Kicking the SPSA Can Again, Raises, and the 66th Percentile
"Hey! Who do I have to <<fill in the blank>> around here to become a Partner?"
That's one bit of fallout landing on Microsoft employees from this past week's SPSA payout to Microsoft employees at level 68+ in the company ("Partner" pay scale level - I'm not talking about the third party folks who Microsoft partners with in technology deployment). Tut-tut, don't bedevil me with my underwater options and paltry stock awards, I want to be where the real compensation is: Level 68!
(Hmm... Level68... local band name maybe, or perhaps my alter-alter-persona nerd hip-hop name.)
I'm sure if Windows and Office had shipped by now that the SPSA would have been a begrudgingly accepted payout to all the Partner leaders in the company, even those who don't have a damn thing to do with Windows and Office. Instead, the chosen weak metrics still point solidly to resounding success using a financial ruler that no jester in any court could stop laughing about long enough to make witty comments.
Hey, I recognize that running a big organization is truly a lot of work... and those folks already get well compensated for that. This redistribution of shareholder wealth to those that the shareholders rely on for exceptional performance - you know, shipping on time, increasing adoption rates, avoiding part supply problems, not surprising Wall Street, and not letting process and hiring binges saddle down Microsoft - just seems wrong and out of whack.
The big disappointment is that it's not a one time payoff but designed to keep the old guard around for two more payoffs. Damn.
And Microsoft is now officially a two-tiered company. There is Level 67 and below and then the Partners lording above us, throwing us the occasional coin. I certainly hate writing that. The SPSA, however, doesn't follow any rules related to the awards we receive. Does it take a year until some of the stock is available? Nope. Does it take five years to vest. Nope. Is it tied to personal performance and contributions? Nope.
The Partners are different from you and me.
One comment reflecting on this:
3 points I want to make:
- Why execs have 1/3 vested right away?
- Why are execs selling them if they believe in the company?
- Why other employees have to wait for 12 months and span across 5 years?
Following in that, and the ongoing discussion if any Microsoftie consciously cares about providing shareholder value or if doing so is even in alignment with their career, we have this comment:
So many people have attacked the person who questioned whether his first priority should be shareholder value. I've read this with curious amusement, especially in the wake of our top 900 or so executive leaders effectively ordering that they all receive buckets of money. There is no plausible justification for this action, and it has clearly been done at the expense of the shareholders. The next email from an Exec that I read that stresses how we all hold great responsibility to the shareholders will leave me laughing.
'Do as I say, not as I do.'
And so it is.
In reflection of all of this SPSA pocket-stuffing, a big tip of our collective hat to Jay Greene at BusinessWeek for the original article long ago last year that brought up this pending compensation program (hey, that's a great article to re-read). Some things have changed for the better. Some deck chairs have just been re-arranged. And some bad ideas have hit the fan. A snippet from Mr. Greene's article regarding that:
Microsoft's compensation moves have created a haves-vs.-have-nots culture. Newbies work for comfortable but not overly generous wages, while veterans have a lucrative treasure chest of stock options. Now a new pay scheme, scheduled to go into effect this fall, threatens to make the gulf even wider. If they meet incentive goals, the 120 or so vice-presidents will receive an eye-popping $1 million in salary a year, and general managers, the next level down, will get $350,000 to $550,000, according to a high-ranking source. But the rest of the staff is paid at market rates.
Only now we know it is 900-some recipients and close to $1,000,000,000 in payout. I think from now on we no longer brag about "growing our business one Yahoo!" or "...one eBay" but rather "...one SPSA." It's interesting thinking back to some of the comment conversations in the past about our huge thirty-something billion dollar war chest. People would often ask: "Hey, why can't we dip in and give out bigger bonuses or salaries to everyone from this?" and the back-of-the-hand retort was "That's the shareholder's money, not ours. We can't just do what we want with it."
Various stories on this from the past week:
- Microsoft awards executives millions
- Microsoft execs get stock windfall and Microsoft executive stock bonuses, by the numbers.
- The Seattle Times Business & Technology Millions for top Microsoft execs
- Microsoft Execs Get Millions in Awards. Huh - Blogging Stocks
- EETimes.com - Microsoft awards $951 million in bonuses
- MSFTextrememakeover Update Transparency and SPSA
- MSFTextrememakeover Transparency Well, it ain't AERO Glass, that's for sure.
- only this, and nothing more Microsoft Exec Rewards
Right before all this, Mr. Todd Bishop at the Seattle P-I took a side-trip to the recent 10-K filing: http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/789019/000119312506180008/d10k.htm to revisit the recent hiring binge by Microsoft and how it breaks out for our 10-K hiring. MSN +44%? And while we're putting on the pounds, Intel might very well be looking at some severe cuts after an efficiency report (how do we get one of those?). Part of this is to make up for past sins of (dramatic pause) over-hiring.
- Intel reportedly may announce job cuts of up to 20,000 - MarketWatch
- Intel expected to cut thousands of jobs CNET News.com
I'm all for right-sizing Microsoft to be smaller by cleaning out the ineffective and the dead-wood. But it sucks beyond measure to have to reduce by 10,000 or 20,000 people all at once. That's the result of exceptionally bad leadership and I hope our Partners pause long enough over their new brochures of Italian villas to consider leading an exceptionally top-heavy Microsoft efficiently so that a few years from now we're not giving out tens-of-thousands Ooopsie! pink-slips.
If you're not a comment reader, then allow me to suggest dropping by the last post (Mini-Microsoft Looking Forward - Reviews, The Company Meeting, and Then Some...) and reading through what people have shared about their review numbers so far, along with their impression of the MyMicrosoft changes so far and the usual harsh real-world how it works way of getting by and getting the hell out of your current group if they've flipped the bit on you. One comment that folks liked in particular starts as such:
Hey! Welcome to the club. Pull up a chair and let me explain how this all works to you.
Random things around compensation so far as always includes discussion of the raise and whether it should at least match the local cost of living increases. Well? Within the mechanics of the HR-compensation beast, have to beat your compa-ratio first. Unless salaries are adjusted upwards and your ratio allows you more growth you're not going to be beating cost of living. And once you start talking about salaries, you start talking about the 66th percentile that Microsoft pegs compensation at.
Ah, the 66th percentile. Now, first of all, Microsoft does not intend to pay 2/3s the salary you could get anywhere else under this system. If you lined up thirty people who did exactly what you did from 30 different companies, you would be paid more than 20 of those individuals. Ten of them would make more than you. Maybe one or two of them a hell of a lot more. But in general you're earning more... at the moment in time that you got hired.
Where you're getting screwed is salary compression. The folks hired this year are coming in making a lot more than last year's folks, and getting a better taste of the stock sugar. Your recent raises certainly haven't let you, or the folks from the previous year and so on, catch up. And won't. So, if you've been at Microsoft (or any corporation) and want a fat raise then your best course of action is to switch companies and decompress yourself. And then work to get acquired by Microsoft so that you can come in as a Partner. Sorry, Lisa ain't gonna do that for you.
Your only way to win at the salary game staying at Microsoft is to get promoted as often as possible. On your march to Level 68.
Do let us know how you filled in your blank along the way.
233 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 233 of 233numbered comments?
"You aren't going to change to world working at Microsoft (or most other companies) no matter what hours you spend. There's another free life lesson."
That's why I'm not going to accept the offer :)
This is a great post and one I whole heartedly agree with. I recently wrote a blog entry on my own site about this (with jokes from friends that I would get fired).
I've been at the company for 3 years and I am seeing making partner more and more as a cushy position to reach. Now I can see why we have so many morons at GM level and above who simply refuse to add any value OR leave the company.
Now, the big question is what can we as employees, or heck, the shareholders who own the company do about this madness. I feel like our execs are literally stealing the nest egg built up.
I got burned rather badly in my prior role at Microsoft because the GM in charge of our small organization of about 20 people really only knew what 5 people on her team were doing and did not care about the others. It was very clear that she was there to there to bide her time until she could move onto her next great promotion. She focused all her energies on a couple of key projects she was working on that had high visibility and damn everyone else. If you were to ask her what most of the people on her team did, I truly don’t think she could answer that question to this day, although in the position for more than one review cycle. She skipped most of the morale events that her Admin set up for the team.
I think the commitment setting process will now at least force managers of managers to set goals for their organizations, which is an improvement. (This was completely lacking in my prior organization.) However, this alone does not ensure that organization leaders will stay in touch with all aspects of their organizations. I think instead there is a tendency for some managers to work on their star projects and ignore the surfacing problems, until they can move on or blame their underlings.
Lisa B, any chance we can turn the tables and ask our organization leaders to solve specific problems and then hold them accountable if they don’t? :-)
Well, I'm not a people manager but I know a little bit -- like enough to know when people are stirring up s**t. If team morale was good before and then someone started asking people what they got on their review and now morale is bad... well, what kind of impact is that having on the team?
How is trying to figure out if you were fairly rewarded being interpreted as "stirring up s**t"?? I think of it as putting some transparency in the process (as Lisa has talked about many times).
Let me guess...you're some kind of senior manager who has surrounded himself with a bunch of "yes men". I'm sure your OHI scores look great because of the ass kissers, but the core of your org - the ones who aren't in the inner circle, the ones who do all of the work - are looking for other opportunities.
"Peter Wrights article there is something I've read time and time again. In my opinion, that kind of reaction really has nothing to do with what we discuss on Mini and everything to do with, what I consider, weaknesses in his personality."
"He's still dreaming of his days as a kid with an Amiga and wondering why *he* didnt end up a "rich and successful" radical, rather than a cog in the machine."
To dream is to be weak of personality? Nay, to judge as you do and, as I do you, is more the weakness. Dreaming and then doing, which Mr. Wright seems to accomplish quite well, is the greatest joy!
"Well. We all have to work for a living. Guys like that hop from one bitter disillusionment to another in search of their Utopia. Eventually, your lifespan ends and its over."
'Tis better to have hopped and lost then never hopped at all. Life's a risk. Without it, we aren't living. Get hopping!
"Just look at his supports on that thread. People saying they feel "better as a person" for using the Mac. People saying that Microsoft has "destroyed computer science". People saying that "Apple is evil too because they make money"."
"People using..... M+dollar.... shudder."
Yes, I too, am jealous of the number of supports Peter had on his thread. He seems to have struck a cord with many, many "dead enders" like you and me!
"If thats what he wants to throw his lot in with, then more power to him. Personally, I find this new wave of self-styled "techno Che's" trying to usher in a new-world order socialism from behind their Powerbook at Starbucks, nauseating."
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
'A straw man argument is a logical fallacy based on misrepresentation of an opponent's position. To "set up a straw man" or "set up a straw-man argument" is to create a position that is easy to refute, then attribute that position to the opponent.'
"I can't imagine that a guy that judgemental and ideologically driven could have lasted long in ANY large cooperative environment."
Therein lies the problem: you CAN'T IMAGINE!
What if your manager has flipped the bit on you?
Three bits of advice
1) Try to take whatever lessons you can from your manager's feedback. Even if they are overdoing it there is probably a nugget of truth, e.g. the problem may not be as severe as they claim but it is probably a problem.
2) Talk to your skip-level manager about this. You should have as much data as possible going into that, e.g. specific examples of successes to date or respected people who seem to think highly of you.
3) You should think about changing teams, but as you say that will be hard to do with a bad review history (assuming it is actually bad, as opposed to just OK when you think it should be great).
">I did a summer internship at MS ... When 6pm rolled around the building was totally empty. Zero passion.
If that was in Redmond I don't know what building you were working in, but it doesn't sound like the MS I know. I have been contracting there for over 7 years and many blue-badges work 70+ hours weeks. Even more since contractors overtime has been drastically cut: blue-badges had to pick up the slack on that too.
Yes, parking lots get emptier at certain times of the day and days of the week but there is a large core of maybe one-third of blue-badges who probably work for less than $15/hour considering the amount of hours they are putting in. Not necessarily because they have the "passion" (MS "Dear Leader" kool-aid lingo) but just because they have to keep up with the enormous burden of tasks put on them.
>Therein lies the problem: you CAN'T IMAGINE!
Non-sequitors, irrelevant drivel, and inane platitudes. Did you have a point or do you just like playing with the bold tag?
As for Peter, not sure why he seems to think MS is to blame for lack of passion in anybody. I'd have to agree with the original poster that it reflects a character problem with him.
Sure. Here it goes for the dense.
Tsk, tsk, such hostility. Are you sure the problems you're having don't have more than one side to them?
If your manager gives a shit about defending you in stack rank meeting, he will know what you're doing. He will ask, he will observe, he will write things down.
You have to adapt to your circumstances. People with the time and energy to actively manage are nice, but they're not that common. I'm sure your accomplishments would easily outshine those of the guys who camp out in your bosses office if you take a few minutes to tell him about them, right?
>> if you take a few minutes to tell him
I do take a few minutes every now and then to tell my manager what I'm doing - it just doesn't seem to "stick". And don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining. I'm doing pretty well as far as my career is concerned. I'm doing a heck of a lot worse than I could be doing, though, if I camped in my manager's office. But some cultures discourage self-promotion and I was brought up in one of those cultures.
Personally, I let the result speak for themselves - whoring myself out to my manager is below my moral standards. If simply delivering results doesn't work, I move on. Did it twice, will do it again if needed.
"You have to adapt to your circumstances. People with the time and energy to actively manage are nice, but they're not that common. I'm sure your accomplishments would easily outshine those of the guys who camp out in your bosses office if you take a few minutes to tell him about them, right?"
Point well taken. We all can't "sing in the shower" hoping to get that record contract. It becomes "whistling in the dark".
If one believes luck is "preparation and opportunity", then we have a chance to do both with our bosses. Write it down, be brief, get an audience and read it, verbatim. What the hell do you have to lose? What's the worst that can happen?
Just do it!
"People with the time and energy to actively manage are nice, but they're not that common."
Um, excuse me, but isn't that part of their job? So what you're really saying is, "Managers with the time and energy to do their jobs are nice, but they're not common."
And I think that could explain a lot of what I've read on this blog...
MSS
What I find most interesting about a subset of all of the posts here are the people who believe that there's a clear association between "High Performance" and "Reward". At one point in my youth, I suppose I believed that fervently.
Until you've produced, worked hard, then been abused as a result, you don't realize that there is no definitive association between the two and that you owe much to managers that pay attention, recognize, and reward strong performances objectively.
To those who attack those upset about their reviews and make sneering comments about how that person must be a low-performer, or make comments about how they themselves are obviously a high-performer: The time will come when you're severely mistreated by someone above you. You'll be incensed as you'll believe that you performed well and that you even have demonstrable proof that you performed well. Anger will give way to acceptance that none of these things actually matter. When it happens, remember that your past arrogance eliminates any right you might have to self-pity.
Level: 59
Position Name: SDET
Org: Windows
Months in Position: 11
Years at MS: 5
Last Promo Date: 12 months
Rating: Exceeds
Merit %: 7
Stock Count: 200
Hey Mini, I think you have finally grabbed some real attention from the SPSA clan at Microsoft. Rumour is spreading that the proxies are monitoring connections to this site. How feasible is this, who knows and who cares.
Special People Stock Allocations are an insult to the thousands of hard working staff in Microsoft that just completed their reviews and were awarded a lower than inflation increase. Ah well, at least they have the new stock allocation scheme to tide them over. Might as well have bought me a lottery ticket to scratch.
Am I a Microsoftie, you bet I am. Do I like what is going on, Nope. Can I do anything about it, who knows?
Anyway, better submit this comment and wait for the Microsoft police to track me down on the Proxy servers.
So what you're really saying is, "Managers with the time and energy to do their jobs are nice, but they're not common."
And I think that could explain a lot of what I've read on this blog...
Absolutely, but don't blame the managers, it's just how they're trained by their bosses.
As a former Dev Lead who bailed out of management and back to IC-hood a couple of years ago, I can quite accurately tell you that good management skills are NOT rewarded at MSFT. Individual contributions (yours or someone elses you successfully claim credit for) are rewarded.
When I was a lead, I made every effort to be a good manager. I knew what my directs were doing, and invested heavily in making them more effective. I worked to remove obstacles, protect them from randomizations, give them clear project goals and schedules, and reward them as fairly as I could at review time.
My teams always peformed. We delivered what we said we would on the schedule we signed up for. We picked up the pieces of other teams that flailed. I constantly grew young devs with potential into accomplished stars.
I never got promoted as a lead. Same story every review - team did great, but no one could figure out how much was me vs how much was the great performers I had on the team.
So I bailed out two years ago and went back to an IC role. One year later, I got promoted for my individual accomplishments, even though the team flailed badly (poor management).
You get what you pay for. Microsoft pays for lousy management.
Anonymous writes:
But some cultures discourage self-promotion and I was brought up in one of those cultures.
So was I. Guess what: we don't live in one of those cultures. Aside from that, how do you consider an honest listing of what you did to be self-promotion?
MSS writes:
Um, excuse me, but isn't that part of their job?
You've obviously never paid any attention to what your leads were doing, let alone been a lead. Yes, it's part of their job, not the whole of it nor even the most important part. Believe it or not, they have the same pressure you do to get the bits out the door and its really easy to care more about "what's not done yet" than "who did something special".
Am I saying there aren't any crappy managers? Hell, no. I've got a list of people whose last day here would have me popping champagne corks. (And not the cheap stuff either, buddy.) However, if you're doing your own job well and are willing to meet them halfway in making their job easier (and spell it out), most managers will recognize it and try to reward you appropriately.
I just saw the following quote in seattletimes
Zune is an initiative Microsoft would have started sooner if the 71,553-employee company could have spared the resources, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said at the same July financial analysts event
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003258345_webzune14.html
Thanks god we have someone looking at this and going to collect the payoff next year, or perhaps even make the partner ranks.
"In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is."
So, what I was trying to say is, the manager should keep track of what you're doing as part of their job. That's the theory. If they aren't, they aren't doing (that part of) their job.
That's the view in an abstract, philosophical kind of way. Bad managers, not doing their job. There's the blame.
But in the real world, I can't stop there (like I did in my last comment). In the real world, you've got this boss that isn't doing what he/she should, and you're getting burned. What are you going to do about it?
As far as I can see, you only have about 3 options:
- ignore it
- self promotion
- get a new boss
Ignoring the problem means that you get shafted at review time. Self promotion is a foreign concept to many of us - it goes against our ideal of the meritocracy - but it's unfortunately what is needed many times in the real world.
"Getting a new boss" can be done a few ways:
- leave Microsoft (make Mini happy)
- internal transfer
- have your skip-level whack your boss around a bit (though this is probably politically dangerous).
MSS
P.S. The anonymous poster was quite right, I have never been a lead (at least not in the Microsoft sense of the term). But I never said it was the lead/manager's job, only that it was part of their job. It's not even that big a part, for a small team. But it still needs to be done, or you're not managing.
I bet ya the recent events at HP will force Steve to tame his ego and tone down the network sniffing of Mini. Any exposed investigation or move against Mini would probably put Steve B next to the soon-to-be former HP CEO in the unemployment line.
I really enjoy it when CEO's are forced back to reality. Power is never what they think it is.
I wish the so-called Microsoft believers that post to this blog would do so using their Microsoft aliases.
If you believe the comments on this blog to be wrong then let everyone know who you are.
When you come into work the next day, check out the weird looks you get from your fellow employees.
Anon comments are used by Microsoft staff with a grievance because Microsoft is a political monster. Its cronies will hunt down any negative comments about how screwed up this company is and make the perpetrators life hell.
Ohh, I forgot to mention something in my last ANON post (irrelevant note as you won't know which one it was).
If you want to spot one of the Special People in Microsoft listen our for them using the word SUPER all the time.
It's a clear sign that they have gone through or are going through the re-education process required for SPSA stardom.
“Hey Joe, great work over the last 12 months. You really did well on your commitments. I am SUPER excited about the next 12 months and I’m giving you a ranking of Achieved and Limited. Don’t worry, it’s the good limited ranking, you know the one, blah, blah, blah”
Why didn’t they just say, “SUPER job for the last 12 months, not sure if we want you here for the next 12 so we will give you as little as possible. Before you leave can you just bend over as I need to file this form somewhere. I’m SUPER excited”.
Watch out for it, Super Excited, Super Motivated, Super GREAT????. Someone left the door to the funny farm open and Microsoft just happened to be hiring executives on the same day.
Hey, I'd love to hear some stories from around the company about departures now. Today was the day that the checks cleared on bonuses and merit increases. And today was the day that my team lost two of the most senior ICs in the group to outside the company. I'd like to hear more stories like this...not that the money is in, are people bailing?
I is the IE PM again. To the dev in my team does you hear management? PM sets vision and give leadership. Dev write code and design architecture.
"I bet ya the recent events at HP will force Steve to tame his ego and tone down the network sniffing of Mini."
This is so depressingly clueless. Internal corporate tracking of network usage is perfectly legal.
to the IE PM:
Does your vision include learning to write any time soon?
http://www.canada.com/topics/finance/story.html?id=0013a614-239a-4210-89f5-7993f86d64fd&k=40444
Zune will either sell really well in Quebec or won't sell there at all. It boggles my mind how retarded our marketing is.
I'm an ex-Microsoft employee who made it up the ladder levels fast but quit before I made it to partner level. At the lower levels, it is about doing an awesome job on the product *and* keeping your manager informed on all the good work that you are doing. Partner level is a different ball game altogether. You need to stop worrying about doing a good job of what you are supposed to do. In fact, doing your day job well can get in the way of your personal goals. It helps much more to propose a new strategy, make unnecessary exec presentations and to hobnob with the right set of people.
I don't know if Microsoft has changed much since I left, but I seriously doubt it. In fact, I left because I couldn't bear to see how perfectly good people make it to partner level and beyond and then become complete asses.
As a former MS employee, I can tell you that the SPSA program was the "dream program" orchestrated by one of the most self-serving employees ever hired by Microsoft.
I think that Microsoft has made its move on these bonus because these are the people they are losing to the Google and other companies.
I personally cannot stand Google. They want to see how many PHD you have in your pocket and how famous you are to make their hiring decisions. I think it is a scheme to boost the company's image and then sell it. I have seen this strategy many time. Look at the goons are head of Google.
I think this is a temporary solution to Microsoft's loss of people in this level because of the tactics being used by these other companies.
The person who claims to be a VP here does talk like the majority of VPS I know. It is all about the money and images. There are not too mnay good VPS that I have run across. It is rare to see a solid VP who has capabilities and is proud of his work and support his own people.
The one thing I do not care about Microsoft is the negotiation process on your bonus when you first get hired. It should be standarize somehow. It is great if you can negotiate and all that but it also reminds me of a third world market dickering.
The directors and VP's at Microsoft are overpaid, arrogant, and mostly clueless sacks of shit. It took me about 5 years and only a few meetings with them to realize that basically they were just gilded turds -- they talk a good talk about "synergy" and "passion" but in reality, they are just overpaid fratboys (some in their 50's).
I left an IC job at Microsoft to become a contractor doing the same exact job (in fact my first contracting position was... at Microsoft!) I almost IMMEDIATELY got about a 25% pay raise, more respect, and a liveable work week.
I left Microsoft and have never looked back. I still love many MSFT products (Visual Studio simply rocks, and .Net is balls). But the company itself, and its leadership and vision, are dead in the water. It's all about the privileged few fighting each other for big cash prizes these days; it's not about serving the customer or creating great products, and it hasn't been for a long, long time.
My advice to all of you: leave. MSFT is no longer a good place to be. Yeah, it has a lot of potential, but so does manure; you can grow beautiful flowers in it, but until and unless you do, it's just a pile of shit.
Funny how things never ever really change. I left Microsoft in 1992 (yes, back in the Stone Age) and what I'm reading is what many of us talked about over coffee in the cafeterias or around Lake Bill. I've been back a few times over these 14 years to interview, but turned down two offers (and was turned down by MSFT for others). It just sounds to me that the company is still listing from HR crisis to HR crisis on a sea of Powerpoint slides and teambuilding seminars. Games of schedule chicken, compromising your ethics and screwing over co-workers/friends to get that bonus and raise, setting someone else up to take the fall...been there, done that, shipped the product, got the teeshirt.
I think I can say with some...truth that one person won't change things. If you're dissatisfied, leave. At the very least you'll sleep better an won't have to always sit with your back against a wall.
Post a Comment