
Reflections on My Career at Microsoft - CPAhem
https://medium.com/@docjamesw/speaking-truth-to-power-reflections-on-a-career-at-microsoft-90f80a449e36
======
cbanek
As a woman who worked at MSFT through the Ballmer era, I have to agree with
this whole article. It really nailed it. Especially this part near the end
where I never felt it would get better:

"But my former female colleagues who reviewed this document in advance of its
publication are unconvinced. None of them report feeling emboldened by the new
Microsoft. They continue to withhold reports of discriminatory management
practices. They relate stories of reports of abuse going unpunished and
continue to fear reprisals for speaking out. In fact, multiple reviewers
noted, independently, the irony that the only reason I am comfortable enough
to speak out is that I am a “50-year old white dude” and, thus, girded against
reprisal from the body politic. So they remain silent when, in fact, they are
among the voices Microsoft needs to hear the most. Apparently, Microsoft has
dipped only a single toe in the river that flows to the future."

~~~
anon1m0us
How do you get your employer to hear you? I don't think these problems are
isolated to women. I think women just don't understand that there's an "old
boys club" that attacks other men too. I know lots of men who say the same
things.

Pitting employees against each other. The masters recruiting spies from among
the ranks to report dissenting comments from the servants. Cutting back on
coffee breaks. Not being allowed to report actual time worked because you're
an exempt employee so your boss can say, "I'm not aware of any overtime being
worked." Uh that's because you won't allow me to enter more than the minimum.

This happens to more than just women. Instead of pitting one bullied group
against another, bullied _people_ need to rise up against a system that
_rewards_ bullies at the expense of the employees with integrity!

Companies are losing SO much value from their greatest employees because they
are _afraid_ to be noticed. You do something great for your employer and
everyone else says, "Show off." or "You're making the rest of us look bad." or
"Overachiever".

They force great employees to be mediocre. Even managers do the same thing. If
you find a problem with your boss's code -- watch out!

This is not a problem _women_ experience. It's a problem _people_ experience.

~~~
pm90
I'm sorry but you are just wrong.

We can't go on our individual experience, the only way to understand women's
perspective is to listen to what they're saying and how they're treated. The
past few years has made it pretty clear (although there were certainly reports
even before then) that women have faced, and continue to face abuse and
discrimination to a degree that men don't.

What you're saying sounds to me like the "All lives matter!" response to the
"Black lives matter" movement.

~~~
chance_state
>I'm sorry but you are just wrong.

>The past few years has made it pretty clear (although there were certainly
reports even before then) that women have faced, and continue to face abuse
and discrimination to a degree that men don't.

Do you have anything to add besides "you are wrong" and (paraphrasing) "women
are right"?

The point GP makes about an old boys club that attacks men and women equally
rings painfully true to me also.

~~~
pm90
> The point GP makes about an old boys club that attacks men and women equally
> rings painfully true to me also.

He's just saying shit. I can make one story up, but I don't need to.

Making up stories that seem likely doesn't make them true, even if you feel
that they're right.

~~~
chance_state
>Making up stories that seem likely doesn't make them true, even if you feel
that they're right.

Ironic.

------
vezycash
>The Microsoft of the 2000s, under Steve Ballmer, was almost exactly the
opposite (of gates).

>Bruised and battered by the consent decree handed down by the DoJ for the
very same ambition that brought it to dominance, Ballmer’s Microsoft was
sales-forward and CAUTIOUS.

>It was... nervously clutching its pearls at the approach of Google in its
rearview mirror

People bash Steve Ballmer for missing Search, Social Networking, Smart phones,
Tablets and one other thing. They claim he had his head far up his rear end to
see the competiton. He's called a buffoon and other names but ignore the fact
that...

Microsoft was Caged. Had it's wings clipped. Had a huge target on its back. In
case you did't know, any complaint by say Google in its early days and
Microsoft would have been broken up!

This is the real reason behind's Ballmer's failure.

Gates hated politics, kept Washington at arms length and that cost them. In
fact, if Gates had lobbied just a little bit, there would have been no case at
all.

And that's why Google's lobbying like crazy cos it's life actually depends on
it.

~~~
random_19980
>>This is the real reason behind's Ballmer's failure.

Yes, I am sure it had nothing to do with him lacking the basic vision one
would expect in any tech CEO and saying idiotic things like "no one would buy
such an expensive phone" (about the iPhone).

If you look like a buffoon, you act like a buffoon, and you talk like a
buffoon...

~~~
throwaway0889
> saying idiotic things like "no one would buy such an expensive phone" (about
> the iPhone).

This is something that people keep saying but he way actually right and at
this point this is just an Internet meme.

I remember that moment. The iPhone costed $800 with a phone plan. Insane.
Nobody does that even today, so in that regard he was right.

Only after the iPhone 3 and $200 phone with a contract did it ever start
selling.

~~~
solidasparagus
The original iPhone did $745M in revenue before the iPhone 3G was released
(not 100% sure if that the one you're talking about since there was never a
phone called the iPhone 3). Not exactly 'nobody'...

~~~
throwaway0889
Then why did the price drop 4x and sales grew 3x with the iPhone 3g?

Seriously, if price wasn't a problem and Ballmer was wrong, why did Apple even
drop the price?

Truth is this wasn't that long ago, I still remember it, and the price drop
was a huge deal to a lot of people.

Articles like these were everywhere.

[https://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090622.html](https://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090622.html)

~~~
vezycash
Thanks for the link. Many people feel that things we take for granted today
were obvious successes in the past. Almost none of them ever hit the ground
running.

Electricity, the internet, eCommerce, iPhone, even Bitcoin weren't obvious
hits in the least. If the success of bitcoin was guaranteed or obvious, In
2009, I'd have bought 111,111 bitcoins for $100 at $0.0009 per bitcoin.

Now, I'd be a billionaire.

------
jarjoura
I'm not so sure the problem with Microsoft was its toxic culture. So many of
the key points in that article you could say ring true of Apple. Steve Jobs
relished in the fact that people feared him. He literally built an entire
company of yes men, right down to the chefs in the kitchen. It meant, when his
strategy was right, the company did well. However, when it was wrong, it also
hurt the whole company.

Tim Cook is the opposite of that in every way. He delegates, he wants
efficiency, he is much more conservative in where the products go. Yet the
culture of yes still exists.

The answer to all of these big corporations is just we need different theories
of management and apply them across the board. Fire those unwilling to play
along and grow a culture of collaboration.

~~~
gwbas1c
> Fire those unwilling to play along and grow a culture of collaboration

Gosh that sounds like an oxymoron

~~~
jagged-chisel
> Grow a culture of collaboration by firing those unwilling to play along

I can see a misreading of the original. This is my understanding.

------
Shebanator
An interesting article, which I think accurately describes my brief time at
Microsoft during the Ballmer era (our startup was acquired after the bubble
burst).

But his definition of "made men" seems very vague and very convenient. The
people who Nadella appointed to higher positions were almost entirely people
who had been at Microsoft for many years. Why are some "made men" and some are
not? The definition seems primarily about whether or not the author liked them
personally.

~~~
com2kid
There used to be a program at Microsoft where employees who were "destined to
do great things" would be pulled out, given special training, and then have
their careers accelerated.

On one hand, it is sort of a good idea if you can truly pick the "winners"
(and some of the people who went through the program did amazing things!) but,
well, in hindsight I think everyone reading this can see how internal biases
would be reflected in who got picked for the program.

I don't know too much about the program, and I don't even remember now what is
was called, but engineers who'd been there longer would talk about it
sometimes.

~~~
ephermata
There were at least two programs when I was there. I heard a lot more about
them under Ballmer than under Satya.

HiPo -- for junior to mid level -- special training, networking, and seminars.
MiniMSFT comments section mentions this from time to time.

Bench -- for mid to later career, usually on the way to "partner" or above
level -- same as HiPo, but may be asked to work on a project with others in
Bench, may see attention from VPs mentoring the group.

Neither one had any official impact on ratings, rewards, or career velocity.
What they did do, however, was establish an elite and help that elite network
across the company.

~~~
com2kid
Ah thanks for jogging memory in regards to the names. :)

> Neither one had any official impact on ratings, rewards, or career velocity.

Ah interesting, my understanding was that people who can gone through HiPo
were sorta blessed. Then again I guess in theory the people who get selected
for HiPo should already be doing the work to make their career velocity look
good.

I saw all sorts of interesting stuff while I was at MS. It was a crazy place
to work. It was sort of like working at a company that does everything 5-8
years too early, and then tries again 2-3 years too late.

* Tablets * eBooks * MP3 players * Smartphones * Smart TVs (Micorosft bought Web TV in 1997!! That is what, 15-20 years too early?) * Tablets again * Cloud based document syncing (See: What Sharepoint tried to be)

They also made some sort of automation creation tool for business users that,
IIRC, got cancelled after one release and replaced with something else. I only
know about it because I signed up to do internal user testing for it.

This is on top of all sorts of crazy one off projects. (In 2011 I was on a
team attempting to make an autonomous household robot! How long before those
become a viable thing outside of Roombas?)

~~~
taurath
It was only because they weren’t good enough that they didn’t succeed, not
that they were “too early”. Right idea, wrong execution, or frequently the
hardware not being there yet, and not pouncing when it was.

------
d23
This was my experience of Ballmer-era Microsoft management hires at my
previous company. They were the perfect combination of narcissism,
manipulativeness, toxicity, and above all else, idiocy. They did a lot of
damage, probably irrevocably. They were know-nothing bullies who liked to yell
if you ever questioned them, completely convinced of their own superiority.
I've heard a lot of similar stories about these people at other companies.
It's a shame what people like this get away with.

~~~
std_throwaway
Usually you call them tools. They turn your screw at the command of their
superior in whichever way they are told to. They provide great leverage for a
weak upper management.

~~~
hinkley
So add misanthropy onto the list?

------
muststopmyths
I worked at Microsoft during the Gates/Ballmer era and my recollection is that
the culture was toxic and definitely needed to change. But AFAIK this was a
common thing about companies even in SV at the time. I knew contemporaries at
companies like Cisco and SGI who complained about exactly the same sort of
behavior (Know-it-all assholes who would berate anyone they thought was
inferior, self above company, etc.).

Interesting read anyway.

------
outside1234
Says the made-man who stood in the way...

Seriously though, these sort of transitions take time, and people always
underestimate just how much time. This is a huge cultural transition and you
can't just fire all of the made-men one morning and usher in the new leaders
to take there place. There is a real transition that has to happen on multiple
levels and rushing it risks putting people in place that aren't yet up to
speed.

I'm honestly surprised at just how fast it happening. And it is happening --
and quickly.

------
mooneater
I entered and left MS during the Ballmer era. I liked my co-workers and my
immediate manager was awesome, but I didn't see the company making the right
moves to get web right, and they seemed to afraid to even mention the name
"Google". I never would have predicted the Nadella turn-around.

------
skizm
I see all of these things as reasons to invest in Microsoft long term. As the
author states: "Microsoft is killing it. Revenue is up. Stock is up. Industry
stature is up. The places where Microsoft finds itself thriving all have one
thing in common: key made-men were pushed aside for better people."

The fact that there are so many terrible managers still hanging around is like
sludge in a jet engine. Once cleaned out (and that seems the direction they're
moving), the company will hopefully skyrocket even further.

------
GordonS
> The unsurprising result is that Windows continues its tradition of boring...

Come on, I understand the criticisms of botched updates, but Microsoft under
Satya has been anything but boring - the incredible push towards open source
is something many thought could never happen!

WSL and the upcoming WSL2 are likewise anything but boring - Linux! In
Windows!

~~~
wbl
Windows NT had personalities for decades. It's a very old capability.

~~~
tinus_hn
They were there from the beginning. Personalities are a feature only Microsoft
can use though and it’s only now that they appear to be using it for something
positive. It could be another embrace and extend attempt though.

------
ensiferum
Is every MS employee now writing these "my career at microsoft) pieces?
Looking for clicks for their blogs ? Seems like a recurring phenom. Topic X
features on the front page of hacker news and then everyone imitates it
probably just trying to get clicks.

------
prirun
This quote was laughable:

"At its core, Microsoft is a company that makes its money the old fashioned
way: by creating products of value that people willingly part with their money
to use. They stand as a bulwark against the data mongering and user
exploitation that Google and Facebook see as the future of humanity."

Microsoft has _always_ made its money by creating, maintaining, extending and
exercising monopoly power. I don't have a reference for this, but as I recall,
after the antitrust verdict, Microsoft "offered" to give schools free copies
of Windows as part of its "punishment". I guess that really hurt them to have
schools sending out all documents in Microsoft Office format. Only the latest
versions of course, so that it created incompatibilities with every parent's
version of Office, forcing everyone to upgrade if they wanted to read a note
from their kids' teachers.

Since the Pentagon recently bought $10B in Microsoft products, I hope they
consider that having a sole supplier is a national security issue, and force
Microsoft to at least release an open spec of all Office document formats, and
force them to update this spec at the same time product updates occur, if not
months before.

It may be too late even for that since Office is now running in a Microsoft
cloud. Maybe the Pentagon just bought $10B of Microsoft cloud services. In
that case, the format doesn't even matter any more, because every document is
born, lives, and dies on a Microsoft server somewhere.

Sure glad they aren't doing that "data mongering" thing.

------
didibus
> At its core, Microsoft is a company that makes its money the old fashioned
> way: by creating products of value that people willingly part with their
> money to use.

Call me skeptical, but there's not a whole lot of products I willfully pay
Microsoft for. Most of them I pay for with a strong feeling of resentment that
I have simply no other choice, since there are no competitors to the market or
the lock in is too strong.

~~~
username90
Good point, I have never once felt "Wow, a new Microsoft product, can't wait
to buy it!".

Instead it is usually more like "Oh shit, a new Mirosoft product, I hope I
wont be forced to buy it to stay compatible".

~~~
martin1b
Apparently you've never used Visual Studio. It is amazing.

Many of Microsoft's products are simple and boring at first glance. However,
when you really want to flex it to do something powerful, the features are
usually there. Their products have so many years of development in them and it
shows because their products stand the test of time, particularly in the
enterprise. I'm glad there are lot of other vendors entering the market though
as it keeps companies like MSFT innovating.

~~~
JohnFen
> Apparently you've never used Visual Studio. It is amazing.

I've used it heavily for years, and I disagree with this assessment. I avoid
it whenever I have the option.

~~~
Nimitz14
So you just accept using a 2nd rate C++ IDE? Because there isn't any debate,
Visual Studio is the best.

~~~
taurath
“There can be no criticism of Visual Studio” seems wrong on the face of it.

------
29athrowaway
I think a motivation for neglecting the web was to encourage people to develop
desktop apps, with Visual Studio, on Windows.

------
kevingadd
This part feels like it applies to every tech company I've ever worked at,
especially in the context of all the high profile "repeat sex offender is
quietly escorted out of the building with a payout" scandals at big SV tech
firms in the last decade:

"Treating the culpables as untouchable sends a message to the current
offenders that these behaviors are in bounds and those who practice them
suffer no lingering effects. It does nothing to stop the fiscal regularity of
companywide memos condemning ongoing sexism, racism and bullying. It does
nothing to stop the revolving door of the majority of new college hires
leaving the moment their signing bonuses become permanent. It does nothing to
stop the cycle of sucking up to those in power in an effort to gain power for
oneself."

------
dogprez
Reminds me a bit of the story of Charles de Gaulle. A war hero, a powerful man
of his time that overstayed his welcome when the world changed around him.

------
RickJWagner
Having been a MSFT watcher through all three eras, I have to say I've been
especially impressed with Satya Nadella.

I really thought the age of the web would spell Microsoft's downfall. I
couldn't see past the desktop. But Satya found the cloud and brought back the
mojo. Excellent move.

------
gautamcgoel
I really love this line at the end of the article: "At its core, Microsoft is
a company that makes its money the old fashioned way: by creating products of
value that people willingly part with their money to use." I wish more tech
companies embodied this ethos!

------
crb002
I would be curious to see Gates’ take in his maturity. In fact I visualize a
more curious and playful Microsoft as Gates himself pushing it that way behind
the scenes.

------
Havoc
Think author may be confusing a Microsoft issue with broader issue. Type A
personality management was all the rage back then

------
dhruvkar
[https://outline.com/a3btTH](https://outline.com/a3btTH)

------
kerng
>> At its core, Microsoft is a company that makes its money the old fashioned
way: by creating products of value that people willingly part with their money
to use. They stand as a bulwark against the data mongering and user
exploitation that Google and Facebook see as the future of humanity.

This statement is so true, its golden.

