"one person cannot be evaluated and paid in isolation of budgets" - SteveSi is just wrong on this. This is only true if you have a policy of highly differenti

"one person cannot be evaluated and paid in isolation of budgets" - SteveSi is just wrong on this. This is only true if you have a policy of highly differentiated pay for short term performance and/or have an "up or out policy". ... both of which are in effect at MS. You can argue it's a bad idea not to have one or both of those policies, but it is certainly possible to have a review system based on what one did, rather than based on the necessary political fight over cutting up the budget pie.