Microsoft confessions poor worker bees#0…
Today’s Microsoft Confession comes from a woman let go during the first round of layoffs, in January 2009. I’ll call her Amanda, which, of course, isn’t her real name. Amanda shared key elements of her story on deep background, but she also provided a reflective portion that she hopes will give deeper insight to anyone looking to work for Microsoft or to HR departments looking to hire former employees.By telling this story, Amanda wants to give some meaning to her layoff, or so I detected from what she shared for private and public consumption.
Amanda’s story is consistent with every other I received. She sharply criticizes Microsoft’s culture of reorganization, but also emphasizes the heavy workload. I detect deep frustration in her story about Microsoft management problems that won’t easily be fixed.
Amanda’s story follows two other confessionals “Killed over politics” and “Deeply dysfunctional family. “ As explained on Friday, after the last round of Microsoft layoffs, I asked former employees to tell their stories, which are presented anonymously to diminish risk of repercussions either to work elsewhere in the tech industry or to any Microsoft severance arrangement.
I challenge current or former Microsoft employees to either confirm or contradict two key points from Amanda’s story: That some Microsoft divisions demand overlong work weeks and that employees who can’t keep pace are penalized. From my experience, long hours are standard among many software companies. Does Microsoft demand too much?
Current or former employees, please answer the question in comments. With that introduction, Amanda’s story:A lesson and caution to the masses is found in how quickly I went from rising star with a bright future to yesterday’s dishwater that couldn’t be tossed out quickly enough, without changing how I approached my work! In summary, it was all due to the arrival on the scene all praise the holy reorg, which is an approximately annual religious festival in certain sects, I mean divisions, of Microsoft of a particular managerThe organizational culture in many parts of MS is such that one manager, even one with a history of their own performance problems, can spell doom for even the most diligent, accomplished, well-intentioned and politically-savvy employee.