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Finnish Government Criticizes Microsoft For Job Cuts, 'Broken Promises' (softpedia.com)
jones_supa writes: Softpedia reports: "Microsoft has recently announced a new round of job layoffs at its Mobile unit in Finland, as it moves forward with its restructuring and reorganization plan following the acquisition of Nokia's Devices and Services unit. The Finnish government has criticized Microsoft for turning to more job cuts in the country, pointing out that the company has a huge responsibility to help those who are being let go. Microsoft's latest job cut round included 1,850 people, 1,350 of which are said to be working in Finland. 'I am disappointed because of the (initial) promises made by Microsoft,' Finance Minister Alexander Stubb was quoted as saying by Reuters. 'One example is that the data center did not materialize despite the company's promise.'" He refers to Microsoft's promise in 2013 to invest $250 million in a data center located in Finland that was specifically meant to provide services to European customers. All of these worries are not unfounded as the employment situation in Finland is still quite terrible, and the decline of Nokia's former phone business certainly exacerbates the situation.
So, it's Microsoft's job to make busy work for these people instead of letting them go?
Of course it doesn't end well for you guys. It never does. You really can't be surprised by their ethics at this point. Now bend over while we force-install this mobile OS on your desktop!
When will politicians stop believing corporate promises (lies)?? Corporations are only in it for themselves, they have zero concern for the communities they are present in.
Giving corporations sweetheart deals for promises of jobs or investment is the worst possible use of public money. It's corporate welfare, except these welfare recipients are spending the check on hookers and blow.
I have zero sympathy for Finland. Zero. The way they treated and continue to treat Greece and the European south in general is despicable. They deserve the worst. They made their bed with Microsoft let them lie on it.
Bill Gates said:"I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine" My favorite number is 09 F9 11 02 9D 74
It was not intentional but Finland's economy is.was very dependent on two things cell phones and paper. Yes Nokia blew it when they sold to Microsoft and did not embrace their own Linux os that looked so promising, forked Android like Amazon, or went with Android. I think Nokia could have had a real winner with an Android phone with a Nokia camera. Nokia hardware was always good as are the cameras.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
expropriate.
If government don't like what private corporations do, they need to buy them up and own them. This actually works as long as the business continues to be managed like a business - either not-for-profit or with profits put back into the public purse - and not as a money sink.
(This is all democratic socialism is - not some Soviet bogeyman. Government buys up / builds heavy industry and runs in the long term interest of its shareholders, the country's citizens each with one share, as opposed to the short term interest of private shareholders.)
The alternative is whole countries beholden to corporate interests when their governments start relying on the promises of business.
Didn't expect anything else, lots of companies do that, they buy are company, or part of it, wait two years and throw the people out... Ofcourse if profits would rise in those 2 years, they would probably keep their jobs, but mostly they are possible to be bought because of bad numbers...
Every day he must wake up laughing in disbelief at how he got rewarded for destroying Nokia.
Back when Nokia cashed in in Germany to build a plant, then when the "incentives" were running out they closed shop and moved to Romania, what was Finland's reaction when Germans (plus the German government of that time) complained and called Nokia things I can't repeat in decent company?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
One of the many ways to boost profits by lowering costs is to can people and make the remainder work harder and longer.
And you better be thankful you got a job.
Of course, we all know where the gains go.
And what's sickening is that we all fell for it. Why, if you have to work so long and hard, it just means you're not very good - techies propensity for big egos is used against us to get us give away our time. That's what that whole hiring people with "passion" - they're stupid enough to bust their asses for no commensurate compensation.
They convince us that if we can't get our jobs done in 40 hours, then it's our fault because you're not that smart or "worthless". And if you can do your job in 40,then you need more work.
They got us either way.
Get another job? They all do it .
At least they weren't replaced by robots.
I think that Microsoft is missing a huge opportunity with Linux at the moment.
Many Linux users, especially those running large enterprise Linux deployments, are not happy with the systemd situation.
Time and time again systemd has caused them too many problems. The mailing lists and bug trackers of the numerous Linux distros that have switched to systemd are full of reports of problems, including Linux installations that don't fully boot thanks to some problem with systemd.
All Microsoft needs to do is realize that there is a lot of pent-up demand for a top-notch, modern Linux distro that doesn't force systemd on its users. These users would even be willing to pay a modest sum if it meant avoiding systemd.
Some people will bring up Windows at this point, but I think it's becoming clear that Microsoft is diversifying away from it. Azure already supports Linux, and a Microsoft Linux distro that's guaranteed to be free of systemd would make Azure very appealing to a lot of people.
If Microsoft could make such a Linux distro also integrate well with Windows networks, it would become even more appealing to those serious enterprise users who need to run a heterogeneous infrastructure.
If this Linux distro came with excellent support for .NET, C#, and SQL Server, then it would become even more appealing.
Perhaps some, if not all, of these Finnish employees could have been put to work on this theoretical Microsoft Linux distro. Systemd has left Linux ripe for disruption, and they could have been the ones to turn the entire Linux community on its head by providing a Linux distro that's better than the rest.
I never expected to write this, but I would welcome a Microsoft Linux distro. Even if they just avoid systemd, that would already put it well above and beyond the other mainstream Linux distros.
The Seattle Times ran a tech piece the other day about this issue, the take being that poor old Microsoft is losing a ton of money on this effort. No mention of what Microsoft mole Elop did to Nokia in order to get the price down to where MS would by it, nor how bad Microsoft (read "Balmer") handled the whole thing. Here's the link:
It seems Microsoft's leaders are so devoid of engineering talent that anything they touch turns to shit.
Without Bill Gates giving them a head start, Microsoft would have sunk to the bottom of the ocean years ago. Current management and leadership are a total joke - they have no clue on how to make compelling products or keep developers happy.
Microsoft need an Elon Musk type CEO if they are not do disappear completely...
BTW - I hate them so much, that Linux Mint has become my desktop of choice, and I love it.
Getting rid of employees here in Finland is actually quite easy. There is a process you are legally bound to follow, but it just takes 60 days and the end result is that you can let go any employees you have. If you just have a single employee and want to sack him, that can be more difficult, but these massive layoffs are easy. For long time employees, you have to give several months notice when getting rid of them, but OTOH if you want they will work for you during that time.
"The safety net" gives a person living alone about 10%-20% of the salary of a typical tech worker, so most people want to work.
This latest round of MS job cuts is not trimming, they are ending the design of phones completely. There will be nothing left of the Nokia phone division. (The rest of Nokia that was not sold to MS is actually doing pretty well nowadays.)
I know big companies are all about profits, but I highly doubt that everyone at Nokia was completely useless and unable to fill a spot in Microsoft after they took over. I have lots of big-company IT experience, so it's not like I'm totally unaware that there is always some dead wood. I've seen people "parked" in jobs in some benevolent companies because the divisions they were managing got killed 2 years before their retirement. I've seen people who watch cat videos all day and perform one or two simple tasks. But, there's no way every single person at Nokia couldn't find something to do at Microsoft. And if Microsoft promised to build an Azure data center in Finland, then they should live up to the promise...it's not like they don't need it. Europe is very different than the US - workers have rights and expect employers to be more stable.
My opinion on this topic isn't popular in the US, but I do feel that large companies owe some loyalty to long term employees. I've been lucky to work for a couple of long-tenure employers in my career, and haven't been laid off yet. Companies should realize that there is a subset of people out there who enjoy stability as well as the ability to do challenging work. Give these people both, and don't treat them like office furniture, and they'll stay, keeping your institutional knowledge inside the company. I know I'm not looking to hop jobs every six months, and lots of long-term big company employees aren't either. Not everyone is nomadic and can just move their family across the country or across an ocean for work.
I have some interesting experience with this, having done consulting work for a Saudi Arabian company. The Microsoft takeover of Nokia would be like ExxonMobil or Shell coming in and taking over Saudi Aramco (the state-owned oil company.) The MBA spreadsheet jockeys would immediately start cutting heads, because there really are a lot of "appointed" positions in Saudi companies. As a result, the country's economy would suffer greatly because they're so dependent on a few large employers. This sounds like the Nokia situation exactly. Or look at what happened in the 80s when the steel mills on the Great Lakes and in Pennsylvania closed for a closer-to-home example.
The Finnish government is just naive as is usual. Nothing new there. There was plenty of talks of data centers but I guess it was just the desperate grasping the straws in hopes of getting some crumbs. Whatever.
As for Nokia, going with Windows Phones was maybe the biggest mistake they could ever have made, and plenty of Finns were happy to point that out when it happened. Of course, Finns tend to complain about everything, so that does not necessarily mean anything. But Nokia had a very long time to get into the software ecosystem field, get a proper OS out, branch into Android among other things and so on. The top management just couldn't handle the transition to software side from hardware focus. This was evident years before with all the crap of Symbian never developing into anything reasonable (as in ecosystems, app development, etc.), and all other manufacturers abandoning it over time. The number of OS's Nokia worked on and never finishing any to a decent degree also tells enough. Even with hugely smaller resources, Jolla managed to put something usable out the door. Presumably because no-one was constantly throwing roadblocks at them within the company.
While hiring Elop and committing corporate suicide via WP was horrible, the later sale of Nokia mobiles to Microsoft is generally seen in Finland as a great move. Nokia management finally recognized MS and WP was a fast sinking ship, they had stacked the wrong boat, and they had to get out fast. So they managed to sell the burnt out corpse of a platform, along with its arsonist captain Elop, to MS for 5+billion and used that to get stronger on the network side. Of course, with the ongoing virtualization of network side to sfotware, and strong push from Huawei etc., who knows how that will end. But at least it is not consumer software.
Also some of the MS Mobile people in Finland have been offered positions in Seattle/US. But I guess they pick the best of the best, but so would I and anyone with any sense. What else?
Just sayin'.
that Microsoft deliberatly sent Stephen Flop to, well, flop the company. He did and got paid big time.
A data center was "promised"? Did they get that in writing? No? Tough noogies, and you Finns might want to consider tossing them out in the next election.
The next group to be burned by Microsoft will say something like "Microsoft seems different, they're no longer the assholes they once were. Maybe we'll finally be the ones to partner with them and not get burned like all the others!"
None of the Scandinavian countries (or Finland) have ever been socialist, let alone Marxist as your quote implies. They have a hybrid model with substantial social safety nets and the state owning shares in some important, big corporations (with the same influence as any other shareholder). Every normal, sane person wants to work - not just to get luxuries in life but to get respect and feel meaningful. A safety net does nothing to change that, it just ensures that you always have food on the table, a roof over your head and can go to the doctor when you need to. And in the case of those countries also get an education without needing a student loan.
If Microsoft was promised any tax breaks as a result of their business ventures in Norway, then the government should rescind the tax breaks. One hand washes the other.
Screwing people over is what Bill Gates has done his entire life,spiced with "do-gooder" projects here and there. American companies, protected by their status as 'persons", can do anything they want. If I were Finland or any other nation, I would NEVER let an American company buy out one of the primary job suppliers in my economy. It's sickening to see Bill Gates, who receives out-sized praise for what was essentially theft, from Apple (which is probably why Gates gets on so well with Zuckerberg), not be accountable for this, or MSFT's curent CEO (a major lover of H1B's) get off the hook.
But this is exactly what Nokia did when they closed their factory in Romania.
Gee, you must be the very first. [sarcasm intended]
At least they poured a few dollars down your rathole of a country before they kissed off. Suggest you look into who in your government took the payoff that left you in the lurch.
Microsoft couldn't read anymore the negative, expletive filled feedback about their mail application and Windows 10 in general, and decided to deliver punishment to the potty mouthed people, delivered duty paid (DDP).
I think with $70+ billion you could fix the entire planet if you weren't some cunt. Your OS wouldn't be some Global Mother Fucking Spyware either unless you were a pussy and caved to spooks.
Why microsoft is doing like this as it is a big company in this world. they have to provide #jobs #naukri from all over all the world . As there is lots of braches so why not accepting more. get #jobs #naukri http://www.jobschahiye.in/
Finland isn't part of Scandinavia, you fat moron.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
For example, austerity policies have worked well in Estonia, and Estonia's public debt is the lowest in the Eurozone. The fact, that public debt in Estonia was kept low in the first place, made austerity measures a piece of cake compared to Southern Eurozone countries (but it wasn't easy).
Low public debt is actually a great thing, because it means, that the economy is stable, and that the government there can weather an economic cycle much better than a country with lots of public debt. All this should indicate to an investor, that the country (or any country with such indices) is safe to invest in long-term.
The Euro is working, because small countries' currencies cannot be easily speculated with by enemies of the free world.
If each EU country had their own currency, then each currency could be speculated on, and a few vulnerable states would lurch from recession to recession by printing more money and devaluing and then redenominating their currencies, while not actually making any reforms. (On other continents, look at Zimbabwe and Venezuela.) History has shown, that mass recessions across a continent create large amounts of instability, which are primary causes for people voting in populist politicians with a strong-arm image.
The mass devaluation of currencies and impositions of tariffs on products across the continent caused the domino effect that precipitated the 1929 recession in Europe. As it was, Germany suffered in that recession, and the people there voted in a chancellor who promised them everything. WWII ensued (part of everything).
All Greece has to do — as it's been doing so far at some speed — is be less corrupt, and impelement reforms. Greek PM Alexis Tsipras is one of the very few people who can pull it off with his government, because he has broad support from the public and the Troika (the European Commission, the ECB, and the IMF).
Austerity policies work well in small-to-medium-sized economies, because they can turn around faster. While austerity is not always effective in big economies, then they could win from such measures, too. If done right. But usually, they aren't, and that's why stimuli are seen as the favorite measure for large economies, if they are diverse enough.