4 ms·

IMHO this is being done to push out older folks who have been with the company for 10+ years. When I worked there a decade ago Microsoft was firmly established

IMHO this is being done to push out older folks who have been with the company for 10+ years. When I worked there a decade ago Microsoft was firmly established as the 'family person's tech employer--they prided themselves on having exceptional benefits and work/life balance for employees. The average age of a Microsoftie was a solid 10 years higher than other companies like Google and much of the workforce I interacted with were doing 9-5 working hours with plenty of vacation taken (you were getting 3-4 weeks vacation a year after about 5 years IIRC). No one was ever pressured to put the company in front of their family obligations. I have a sneaking suspicion they unfortunately want to make the company less appealing for people that are used to that generous work/life balance culture (i.e. the oldest employees) and have them naturally leave.

pgowdy13 4y ago
This has been the exact opposite of my experience, as a current MSFT employee. Every single policy in the past 3-4 years has been geared towards INCREASING time off, work/life balance, job satisfaction, etc.. You could definitely take a cynical view towards this change, and I definitely did towards most policies when I first started. However, MSFT has shown me time and time again that they are standing behind their policies to improve our overall satisfaction. And why the hell wouldn't they? In a job market with a global shortage of talented developers, not to mention in a sector that can take 3-6 months to get a worker "productive", it's in their every interest to retain talent. It's a mutually beneficial relationship, imo.
- firstfewshells 4y ago
  I find it amusing how everyone in software keeps touting a shortage of "talented" developers when there is no evidence. There's an army of experienced engineers in developing countries and each year millions of software engineers enter the job market each year.
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pgowdy13 4y ago

This has been the exact opposite of my experience, as a current MSFT employee. Every single policy in the past 3-4 years has been geared towards INCREASING time off, work/life balance, job satisfaction, etc.. You could definitely take a cynical view towards this change, and I definitely did towards most policies when I first started. However, MSFT has shown me time and time again that they are standing behind their policies to improve our overall satisfaction. And why the hell wouldn't they? In a job market with a global shortage of talented developers, not to mention in a sector that can take 3-6 months to get a worker "productive", it's in their every interest to retain talent. It's a mutually beneficial relationship, imo.

firstfewshells 4y ago
I find it amusing how everyone in software keeps touting a shortage of "talented" developers when there is no evidence. There's an army of experienced engineers in developing countries and each year millions of software engineers enter the job market each year.

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