Frustration, Disappointment And Apathy: My Years At Microsoft

My story is similar. I was looking to get a tech job out of college a couple of years back, and Microsoft picked me up first (Google was also interested with talks of similar offers but they moved much slower).<p>It was all interesting and new for the first few months. The team was going through chaotic transitions at the time, so I was shuffled around many challenging projects, all with tight deadlines and technical brokenness up the yin-yang. Luckily for them, this kind of environment was my forte.<p>Being the workaholic hacker I've always been, I spent day and night slaving away trying to fix everything. Processes, tools, bugs. I broke the daily build a couple of times but surprisingly, nobody gave me heck about it; I was earning a reputation as the new guy who got shit done. In retrospect, I was probably deliberately thrown into the projects that seemed hopeless and bug-ridden because I actually cared about this stuff.<p>And I realized I was the only one who cared.<p>The day I received my "Gold Star" (which was actually far more than the $1K the author got), I remember walking by a sign someone had posted that said "Change the world or go home". And then it hit me -- nobody here believed this except me. Everything was a business case analysis. Shit remained broken and bug-ridden because some key stakeholder needed it to work that way on their even more broken systems. Meetings about when to schedule the next meetings. Blame being thrown around abstract "teams", so no actual person had to be accountable when the shit hit the fan. It was all so pointless. Sure, it made money, and I was taking a happy slice. But I didn't care about money. I cared about changing the world.<p>I deliberated for a day or two, then sent in my resignation.<p>What followed was several weeks of escalation and meetings with higher-up execs trying to convince me to stay with the company, explaining their idea of where the division was headed. The problem was that everyone literally had a different idea of what that was. It just did more to convince me that this was sinking ship, and they saw me as a plug.<p>Needless to say, I broke free, and I don't touch Microsoft products anymore. I saw the brokenness from the inside, and I have no faith in the byproducts of their "processes" and managerial wankery.<p>I'm doing the startup thing now, which in retrospect I should have been doing in the first place. And I couldn't be happier.

When I worked at a very large software company, I worked for a division that was absolutely riven with bugs. As time went on, I noticed that the developers were arrogant, yet they also weren't as good as they thought they were. The QA process was broken as nobody could touch their code, the Product Management them were technically clueless so they didn't know how to handle the situation, and the guy up the top, well, he was too busy playing politics that the whole ship o' fools was springing leaks everywhere.<p>I got angrier and angrier. In the end I didn't give a crap and I was sending angry emails pointing out the problems daily.<p>And you know what? I was part of the problem. Hindsight is a great thing, but I wish I'd left on better terms, without anger. If you can't change the firm, don't get angry. Smile at the people around you, be pleasant, and then resign. You'll be much happier for it, and the foolish group you leave behind will probably fall behind you. Getting angry didn't change this for them, they were bound to fail anyway - why be dragged down by that?

So these kinds of peeks inside a large company are fascinating in a voyeuristic sense, but it's best to not to take them too seriously. Even somebody with no ulterior motives will only have a experience of a narrow slice of the company. And it's even worse when there is an obvious reason for bias.<p>Certainly much of what I've seen written about Google had little to with the reality I observed there, regardless of whether the source is a current Googler or one of the, err..., rather vocally dissatisfied ex-Googlers. So I don't see much reason to believe this story about Microsoft either.

I know that there are lots of smart people at Microsoft and that they are perfectly capable of making effective products, but I think this effectively sums up all of my feelings towards today's Microsoft:<p>&#62; This company is becoming the McDonalds of computing. Cheap, mass products, available everywhere. No nutrients, no ideas, no culture. Windows 8 is a fine example. The new Metro interface displays nonstop, trivial updates from Facebook, Twitter, news sites and stock tickers. Streams of raw noise distract users from the moment they login.

Disclaimer: MS Employee To add to his comments about higher-ups dismissing his ideas. I don't know if the OP was in a technical role or not. But I regularly see emails from guys in my team with some radical new idea that they think will work. In 99.99% of the cases, the ideas don't work (Scalability issues, cost, complexity etc). It's very important for employees to also accept and see the flaws in your ideas rather than start bawling and throwing a fit. Likewise, it's very important for the leadership to keep encouraging these ideas no matter how stupid they are. Our partner/principal SDEs do just that. They're always open to new ideas. This probably varies wildly from team to team though.

Replace "Microsoft" with $LARGE_COMPANY and most of the article still makes sense.

"<i>... my communication style was flagged as inappropriate and antagonistic.</i>"<p>That's from the anecdote about the beginning of his tenure at Microsoft. Ironically, I think the excerpt from his "resignation" letter shows that his communication style <i>is</i> inappropriate and antagonistic. Sure, he was angry when he wrote the "last laugh" letter, so the emotions were likely quite different. But he did not express himself very effectively, instead focusing on his feelings and his certainty that he's correct. If he did that in his initial suggestion, no wonder no one listened.

In my experience, I haven't gotten along with 9/10 people I've met who work at -- and are passionate about -- Microsoft.<p>It's not because they're not driven to succeed (they are). Nor is it because they're overly confident.<p>It's because all 9 have lacked empathy and/or the ability to listen.<p>Now I can tolerate that, provided you do great work.<p>I've learned that if you can't separate the art from the artist, you may not enjoy much.<p>But since I think Microsoft creates pretty crappy art, its employees' personalities have really rubbed me with wrong way.<p>(Which I find interesting, because I think empathy plays an integral role in making great products.)

I've seen this type of story many times. All that can be concluded is that Max and Microsoft simply aren't compatible with each other. Nothing shocking with that... he picked the wrong place to start his career and they hired the wrong guy.<p>I take more seriously the critiques of long-time employees who are truly devoted to a company or project, try and try different approaches to improving things (which of course includes putting up with a lot of unsavory BS), and eventually (and usually sorrowfully) have to part ways because they can't influence things enough and need to move on with their lives.<p>Max's account is of someone who was annoyed within a year or two, started protesting in a way that wasn't effective, and pushed it until he got fired.<p>There <i>are</i> ways to get changes made in Big Co., but it won't be 100% on the individual's terms. You need to first get them to really listen to you, and I don't think that occurred here.

How times changes - just compare this to Douglas Coupland's short stories in Wired aka "14 days in the life of a microserf" (was later published as a book <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microserfs" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microserfs</a> )

I can empathize with the OP, but why go through the hassle of causing a commotion, and making it a Techcrunch story? Just leave amicably - they're NOT forcing you to work. You can get up and leave anytime you want, which is the mature thing to do.

The writer didn't mention any drive of his own except to work at a company whose products he liked, but didn't learn about the company culture before joining.<p>If you want a great job, you have to take responsibility for making it great. If you don't take that responsibility, blaming the employer won't help. The company had a strategy long before you joined you can learn about before joining. If you didn't learn about it before joining, how can you complain about it?<p>The email to the VP he closed with didn't help the company. He just vented. Who wants a petulant employee?<p>We can learn from his experience to find out before joining a team if we can create the environment for ourselves we want, then to do so.

The rule of "show not tell" was wildly violated here. Could have been a good story if it had been rooted in reality.

Sort of lost his credibility after he revealed that he was canned. If you're spinning your wheels at a company and hate the culture, why not do something about it? You're as bad as the useless meeting-goers if you can't actually do something and simply complain all the time.<p>For what it's worth, I was at MS for 7 months. Left on my own volition and now I'm heading up iOS development at a small startup. And it's a lot of fun.

Perhaps I have this backwards, but these "why I left Company X: they suck" articles just remind me of people who leave games in a huff and a puff and a flurry of forum drama.

well, does not seem too different from other big companies i met over the years. but blaming "the system" is just the easy way out. it is your job to be productive in an environment, if you can't, leave, better sooner than later - you are just becoming part of overhead you are complaining about.

You can cut to the chase pretty fast if you read between the lines at Mini-MSFT (especially the comment threads). Sure, some of it is outright BS. I'm sure trolls fabricate some comments. But in the middle of the curve, disputed by no one, are some real management horrorshows. They name names and pull no punches.<p>I can add my anecdote. I have a high-performing friend at Microsoft who got screwed last year after a mid-year promotion (because of how Microsoft works their performance-related rewards, I gather he got stuck at the low end of a higher-level salary curve and dinged for the next years). He started sending out his resume.<p>It sounds like a bloodsport, and I'm not evil enough to want to win. So I'm not heading to Microsoft this side of forever.

Something about this struck me as odd – having interned in the Windows org in Redmond, there are no such things as “business managers” – this may be a byproduct of Sinofsky’s leadership, but up to the VP level core product teams only have SDEs (devs), SDETs (tests), and PMs (program managers). GPMs and others above the manager level were busy with meetings for much of their days, but the ICs were not expected to be at all of those, so the obsession with colorful boxes he describes wasn’t something I ever witnessed. Maybe his experience was with a different product, but Windows and Office are certainly quite different from this.

I completely understand how OP feels. but the sad truth is when companies grow big enough, bureaucracy happens. I don't believe other giant tech companies are doing any better than microsoft. You either suck it up and play the games along or leave and start your own. sometimes you have to grow up and accept the fact that no leaders like rebels. if you want to change the game, become a leader first.....

I completely understand how OP feels. but the sad truth is when companies grow bigger, bureaucracy happens. i dont believe other giant tech companies are doing any better. you either suck it up and play the game along or bail and start your own. sometimes you have to grow up and face the truth that no leaders like rebels. if u want to change the game, become a leader first....

Been there. I can't express how I hate those meetings. The problem is deep. I mean they would have to change the culture, and therefore have to fire off a lot of top managers. Of course, that is never going to happen.

s/microsoft/yahoo/ig and it would be dead on.<p>After reading this rant, I'm starting to think that all software companies become like this after a while. Extrapolating, I'm guessing Google has 2-3 years to go before they are ruined...

I just had a moment of clarity.<p>Bill gates had vision to make millions of jobs.<p>What if Microsoft was efficient?<p>Relative to the amount of money it could make, it would only take a relatively small team of developers and R&#38;D teams (in a perfect world). How many teams of managers etc does it really take? Think of the amount of money that would make. Think of the money businesses would save not having IT support teams etc.<p>But the fact is, Microsoft aren't the bad guys.<p>These guys employee countless numbers of people. Around the world, Think of all the products that every business needs that Microsoft ressellers profit out of. How many IT support staff are fed by microsofts hand.<p>Personally i think Microsoft are doing a good job of sharing the wealth.

Not sure I'd feel comfortable working at a place where you can be fired and escorted from the building after 5 years because you voiced your concerns about company direction.

Whatever maybe the motivation behind this post, but I think people should refrain from bashing out there previous employer, leaving in bad suit is very bad.

At Sun, they ended up promoting this one troublesome executive to "Vice President in Charge of Looking for a New Job".

Is it professional to badmouth your ex-employer?

On one hand MS's huge cash cow can hide so many horrible decisions, but as a company they are doing great. Especially for a "dead" one. According to some bloggers they should have been decomposed by now but they are making almost $25 BILLION a year in pure profit, while investing in a lot of new stuff that can always be put in the market by another mgmt team (imagine what sits on those Microsoft Research labs /hard drives /notepads)<p><i>This company is becoming the McDonalds of computing. Cheap, mass products, available everywhere. No nutrients, no ideas, no culture.</i><p>I love McD's. I love getting the same burger almost anywhere in the world and it's exactly what I expect it to be. No, not cholesterol lowering food, if I want that I'll eat salmon or some other stuff. But McD's is great and it does what it promised.<p><i>Windows 8 is a fine example. The new Metro interface displays nonstop, trivial updates from Facebook, Twitter, news sites and stock tickers. Streams of raw noise distract users from the moment they login.</i><p>TURN it off on your system. The world is spending a gazillion hours on FB and Twitter, do you expect MS to ignore that? Image the "MS ignores reality on Windows 8" headlines had they not done this. Companies are notorious for moving slow, those wildly profitable even slower. Don't expect them to change a winning formula because you write a few emails. Start your own company and beat them.

OP's story is unfortunate, but this is tame compared to some of the things I've seen or heard of in the past five years. If this is TC-worthy, I've seen enough dirt to fertilize the Sahara.<p>This is a case of company and person who didn't work out, but it doesn't leave me feeling that Microsoft was unethical or mean-spirited about it (which is more than I can say of many, many companies). Badly run, sure, but not evil. Microsoft offered him a severance, and they gave him ample warning. Besides, if the company (or, at least, the part of it into which he landed) was that bad, why'd he stick around for so many years?<p><i>Why look for work elsewhere when I could coast from meeting to meeting, uttering and typing meaningless busywork. I could not relinquish that kind of comfort.</i><p>I may be unusual, but I get nervous and antsy in this kind of "comfort". It just makes me feel like no one is getting anything done and disaster is coming. Also, experience has led me to conclude that when the group is underperforming, the "rebel" rather than the cause of the underperformance is the one to get smited, utterly regardless of individual performance. So, environments where nothing is getting done scare me. Even if <i>I</i> am individually doing great, there's going to be blame to be allocated, and the fact that I'm individually an asset to the team is no shield.<p>In my mind, working itself is fun. Even when difficult and frustrating, actual <i>work</i> is not stressful, except in very rare moments of crisis. Those interminable sitting-down "stand up" (do people not know what the fucking words mean?) meetings that many companies have, on the other hand... fucking intolerable. I would not be "comfortable" if my calendar had 5 hours per day of status meetings and pointless chatter on it. I'd go insane.<p><i>My planned and promised promotion was cancelled.</i><p>That should have launched a thousand resumes. Or at least five or six. Why delay in getting ready? As OP has learned, they won't. Corporate "loyalty" is dead. Just don't "job hop" if you chance upon the one company in 20 that actually treats its employees decently and knows what it is doing... because, unless you know where you're going and trust the people you'll be working with, you probably won't find another. Job hopping is only stupid/dodgy when you leave a <i>good</i> company for a pay raise.<p><i>Official HR warnings were sent.</i><p>Anyone who is not looking for another job after the first "official" warning is sent is a fucking moron. It doesn't even have to come from HR. Negative <i>verbal</i> feedback from the boss might be genuine constructive criticism. He might be trying to groom you into a leader. Negative <i>written</i> feedback, such as an email? That is <i>not</i> ever to your advantage. If your boss is genuinely trying to improve you or groom you for something better, all such feedback will be verbal. Hostile email? Then get the fuck out. The case is being built.<p>For the record, PIPs (which is what the "dubious case" sounds like) are a kangaroo court and they can be emotionally draining. The trick is to recognize what they are and <i>not</i> get emotionally drained. (The reason to avoid emotional drain is <i>not</i> to save your current job; that's over. It's to do well in your transition and next job.) Don't get emotional. It's just a damn game, and the only way to win is to get out. Forget the shitty sweet talk. This manager doesn't want to "improve" you. He wants to get rid of you. Your job is to leave on your own terms before you get fired-- or, if that can't be done for some reason, engage in the legalistic fighting but realize that the best-case scenario is for the PIP to be ruled "inconclusive" and, unless you can transfer after that, have the manager PIP you again. Almost no one ever passes a PIP. Most people leave; the rest either get fired or the PIP is ruled "inconclusive".<p><i>I was offered 12-weeks’ pay for an amicable departure.</i><p>Take it. More than enough time to get another job.<p><i>Instead I decided to escalate the thoughts above to the highest echelons of Microsoft.</i><p>Terrible move. Like, Ned Stark in Game of Thrones. Managers and executives are fundamentally <i>tribal</i>. Most of them will protect their own, at any ethical or business cost except their own skin. If you go against one manager in front of another, your credibility is shark-shit at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.<p>Likewise, never threaten to leave a job over managerial misbehavior. You'll just get fired. You don't threaten to get another job (unless you've found one and are trying for severance). Just get another job.

Similar story here, though I left on my own. Couldn't be happier!

True and sad story.<p>Frustation, disappointment and apathy happen in most workplaces (startups included). However, best approach: evolve.