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Closing Time At Microsoft's Campus Pub

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the about-face-saving dept.

theodp writes "Just three days before the Spitfire pub was to open on Microsoft's Entertainment & Devices Division campus, TechFlash reports that Microsoft got cold feet and pulled the plug on the project, leaving the bar's owner and his 22 employees in the lurch. 'I am completely stunned and disappointed by the decision,' said now lease-less owner Jonathan Sposato, who's stuck with space built out as a pub, complete with a giant bar, a fireplace, and eight beer taps. (He says it wouldn't be economically viable to refit it as a restaurant.) Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos confirmed the company's sudden change of heart: 'The goal was always to create a cool gathering place for employees, but to do so in a manner that's consistent with a business environment. We decided we should do something more appropriate, and that meant not having a pub.' The new pub had been in development for more than a year."

20 of 393 comments (clear)

  1. Last Post by Harmonious+Botch · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The goal was always to create a cool gathering place for employees..." Where? The state unemployment office?

    Some of these people "...left other jobs to work in the pub" That was a really sleazy move by MS.

    1. Re:Last Post by sortius_nod · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Are you retarded? Seriously, beer taps are COMPLETELY different to any other type of tap. They are designed for beer, and beer only. They are designed to keep beer (not juice, soft-drink (or as you Americans would call it pop or soda), or even water cold), reduce froth in beer, etc.

      Such a statement is so stupid it's not funny. The guy has obviously spent thousands of dollars fitting out the place to be a bar (fridges, taps, bar, furniture) that to refit to anything else would put him so far out of pocket he'd bankrupt himself.

      Not only that, but bar staff are different to wait staff. They are trained to do a different job, at least here in Australia they are. They require an RSA (Responsible Service of Alcohol) certification and need to know what drinks to mix, etc. Meanwhile, wait staff need to know the difference between various dishes, how long they can be left, how to make a decent coffee, etc.

      It seems the owner's best avenue would be to sue, but unfortunately MS will fight that until he's broke. So either way, he's fucked 6 ways from Sunday.

    2. Re:Last Post by Daengbo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Microsoft, where neither the source nor the beer are free. ;) j/k

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    3. Re:Last Post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      You need to move on to hard drugs to explain Clippy.

  2. MS Screws it's partner. News at 11. by Forge · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm taking bets that this contract dosn't put the cost of this "change of heart", where it rightfuly belongs.

    Hurray for the MS Legal teem, once again ensuring that Microsoft can screw it's business partners with impunity.

    --
    --= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
  3. Sad reality by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The unspoken reality at Microsoft is that there is a large minority of Mormons working in and around Microsoft. While something like caffeinated drinks can be overlooked, something as potent and mind-altering as alcohol is a spit in the face of the Mormon employees.

    There is no doubt that some pressure was brought to bear against management when this pub was announced, and though it hasn't been publicized, the Washington state Mormon leaders have been visiting the campus to lobby against the pub.

    It sucks for the people who own and work at the pub, but in a silently ultra-religious state like WA, it's no surprise that on of the largest local employers bows to the commands of the puppet masters.

    1. Re:Sad reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Uh. Well, that might be true, but I don't think so. I have lived in Redmond all my life - all 20 years, and I have only met one Mormon - and he wasn't that religious either.

    2. Re:Sad reality by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It sucks for the people who own and work at the pub, but in a silently ultra-religious state like WA, it's no surprise that on of the largest local employers bows to the commands of the puppet masters.

      Yeah right, puppet masters? What kind of conspiracy are you trying to push around here? A quick search around the net shows only about 3% of Washingtonians are Mormons. You really think the Mormons can push Microsoft around? I'd like to see some real evidence of that. For what it's worth (probably not much) you can be alcohol in gas stations and grocery stores even in Utah.

      No, this is another case of someone getting screwed out of a partnership with Microsoft. They weren't the first, they won't be the last. If you go into a partnership in any way with Microsoft, make sure you have the contract nailed down, and nothing is left to trust. Because if they can get an extra dollar from screwing you over, they will. You may say this is flamebait, but it is true: there is a long list of companies who have gone down because of underestimating the dangers of doing business with Microsoft.

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      Qxe4
    3. Re:Sad reality by gringofrijolero · · Score: 5, Funny

      Good Mormons know the 10 commandments, one of which is "Though shalt not Judge...".

      Which one is that? Were you privy to the entire set?

      --
      Todos mis movimientos están friamente calculados
    4. Re:Sad reality by BadAnalogyGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Maybe "puppetmasters" was a bit strongly phrased, but there is no secret here. I don't have any specific information because I do not work for MS. I only know people who do and I don't want to pose any risk to them for telling me what they know.

      This, like many things that go on behind closed doors, is simply not apparent because it hasn't been publicized. Now, if you ask me to vouch for what I've been told, then we're at a standstill, because I can only tell you that I believe them because I don't have any reason not to.

    5. Re:Sad reality by Spasemunki · · Score: 5, Funny

      Fool! You've bought the oldest trick in the book, the 'blame the Mormons' line. I've heard through private sources that most Microsoft execs are actually vampires Jehova's Witnesses and are worried that alcohol consumption would dilute the blood volume they need for their artificial blood cloning experiments. All of Microsoft's purported 'software development' is just a front for establishing a solid breeding stock in the Seattle area so that the vampires can repopulate the Earth when the Conflicker virus finally triggers in 2012. Think you can prove me wrong? Then answer this: if Microsoft is really a software company why is their operating system such rubbish?

      We're through the looking glass, people.

    6. Re:Sad reality by sowth · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think you are mostly correct in that Mormons weren't the only influence for MS higher ups to drop the pub. However, I don't doubt this guy's story at all. LDS leaders and organized groups in their religion are always trying to establish their religious beliefs as the law of the land. Screw the Constitution I guess, unless it benefits them.

      Just look at the California gay marriage issue:

      Note this is people in Idaho and Utah trying to influence an election in California. I can tell you, if people in California tried to influence an election or legislation in Utah, they'd be going apeshit about it. For the next 10, or perhaps 100 years they'd be whining and complaining to anyone who'd listen that people in California were trying to persecute and oppress them.

      I live in Idaho,and just last week, I heard an offensive ad on the radio denouncing some stimulus bill because it relaxes the number of alcohol permits. I wonder who paid for this ad? The ad was claiming alcohol causes "crime" and all sorts absurd crap. Methinks the US has just as many religious zealots as they do in the Middle East. If someone doesn't believe in religious freedom, what are they doing in this country?

    7. Re:Sad reality by Anders · · Score: 5, Funny

      Good Mormons know the 10 commandments, one of which is "Though shalt not Judge...".

      And what is the other one?

    8. Re:Sad reality by Hollovoid · · Score: 5, Funny

      He meant morons, honest spelling mistake.

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      Im ok..
  4. Tyranny of the Minority over the Majority by MrMista_B · · Score: 5, Informative

    Thanks, Mormons.

    No, not really.

    Not flamebait either - local Mormon leaders have been quite vigorously, though quietly, campaigning against the pub, and, apparantly, successfully. Assholes.

  5. Re:I guess by Vegeta99 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Funny, that graph is the same graph for my ability to bring a girl back to the apartment!

  6. Re:Bars are a business and a meeting place by Man+On+Pink+Corner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My boss got fired after he walked past his secretary and she smelled alcohol on his breath and reported that as sexual harassment. From beer. His friends took him out for his birthday during lunch.

    ROFL. OK, let's hear her version of the story now.

  7. Re:Boring by hughk · · Score: 5, Funny

    What about the Progress Bar?

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    See my journal, I write things there
  8. Microsoft has an "Australia" problem by symbolset · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Time was when England exiled their most violent felons to an island continent penal colony half a world away. Over time the definition for "violent felon" slid from rapist and murderer to pirate, then to treasonous conspirator, and so on until they landed at political dissident. For many years they exported these folk, only to discover later that this was their best and brightest; their free thinkers, their engineers artists and inventors, the folk who were brighter than their superiors. And what were left were Lords and serfs.

    So now Australia breeds a more vital breed of men, having been selected from that filter, and England has lost control of them.

    Such is as it is with Microsoft. Microsoft has bought into the theory that the top 20% of workers contribute 80% of the work that they've lost sight of how fungible those metrics are. Their 20%ers are folk who threaten the established structure, who are smarter than their bosses, who have scary ideas. It's only right that they migrate from there to Google. Google is Microsoft's Australia.

    And no, I've never worked for Microsoft or Google and I still don't and I doubt that I would barring dire circumstance or rude incentive.

    --
    Help stamp out iliturcy.
  9. Microsoft's new method of delivering evil! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You are completely missing the point. According to the story, they contracted with someone to do a lot of work and waited until he was almost finished to tell him they didn't want what he did. No contract terms can change the fact of that being abusive.

    Before software was Microsoft's method of delivering evil (in my opinion). Now Microsoft top managers are apparently investigating other delivery methods.