I'm a week from signing another offer and leaving Microsoft for that reason. It might be surprising, but it is like the "smaller shops" you described here. The

I'm a week from signing another offer and leaving Microsoft for that reason. It might be surprising, but it is like the "smaller shops" you described here. The annual increase is only 2-4%, and promotion increase, from any level until a few levels above senior, is only 5% on average. You usually don't get both on the higher side if you get promoted. So if you get promoted from mid to senior (an excellent employee), you expect to get a 7-8% increase at that year. It actually made me very depressed to stay here because of that. The attrition is high (relative to other FAANGMULA) but surprisingly not as high as you would expect. Many stay because they are too lazy to interview, and most of them start to become lazy workers.