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Orange Badge Culture At Microsoft

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the ones-we-never-hear-about dept.

coolball writes "For those of us that have worked as a contractor (a-dash or orange badge or whatever), Seattle PI's 'Microsoft's 'orange badge' culture gets forum' article caught my eye this morning. He talks about OrangeBadges.com and Contractor's International Network, two forums that have sprung up as a meeting place (cyber & meat) for current/past/future contractors of the empire. If you have been a Microsoftee, then you would laugh out loud in recognition some of the tales he relates."

4 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. For the record by gcnaddict · · Score: 5, Informative

    Microsoft's two biggest contractors are Volt and Kelly Services

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  2. Working in the belly of the beast by robipilot · · Score: 5, Informative

    You've got to give them a bit of credit. Here these guys are making money from the great evil one, working in the belly of the beast. At least they didn't end up changing badge colors.

    Having been a contractor in IT working for some of the "big ones" the last 10 years, it is a lot different wearing the OTHER color badge. Things like:

    1. No free meals on "employee appreciation day".
    2. No access to the company park/gym/pool/volleyball pits.
    3. Parking 2 miles from the building entrance.

    On the good side:

    1. Real easy to leave and go to the next gig.
    2. Money.
    3. More autonomy. I am my own boss when my wife's not around.

  3. Re:Whiners by MustardMan · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's called hyperbole. It's the same line of logic as the original statement, but purposely taking it to an extreme to show the fallacy of logic. Just because someone has it better than someone else doesn't mean they have no right to ever complain.

  4. Presenting myself for the slaughter by a-howardwu · · Score: 5, Informative

    Alright boys and gals, I'm here so, please, bring on the onslaught. I'm the grinning dude in the PI article, Howard that started OrangeBadges.com. DON'T ALL THROW FECES AT ME ALL AT ONCE!!!

    But seriously, I'm not sure if you all realize how huge an organization Microsoft is, and how much of its workforce is made up of temp employees. Just in Redmond, WA, there are 30,000+ head counts, and between 1/3 to 1/4 of that is made up of contractors. If you also take into account of the perma-temps of the 80s and 90s, plus, due to the "work-365-days-and-take-100-days-off-with-no-guara ntees-your-position-won't-be-fille-by-another-cont ractor" perma-temp settlement, there is a huge swarm of people flowing through the orange-badge system every year. That's easily 10,000+ people who are/have worked as an orange badge at MS. If you also take into consideration all the people who WANT to, plus all the international MS orange badges, you will realize that this is a huge community of people.

    Now, I know we are all supposed to hate Microsoft. Trust me, now that I am in the bastion of open-source @ Amazon.com, there is no lack of distrust of commercial licensed software, but I'm talking about real people here. So, cut me some slack, boys and girls. It's just a message board. :-)

    OK, now you can all throw feces my way, and I will answer the best I can. :-)

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    OrangeBadges.com BEAN