better get used to limited opportunities. MS has you by the short hairs unless you are willing to leave and roll the dice on setting up your own company.

I have a hunch that about half the people complaining here are about half as talented as they think they are. If they were truly so fantastic they'd either be partners or working elsewhere being treated like the superstars they claim to be.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 5:33 AM
>> Can you health plan naysayers give one
>> concrete example of a medical plan better
>> than Microsoft's?

You're probably referring to me, so I'll bite. I'm not a naysayer, and you will probably not find a health plan better than Microsoft's. What I'm saying is if you get paid 15-20% more in base salary and receive 20% bonus on top of that as well, health plan co-pays don't matter. A lot of MSFT folks seem to be irrationally attached to it because of the health plan. Unless your entire family has serious chronic diseases, health plan particulars are not that important (as long as you have health insurance).

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 8:41 AM
"If you're in consulting or sales, as in a customer facing person with good communications skills to back up your supposedly awesome technical genius, opportunities abound, even now. But only if you are actually good at what you do and can prove it. And most large-ish companies pay more than MS for similar levels of experience for these types of role. You don't believe me? Go look at SAS, Symantec, Oracle, HP, IBM, Cap Gemini, etc. I did and never looked back."

I kind of knew most of you people screaming about how much more money you made post-MS would be in consulting and sales -- the parasitic disciplines.

Ballmer comes from a sales background, you know.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 10:20 AM
"A lot of MSFT folks seem to be irrationally attached to it because of the health plan. Unless your entire family has serious chronic diseases, health plan particulars are not that important (as long as you have health insurance)."

You're out of your mind. One serious accident or an illness that falls outside of what's approved can wipe you out even if you have health insurance. This rarely happens at MS, but it happens all the time at other companies.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 10:22 AM
Linux going boldly where no windows has gone before:

http://blog.ofset.org/ckhung/index.php?post/093h

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 11:49 AM
>> all the time at other companies

Don't go to those companies then. My current health plan has plenty of coverage for everything, and $500 more in dental coverage than Microsoft (which comes in handy every now and then).

Besides, Microsoft (or any other company) will LAY YOU OFF if you're unable to work for an extended period of time. You will have an option of purchasing COBRA after that happens, for a limited timeframe, but after that, you're on your own.

So if you get leukemia or a brain tumor you're fucked either way.

I'm not, however. If I get any of those things, I'll move back to my home country, where they don't let their citizens die on the street.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 12:28 PM
Move back to your home country now. Seriously. Why would you want to be in a country where they let people die in the streets? I would think you are fleeing with your arms waving.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 2:59 PM
The US is shit. We're here for the easy jobs and the easy money. Most americans are retarded, so they have no choice but to pay a lot for basic skills. The US is just a marketplace. Foreigners already own the country.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 3:49 PM
"Besides, Microsoft (or any other company) will LAY YOU OFF if you're unable to work for an extended period of time. You will have an option of purchasing COBRA after that happens, for a limited timeframe, but after that, you're on your own."

FALSE.

Cancer survivor here. Microsoft was *amazing* throughout my year of treatment, and I was barely able to work for most of that time.

There is a MSFT survivor network with many stories like mine. You will not find the same treatment at many companies.

Take your FUD and stick it where the sun don't shine.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 4:59 PM
>> barely able to work

The key phrase here is "able to work". If you weren't in the office for months on end, you'd be laid off or (if you're an old timer) given a leave of absence.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 5:17 PM
>> Why would you want to be in a country where
>> they let people die in the streets?

I guess it's because I'm (relatively) young, healthy, and most of the industry is here at this point. Plus, I like the culture. After well over a decade here, the US feels like home, and I don't think I'll leave except if things really go down the drain (and there's now a distinct possibility that they might).

That said, it's nice to have an option to go _somewhere_ without major problems. Relieves the stress some. Lets you take risks.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 5:24 PM
>> Most americans are retarded

Most people in general are retarded. Americans are no different in this regard than any other nation.

>> The US is just a marketplace.

You got that right. But the rest of your troll attempt is epic fail.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 5:28 PM
"Besides, Microsoft (or any other company) will LAY YOU OFF if you're unable to work for an extended period of time. You will have an option of purchasing COBRA after that happens, for a limited timeframe, but after that, you're on your own."

BULLSHIT!

I know many people with life threatening conditions (e.g. cancer and HIV) and Microsoft has provided 100% support.

Wake up lame ass.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 5:41 PM
"The key phrase here is "able to work". If you weren't in the office for months on end, you'd be laid off or (if you're an old timer) given a leave of absence."

You seriously need to shut the motherfuck up. I will not defend Microsoft about a lot of things, but during my year of chemo and surgery the company was unbelievably supportive -- and like I said, there are many stories like mine in our survivor network.

"Barely able to work" -- you fucking asshole -- means barely able to work. As in there were months where I could do nothing other than answer an e-mail or two here-and-there... and i had to fight with my manager even to do that much. It was made clear to me in no uncertain terms that my job would be safe no matter what it took to get me healthy and no matter how long.

And Microsoft made good on that promise, as it has done hundreds of times.

I am a cancer survivor and I am here to tell you that you are completely wrong on this issue and you do not know what the hell you're talking about.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 5:50 PM
Most people in general are retarded. Americans are no different in this regard than any other nation.

Takes one to know one.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 6:00 PM
Here are a few things that are good for everyone but tired old monopolists who have lost their way, and have only bullying and propaganda left:

* Open standards and real interoperability
* A genuinely competitive computing marketplace, with real choices for home users and competitive bidding for business customers
* An open, modern, user-customizable DRM-free PC BIOS
* Multiple CPU architectures
* Modern bootloaders that support whatever the user wants
* Desktop, laptop, and netbook systems without the Windows tax
* Operating systems that are completely customizable and that fit into a multitude of devices and uses, from tiny to supercomputers
* Diskless systems that run from user-owned USB-keys
* Honesty in tech reporting
* User control of our own systems and data

Details at:
http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2009/03/if-it-scares-mi.html

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 6:56 PM
Cancer survivor guy/gal - read your contract. They CAN lay you off. Just because you've worked something out with your manager during the "fatter" times doesn't mean it can't happen, or even that it's a company policy.

That's why you're supposed to get disability insurance.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 7:21 PM
Cancer survivor guy/gal - read your contract. They CAN lay you off. Just because you've worked something out with your manager during the "fatter" times doesn't mean it can't happen, or even that it's a company policy.

You're not listening.

Of course Microsoft CAN lay someone off. The point here is that Microsoft does NOT -- as a general rule -- lay people off who have long-term illnesses. This is not a one-off testimonial: as I've mentioned, we have an extensive survivor network with similar stories.

Microsoft has a stellar track record when it comes to long-term illness and disability. Bash Ballmer, strategy, execs, etc... but unless you want to appear totally uninformed, stay away from how MSFT treats medical issues.

Microsoft is at the very top of the heap when it comes to sensitivity around long-term disability. You will not find another company of this size with a similar track record, period.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 7:26 PM
Just out of curiosity, do you see any ethics issues with receiving salary for work you, admittedly, did not do?

I know I would.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 8:19 PM
Gays are too many. They have infiltrated the company at all levels. They promote one another, and even use the men's bathroom.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 8:50 PM
"Gays are too many. They have infiltrated the company at all levels. They promote one another, and even use the men's bathroom."

I'm a homo, and given the quality of the breeder population at Microsoft I can say pretty confidently that as a group, we're better than most of you breeder types.

And yeah, I'm looking at your cock while you're pissing. It's tiny and not hot, and frequently obscured by your giant gut.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 9:09 PM
I've seen what cancer survivor guy describes in action. It was done with no window dressing, no public altruism statements and with almost no detail around why 'dude' would suddenly disappear for weeks at a time, come back for a while and do half assed work for a while, leave, etc.
'Dude's' manager was providing air cover because they could and it was the right thing and not for pub.
Dude is a MS devotee and good and upright co-worker who goes far out of his way to ensure good work occurs in his space vs taking the easy way out. He had contributed outsized value for multi-years now. In the goofy assed curve we live in that means he might be valued as much as 10 others - so he's paying MS back.
It may not be written policy, it may not happen for everyone in the same situation, it may happen less with revenue concerns - but the fact that if you have the right manager, and they make it happen makes MS great in this arena.

Oh - and we suck at so many other things.

By Anonymous, at March 24, 2009 at 10:39 PM
Trolls fail in not knowing that Microsoft CAN fire you for no reason at will. Doesn't mean it ever does, but yes they CAN. Weak trolls are weak. Same with the feeble anti-gay troll (look at the facts wrt lionhead).

"oh hai guys! I just heard from big-time manager at a party that DRM is being laid off and Windows too! and man-o-man do I hate you curry-eating bastiges and the people who stink up the microwaves with their etnics fudz lololol! ur over-running my comapny"

By Anonymous, at March 25, 2009 at 2:05 AM
Regarding the comments about another round of layoffs coming soon, is there any specific date being floated?

By Anonymous, at March 25, 2009 at 8:12 AM
>We inflate Dev levels every day to solve these random problems and keep talent from leaving the ranch, so I'm inclined to think that you're lying.
>
>So, chief -- give some specifics or shut up and take your fantasies elsewhere.
First off: I left because Live Search is a totally broken place to work and not over pay. The massive pay increase I got was just a nice side benefit.

I was a developer at MS and continue to be one. There are plenty of places to work other than MS that pay better you just have to look around.

>...Except that no one would lie about having been involved with Live Search. Not unless they were denying it, anyway.
>
>Therefore, his story is true. Occam's Razor.
EXACTLY.

By Anonymous, at March 25, 2009 at 8:20 AM
I've noticed that once my friends move to Search they begin to take a while to respond to emails. Which leads me to believe that they're overworked. And the output does not reflect that, which leads me to believe that this is caused by organizational overhead and lack of vision/direction.

By Anonymous, at March 25, 2009 at 9:52 AM
>>I've noticed that once my friends move to Search they begin to take a while to respond to emails. Which leads me to believe that they're overworked. And the output does not reflect that, which leads me to believe that this is caused by organizational overhead and lack of vision/direction.

Ding ding ding! You win a prize. Search is one of the most dysfunctional organizations at the company.

Re-orgs, infighting and bad management are just the start.

By Anonymous, at March 25, 2009 at 4:21 PM
Leaving Microsoft also removed the single largest reason I had to use the health benefits. No more visits to the shrink for me!

By Anonymous, at March 25, 2009 at 6:22 PM
speaking of dysfunctional orgs, dont know about search but adcenter is right up there

By Anonymous, at March 25, 2009 at 9:10 PM
"oh hai guys! I just heard from big-time manager at a party that DRM is being laid off and Windows too! and man-o-man do I hate you curry-eating bastiges and the people who stink up the microwaves with their etnics fudz lololol! ur over-running my comapny"

====

Dylan Miller stop it

By Anonymous, at March 26, 2009 at 1:22 AM
networking was kind of dysfunciton for along time.

now jawad is gone, most of the remnents are in bldg 10 wondering how to solve PNPX

By Anonymous, at March 26, 2009 at 1:23 AM
>>> Anonymous said...
>>I've noticed that once my friends move to Search they begin to take a while to respond to emails. Which leads me to believe that they're overworked. And the output does not reflect that, which leads me to believe that this is caused by organizational overhead and lack of vision/direction.

>Ding ding ding! You win a prize. >Search is one of the most >dysfunctional organizations at the >company.

>Re-orgs, infighting and bad >management are just the start.

+1 for all the above, plus putting up with manipulative liars who fudge targets and their threats. Super toxic place.

By Anonymous, at March 26, 2009 at 6:03 PM
now jawad is gone

Jawed still collect money

By Anonymous, at March 26, 2009 at 7:22 PM
>Search is one of the most dysfunctional organizations at the company.
+1

By Anonymous, at March 27, 2009 at 9:18 PM
There are gays in CRM, or so I heard. True?

By Anonymous, at March 28, 2009 at 4:05 PM
"There are gays in CRM, or so I heard. True?"

Yes, we're everywhere... hoping to get you drunk so we can suck your cock, wishing we could get your kids alone and convert them, laughing at your gods, etc. etc. etc.

You can identify me by the pink triangle tattooed on my forehead. Keep your eyes open and your zipper up, or I'll get you!

By Anonymous, at March 28, 2009 at 7:31 PM
"There are gays in CRM, or so I heard. True?"

I've heard Windows has a Mormon infestation. True? Anyone seen signs of magic underwear in the locker rooms?

By Anonymous, at March 29, 2009 at 12:20 PM
I heard that there is an infestation of dumbf*ck frat boys at the Sr PM to PUM levels throughout the company, and that they're even using our bathroom mirrors. Can anyone confirm?

By Anonymous, at March 29, 2009 at 12:29 PM
I've heard Windows has a Mormon infestation. True? Anyone seen signs of magic underwear in the locker rooms?

No, but it is true that Ned Flanders is running software development on the Client Performance Team. Hi Diddley Ho there, Richard!

By Anonymous, at March 29, 2009 at 4:17 PM
if there were more gays it would be more fun to work at microsoft. as it is, most of the time i feel like the khaki brigade of suburban dumbfucks who live on the eastside with their stay-at-home wives and snot-nosed kids are stealing my life away one dull-ass, "i don't give a shit about your precious little angels and their fingerpainting" day at a time.

By Anonymous, at March 29, 2009 at 4:22 PM
Then, devastating though the loss would undoubtedly be for everyone, perhaps you should quit.

But first, tell us more about this life you're being cruelly kept away from. It sounds really exciting.

By Anonymous, at March 29, 2009 at 7:48 PM
"But first, tell us more about this life you're being cruelly kept away from. It sounds really exciting."

It's a life filled with gays and colors other than beige, duh.

Everyone has a right to their gays and a rainbow.

By Anonymous, at March 30, 2009 at 8:05 AM
I heard that there is an infestation of dumbf*ck frat boys at the Sr PM to PUM levels throughout the company, and that they're even using our bathroom mirrors. Can anyone confirm?

Absolutely true. : )

20090330 11:00 AM PDT

By Anonymous, at March 30, 2009 at 11:00 AM
dylan was all over Tom's dick now he is lost

By Anonymous, at March 30, 2009 at 9:00 PM
In MSFT India the MS poll is a bunch of crock although certain BG have consistently received WHI scores for 3 years on the trot no action has been taken by HR. The same leaders continue wrecking havoc on team morale.

By Anonymous, at March 31, 2009 at 10:45 PM
"I kind of knew most of you people screaming about how much more money you made post-MS would be in consulting and sales -- the parasitic disciplines."

And along with marketing, the ones that make sure somebody buys the crap you dev superstars produce, which allows you to be paid and enjoy your superstar lifestyle. And it has been crap, especially at first release, too many times for me to mention, but I still shoved it down our customers' throats.

Hey, if you're a genuine software genius, go start your own company. Your first hire had better be a sales guru and your second one had better be a marketeer, or you're fucked. You might even have to hire a test engineer or two. But of course your code doesn't stink...

By Anonymous, at April 2, 2009 at 9:00 AM
"Ballmer comes from a sales background, you know."

That's probably why he's running the company instead of you.

By Anonymous, at April 2, 2009 at 9:02 AM
Yep, our branding and marketing are so loved by all = Fail. I think one of our major problems is that marketing and sales dictate far too much -- overused product/feature names that piss customers off (Auto this, Live that), product claims that aren't reality-based, and Web pages with nothing but jargon and "smiley guys." And don't get me started on our expensive, failed advertising campaigns... Office 2003 dinosaurs anyone?

This video speaks a ton about how we are perceived. Obviously, we need to put compatibility and other key information on the box, but our branding and overhead is a bit much:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeXAcwriid0

By Anonymous, at April 3, 2009 at 9:25 AM
Micrososft and MSIT the most horrable place to work, Managers, GM na dthere so called secretries Lead manage to get their Work LIFE Balance very gud, but for AN IC its nothing but the fucking old story. One guy works and four guy asks what he has worked..

By The most frustreted IC From MSIT India, at April 3, 2009 at 10:09 AM
dylan miller sucks

By Anonymous, at April 20, 2009 at 1:45 AM
Hey i like all of your comments.

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By Anonymous, at July 20, 2010 at 7:06 PM

Mini-Microsoft Cutting Room Floor

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Pause Place to be Refresh - MSPoll etc

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