Slashdot Mirror


Microsoft Loses Two Key Executives

DIY News writes "Microsoft lost two key employees amidst major reorganization announced last month. One of them has led several MSN efforts and another who was a top developer for the Office unit. According to Microsoft, 'when you have a company of 60,000 employees, people are coming and going all the time.'"

13 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. In Other Breaking News... by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I'm drinking coffee and eating fresh coconut.

    Gagne: Undoubtably made very wealthy in his time at the big M and wants to blow his wad racing around in cars, outside the Microsoft parking lot.

    Partovi: Likely also found rolling around naked in money, wants to try another startup. (He probably noticed something Microsoft will need in the future and wants to develop it on his own and then sell it for more biggie bucks.)

    Neither of these will likely have much real impact so this is a Slow News Day article.

    Also, at the back of the papers is something about Nemesis has been spotted, it's heading toward the Sun and will reach it in 11 years, when we'll all die horribly. Hmm. Guess I don't have to worry about Social Security after all.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  2. Lemme guess... by TrappedByMyself · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is one of those threads where people get free Karma by pontificating about the impending demise of Microsoft.

    --

    Help me take back Slashdot. When did 'News for Nerds' become 'FUD and Conspiracy Theories for Extremist Nutjobs'?
    1. Re:Lemme guess... by bladesjester · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You forgot underrated :P

      --
      Everything I need to know I learned by killing smart people and eating their brains.
    2. Re:Lemme guess... by Savage-Rabbit · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Karma or not +5 funny is still the most satifying moderation.

      --
      Only to idiots, are orders laws.
      -- Henning von Tresckow
  3. Why Is This On Slashdot? by TheFlyingGoat · · Score: 4, Insightful

    when you have a company of 60,000 employees, people are coming and going all the time

    That's a very true statement, especially when a company is going through a reorganization. This means absolutely nothing other than a slow news day on Slashdot. I'm actually confused as to why this ended up getting approved for the front page.

    --
    You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
    1. Re:Why Is This On Slashdot? by g0at · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm actually confused as to why this ended up getting approved for the front page.

      Because slashdot has degenerated into a piece of self-aggrandizing shit?

      b.

  4. Why Is This Front Page News?!! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Stuff like this happens all the time at every company. This might be newsworthy in the financial backpages, but on slashdot it's a total non-story.

    But the editors know this is perfect trollbait to start flaming and mocking Microsoft. It's obvious that Microsoft bashing is a surefire way of driving pagehits up.

    Zonk, get a life. Post real news or get lost.

  5. Executives are overrated by melted · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's the engineers who do the actual work, anyway. A good executive just doesn't get in the way of engineers doing their work. A bad one tells engineers what to do in unnecessarily great detail. Of the two DonGa is a moderate loss. HadiP is not a loss at all. What did MSN achieve under him? Start.com? Puhleeze.

    1. Re:Executives are overrated by Funakoshi · · Score: 2, Insightful
      This is a ridiculous statement. Those executives are the ones who decide how to market the products, how to price the products and are the ones who make the decisions that SELL the products that those engineers make. The "actual work" as you say, is irrelevant if no one markets it (and thus no one buys it).

      As far as a good executive not getting in the way; there are many engineers that have to be managed (which should be done properly, I admit) to ensure that projects stay on task and include the specifications that are required. While not always communicated to all employees, executives quite often are working to ensure that projects are inline with corporate strategies that have been defined. The strategies are in place because they have been identified as opportunities to increase shareholder wealth, which is the point of any organization (other than an NPO).

  6. Significant Loss? by Lead+Butthead · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The fact Microsoft compelled to even comment about the departure suggests they're more important than Microsoft is willing to admit?

    --
    ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
  7. Re:so which is it? by TheAwfulTruth · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How are those statements conflicting?

    If Microsoft has an incredibly low turnover rate of 1% a year for example, that still means that 600 people a year are "coming and going", that's 2 a day! I'd say that that means the statement of people coming and going all the time is pretty straight forward and truthful. That means that both statements could be 100% true and not conflicting in any way.

    But you are right, journalists with adjendas and corporate statements will make use of whichever number looks better for their cause.

    The only tragic thing is when people can't see that and assume that someone is outright lying or wrong which, at least in this example, is not the case. Both statements, sitting side by side, are perfectly truthful and neither one by itself spins anything.

    --
    Contrary to popular belief, coding is not all free blow-jobs and beer. Those things cost MONEY!
  8. hmmm.... by aquabat · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Scene: gravel road in some desolate bush in the Washington Mountains. A black Buick approaches, pulls to the side of the road. The engine stops. The driver side door opens, and Bill emerges from the vehicle. He walks to the trunk of the car, and opens it. Two executives in suits, blindfolded, hands tied, fumble and stagger as they emerge from the trunk. Bill unties their hands and removes their blindfolds. The executives look at Bill patiently, expectantly, a little anxiously.

    Bill: You're free now, boys. Run, play, live.

    The executives cock their heads uncertainly, look at each other, and then bound off into the bush together. Bill reaches into the trunk, pulls out a Shop Vac, and proceeds to vacuum the interior of the trunk. Bill then walks calmly back to the driver's side of the vehicle, sits in the driver's seat and pulls the door shut. The engine starts. The car does a two point U turn and proceeds to leave the scene, going the way it came.

    --
    A republic cannot succeed till it contains a certain body of men imbued with the principles of justice and honour.
  9. I disagree: Both are equally important by mindaktiviti · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When you're in such a huge organization as Microsoft, or Google, or a Fortune 500, great management of any kind is important. The best managers make the office politics transparent, the resources needed to finish a project always available, and is a communication and trust layer between the engineers who have those great ideas and upper management who are blinded by other factors when it comes to the importance of the engineers' work.

    Also moving up the ladder, those executives have the power to change an organization, and the great ones do it for the better.

    I believe that in both management and in the technical aspect of the corporate world there are bad apples in both areas. Bad managers, bad engineers, and without good managers and engineers alike, all would hate their jobs.

    A quick note: I'm working on a project right now at the city hall of a very large city. There's myself who is the low level information guy (mostly monkey work), my boss who's a professional materials manager, and then there's the project manager who's a great public speaker. He's the one that's been carrying this project because he's able to cut through all the bullshit with all the city divisions, and no doubt he'll be the one carrying us when our project comes to council next month.