tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post6859291744087791622..comments2024-03-18T12:52:48.117-07:00Comments on Mini-Microsoft: Quick Thoughts on the Microsoft 2009 Company MeetingWho da'Punkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18205453956191063442noreply@blogger.comBlogger531125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-74568285178732575432009-11-02T01:23:00.142-08:002009-11-02T01:23:00.142-08:00When will this company stop copying other tech fir...When will this company stop copying other tech firms and come up with some real innovation.Favoritism, nepotism, stealing credit of someone else’s work and passing on the buck seems to be the norm here. Makes me feel sick. This company is digging a hole for itself faster than it can get buried, internally and externally, both. A shameful place to work. Sack it!! I am so gonna get outta here<br /><br /><br /><br />---<br /><br />FIX it lisa while there is a chance.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-59394315185293892692009-10-31T10:49:46.873-07:002009-10-31T10:49:46.873-07:00When will this company stop copying other tech fir...When will this company stop copying other tech firms and come up with some real innovation.Favoritism, nepotism, stealing credit of someone else’s work and passing on the buck seems to be the norm here. Makes me feel sick. This company is digging a hole for itself faster than it can get buried, internally and externally, both. A shameful place to work. Sack it!! I am so gonna get outta hereAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-67024073943933453032009-10-25T15:17:02.046-07:002009-10-25T15:17:02.046-07:00The employee was not given a chance to succeed so ...<i><br />The employee was not given a chance to succeed so this was not a matter of "didnt get it and achive" .. this is the case where the manager wanted him gone and no matter what this was going to happen.<br /><br /></i><br /><br />sounds too familiar, happened to three people I know in MSD on sco live.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-10230194112186211292009-10-22T18:04:05.004-07:002009-10-22T18:04:05.004-07:00This was my experience in WinMo. The first level o...<i>This was my experience in WinMo. The first level of "leads" were basically just paper-pushers that would constantly (and I mean constantly) pester their workers for status reports and time estimates and conduct meetings that appeared more about them meeting their review goals ("Conduct weekly team meeting.") than about accomplishing anything useful.</i><br /><br />The problem's in Windows Server, too, although not with all leads. The worst are 2nd level managers whose reports include team leads as well as a Principal or Senior here and there, particularly when there's also a gender issue to add to the feeling of resentment.<br /><br />When I was an IC at MSFT, I was stuck for over a year with one of these underqualified, obsessed micromanagers who was apparently terrified that if I didn't complete 30 hours of paperwork for them a week that THEY wouldn't meet THEIR commitments and they'd be "found out" as incompetent and lose their sweet, well-paying gig. And I mean, on-demand, immediately, whenever they asked for it, up to 6-10 times a day, no matter what I was in the middle of. To hell with meeting my commitments of course. It was a miserable experience that cut my productivity by at least 30-40% and didn't contribute to meeting Microsoft's product goals. I felt like I was being paid to babysit the guy so that he didn't cause MORE trouble by bothering even more people and lowering their productivity as well.<br /><br />I don't know why he didn't just ask the managers that reported to him for hints on how to manage, if he wasn't secure about his knowledge of how to do his job. Even the ones who were brand new to management, and those managers who'd only been in the computing industry for a total of 3-4 years, did a better job than he did, and wasted less of their reports' time on paper-pushing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-31516979242185320322009-10-22T13:50:39.611-07:002009-10-22T13:50:39.611-07:00This is why Microsoft is FAILING in this area and ...<i>This is why Microsoft is FAILING in this area and others. Arrogance like this. You are telling me, the customer, that my opinions about your product are wrong. Get a grip.</i><br /><br />If you are a "pure" customer. I'll just say "thank you for your feedback". But you are an MS employee trying to tell us why MS is failing, then I should let you know you're wrong. We should NOT improve by following your suggesions, otherwise we'll just fail again (in a different way).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-81786972346958443072009-10-22T07:37:58.008-07:002009-10-22T07:37:58.008-07:00The sad part of this is that even the first line o...<i>The sad part of this is that even the first line of test and dev leads seem to follow this routine. In our team we have 6 dev and test leads managing ICs. None of them do any active coding, testing. Neither know the product and keep pinging the ICs for minute details. Just plain embarassing</i><br /><br />This was my experience in WinMo. The first level of "leads" were basically just paper-pushers that would constantly (and I mean constantly) pester their workers for status reports and time estimates and conduct meetings that appeared more about them meeting their review goals ("Conduct weekly team meeting.") than about accomplishing anything useful.<br /><br />I believe Microsoft suffers from a problem of too many chiefs. Those chiefs have to appear be to doing something for the sake of their review/career and you wind up with a lot of unnecessary churn as layers of management desperately try to justify their existence. THAT is surely one of the things wrong with Microsoft today.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-5500258969468050512009-10-21T19:35:38.050-07:002009-10-21T19:35:38.050-07:00This is true for senior managers everywhere -- the...<i>This is true for senior managers everywhere -- the skills you need to get hired out of college are not the skills you need to run a business</i><br /><br />The sad part of this is that even the first line of test and dev leads seem to follow this routine. In our team we have 6 dev and test leads managing ICs. None of them do any active coding, testing. Neither know the product and keep pinging the ICs for minute details. Just plain embarassingAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-24958428613333837332009-10-21T13:14:02.583-07:002009-10-21T13:14:02.583-07:00This is true for senior managers everywhere -- the...<i>This is true for senior managers everywhere -- the skills you need to get hired out of college are not the skills you need to run a business. </i><br /><br />If you're passionate about coding, you won't stop doing it or forget how.<br /><br />Managers and executives who don't keep up should be fired. If they don't have the passion to keep up with the technology, then what ARE they passionate about? Managing up? Expanding their fiefdoms?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-42957520705183531542009-10-21T12:13:07.964-07:002009-10-21T12:13:07.964-07:00heads up (and material for a new post)... the next...<i> heads up (and material for a new post)... the next layoff is coming on November 4.<br /><br />It's true...a friend of mine disclosed this to me last week. </i><br /><br />I call bullshit. There was all kinds of layoff rumbling around review time and nothing came to pass. <br /><br />Name groups, name numbers, identify sources. <br /><br />Mini, one-line "there's gonna be layoffs on X date" posts should just go to the CRF.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-27598135886443166882009-10-21T08:53:38.396-07:002009-10-21T08:53:38.396-07:00> +3... tried posting this a week or so ago but...> +3... tried posting this a week or so ago but it never showed up. Either went to the CRF or just never got through blogger to Mini. Could be on the list myself. Whatever; I'm growing tired of the BS. They can cut me a large check and I will be on my way.<br /><br />Get ahead of the curve and start looking now. That's what I did before I was laid off on 1/23.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-39187933579365066082009-10-21T08:24:29.319-07:002009-10-21T08:24:29.319-07:00Being able to test is not their job, so they don&#...<i>Being able to test is not their job, so they don't need to pass a basic SDET interview. Their job is to make sure the test org runs smoothly and ships the product with quality and on schedule.</i><br /><br />Yes, you don't need to understand the work to make sure that it's being done right. [rolleyes]Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-63717861146267293072009-10-21T04:23:43.934-07:002009-10-21T04:23:43.934-07:00Scheduled quarterly layoffs.
As someone who went ...Scheduled quarterly layoffs.<br /><br />As someone who went through that at a previous employer: What a miserable thing to have hanging over the heads of people who are among the best and brightest in the industry. Fear doesn't help an engineer do their best work. You think keeping to ambitious schedules and troubleshooting broken code written by others in order to get yours to work properly isn't enough stress?<br /><br />In pre-dotcom years, I worked for a company that had overreached, and instituted quarterly layoffs to reduce staffing footprint. When it all started they were at around 100 employees. When I left, during the last round, there were about 10.<br /><br />The company has managed to hang on by its fingernails due to installed base, but hasn't done anything significant in years.<br /><br />Most of the top talent left, either as part of the layoffs or when they saw the writing on the wall and decided that they'd rather control the timing of their departure.<br /><br />This strategy is the mark of a company that's in trouble and flailing, and doesn't understand that cutting payroll expenses carelessly isn't necessarily helping them.<br /><br />My past employer did one thing that appears smarter than the Microsoft approach, though. Early rounds caught a lot of big cheeses with fancy titles and salaries to match, in addition to some guys in the trenches. If you're going to do panic HR cost-cutting, go for the low-hanging fruit: the guys that make 3, 4 or more times than line IC's.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-22066926269809560352009-10-21T00:01:14.968-07:002009-10-21T00:01:14.968-07:00""Reality is some of the highest manager...<i>""Reality is some of the highest managers in WinMo's test org wouldn't pass a basic SDET interview if they were put up against one."</i><br /><br />This is true for senior managers everywhere -- the skills you need to get hired out of college are not the skills you need to run a business. <br /><br />Take a Dev Manager with a team of 30 people and see if that person can still code at a competitive level with their talented junior devs...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-40758719118465123122009-10-20T23:50:32.631-07:002009-10-20T23:50:32.631-07:00microsoft for the last 10 years relative to custom...microsoft for the last 10 years relative to customer demand<br /><br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLI7MLZYPBg&feature=relatedmarc shepardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06590228324972855772noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-38308358373847520522009-10-20T22:43:37.268-07:002009-10-20T22:43:37.268-07:00> heads up (and material for a new post)... the...<i> > heads up (and material for a new post)... the next layoff is coming on November 4.<br /><br />It's true...a friend of mine disclosed this to me last week. </i><br /><br />+3... tried posting this a week or so ago but it never showed up. Either went to the CRF or just never got through blogger to Mini. Could be on the list myself. Whatever; I'm growing tired of the BS. They can cut me a large check and I will be on my way.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-83447776162178038032009-10-20T22:15:25.300-07:002009-10-20T22:15:25.300-07:00So, please stop whining, get your fat asses off yo...<i>So, please stop whining, get your fat asses off your chairs and fscking start working.</i><br /><br />"The beatings will continue until morale improves."<br /><br /><i>Don't forget that this Company pays your salary, health insurance and all other benefits like not so many other companies.</i><br /><br /><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/About/default.mspx" rel="nofollow">"As a company, and as individuals, we value integrity, honesty, openness, personal excellence, constructive self-criticism, continual self-improvement, and mutual respect."</a><br /><br /><i>Businesses in which MS has a strong interest are well maintained. Businesses which are seen as unimportant, declining, or legacy businesses can have their engineering and operations staff shaved down to a skeleton crew and keep running on a wing and a prayer. [...] Danger is an acuqisition and is not part of Microsoft's main structure nor is it supported in the same way as Microsoft's mainline business groups.</i><br /><br /><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/About/default.mspx" rel="nofollow">"We take on big challenges, and pride ourselves on seeing them through. We hold ourselves accountable to our customers, shareholders, partners, and employees by honoring our commitments, providing results, and striving for the highest quality."</a><br /><br />Your Potential. Our Passion.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-58297010533387129462009-10-20T21:59:18.483-07:002009-10-20T21:59:18.483-07:00> heads up (and material for a new post)... the...> heads up (and material for a new post)... the next layoff is coming on November 4.<br /><br />It's true...a friend of mine disclosed this to me last week.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-12098312669255706012009-10-20T21:56:15.278-07:002009-10-20T21:56:15.278-07:00But since I'm here, If you are in a PIP or goi...But since I'm here, If you are in a PIP or going to be and have a manager who may be in the same boat - look for a strong mentor preferably a Principal level who has credibility. <br /><br />---<br /><br />Did that, but to no avail... guys still rang me out. my mentor was "surprised" as i was when we both thought we got through the start of the runout. he was very helpful in the process but still.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-47847817443520840482009-10-20T17:04:00.744-07:002009-10-20T17:04:00.744-07:00heads up (and material for a new post)... the next...heads up (and material for a new post)... the next layoff is coming on November 4. this time it's going to be on the sly - no big announcements or exec emails. in fact, that's the m.o. going forward -- quarterly layoff rhythm, part of the new way of doing businessAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-24962364679390824772009-10-20T12:46:19.599-07:002009-10-20T12:46:19.599-07:00I have nothing to say, but am hoping to be post #5...I have nothing to say, but am hoping to be post #500.<br /><br />But since I'm here, If you are in a PIP or going to be and have a manager who may be in the same boat - look for a strong mentor preferably a Principal level who has credibility. <br /><br />Managers hate to look bad to other groups, having a mentor will help ensure that there is some element of fairness. It might also help you break out of PIP by improving the impression folks have of your performance and potential. <br /><br />I hate to repeat a mantra, but it is all about perception.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-92066954447222592972009-10-20T12:17:24.493-07:002009-10-20T12:17:24.493-07:00Balmer "its the economy, stupid" Really?...Balmer "its the economy, stupid" Really?!<br /><br />http://finance.yahoo.com/news/IPhone-helps-Apple-profit-apf-1313822746.html?x=0&sec=topStories&pos=main&asset=&ccode=<br /><br />And he is CEO...WHY?<br /><br />---------<br /><br /><br />as with everything in this space, we are broad and cheap. we think 99$ apps are key to success <br /><br />The business model is something steve doesn't get because he is a dinasour and doesn't trust the few people in this company who understand how to compete in this fast twitch app space.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-49496711127033375452009-10-20T08:17:47.323-07:002009-10-20T08:17:47.323-07:00"damn Win7 is not even released yet and alrea..."damn Win7 is not even released yet and already we have an update for "reliability and stability""<br /><br />LOL. The trolls are really feeling threatened by W7.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-21671796080820569272009-10-20T08:12:37.041-07:002009-10-20T08:12:37.041-07:00Gap in market cap between AAPL and MSFT is now jus...Gap in market cap between AAPL and MSFT is now just $40bill ... is the Chief Executive Bozo listening? Or just fiddling while Rome burns?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-84838226690276591732009-10-20T08:03:01.104-07:002009-10-20T08:03:01.104-07:00"Danger is an acuqisition and is not part of ..."Danger is an acuqisition and is not part of Microsoft's main structure nor is it supported in the same way as Microsoft's mainline business groups."<br /><br />Clue in. Anything that MS acquires becomes MS to customers, the media, and investors. And its operations, including technology infrastructure, should have gone through the same DD that was applied (hopefully) to the initial business case for buying. Clearly, that wasn't the case.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7555958.post-20582538437712644542009-10-20T07:56:44.667-07:002009-10-20T07:56:44.667-07:00"I'm really shocked to see they're st..."I'm really shocked to see they're still hiring at all. It's too late in their cycle for a new hire to come in and make any kind of difference."<br /><br />Then you don't understand corporate politics. This is so that if, or more likely when, mobile fails, Bach can say "I did everything I could". You don't last nine years delivering a negative net profit without succesfully anticipating and neutralizing potential career enders.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com