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Microsoft Employees Critical Of Their Employer

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the all-is-not-well dept.

bonch writes "BusinessWeek is running an article on internal unrest at Microsoft from their own employees. 'Once the dream workplace of tech's highest achievers, it is suffering key defections to Google and elsewhere... Much of the sharpest criticism comes from within. Dozens of current and former employees are criticizing -- in BusinessWeek interviews, court testimony, and personal blogs -- the way the company operates internally.' In related news, Steve Ballmer has pledged to make changes inside Microsoft to avoid the embarrassingly long development cycle of Vista, including a 'revamping of the engineering and the processes.' Is it too late?"

6 of 367 comments (clear)

  1. This fascinated an entire work day away by Neil+Blender · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://minimsft.blogspot.com/

  2. Re:Former Microsoftie Here-- no dream job by Skim123 · · Score: 3, Informative
    I never worked at Microsoft, but I was an intern there. And in watching some of the interal politics and talking with some team members in my group, I heard similar grumblings. But then again, my wife doesn't work at Microsoft, and she has expressed similar complaints about her past employers. So maybe it's more of a corporate America thing/large company thing, than a Microsoft thing.

    In any event, what I really liked about working at Microsoft for that summer was that the average intelligence of my coworkers seemed quite high, especially compared to my previous internship. (I worked for a Microsoft training partner/consulting firm.) This, alone, wasn't enough to have me take a full time job on at Microsoft; yes, working with smart folks is nice, but working 60 hour weeks and living in a place where the sun comes out 75 days in the year was far from my ideal career! :-)

    --

    I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.

  3. Re:On Google by adtifyj · · Score: 2, Informative

    Please follow these simple instructions.

    Kind regards,
    Chair manufacturer in Redmond, WA

  4. Re:former employees? by chimpanzee00 · · Score: 3, Informative

    I remember seeing how MS Research Labs was lean&mean, when it started up. (professors from Academia were ditching their jobs & working at MS because it was such a superior environment over Academic bureacracy). Funny thing, now MS Research Labs has themselves become a HUGE bureacracy, with a ton of depts. Now, Google is to MS..like MS Reserach Labs was to Academia. MS has become Big&Bloated, just like their MS Word. Take a hint from the spinoff from HP, called "Agilent Technologies".

  5. Re:Fewer BizDev losers would go a long way by I'm+Don+Giovanni · · Score: 1, Informative

    http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/driving/projectgot hamracing3/preview_6133409.html

    Microsoft is the largest Mac development house besides Apple and has been for years. Many excellent Mac programmers work and thrive there.

    --
    -- "I never gave these stories much credence." - HAL 9000
  6. Re:it's NOT about winning. by Wyatt+Earp · · Score: 2, Informative

    MS mice came from HP. There was a fella that posted on here in the late 90s who was at HP, on his home page there was a link to "Stuff I Play With That You'll Never Be Able To Get" and there was a pict of the HP optical mouse, which was the classic MS Optical Mouse.