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What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

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Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#231

Post by DoreenMichele »

onesmallcoin wrote: post #230
DoreenMichele wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's sadder still that attempts to promote the peace by commenting on best practices are typically received with open hostility.

I really hear you, it's hard because in my mind the solutuon would be something along the lines of going back in time a couple thousand years and starting then, it's a delicate thing to care about on both sides and it shouldn't be. We preach equality but the games don't stop- I don't really have the perfect answer here

I don't either. I decided to err in a particular direction here and take the hit for it. I routinely err on the side of respecting the male side of the equation in such matters. It's part of why I am accepted to some degree here.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#232

Post by phs318u »

js2 wrote: post #188
phs318u wrote: post #182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A joke in poor taste. Melbournians are notorious coffee snobs. As jpatokal said, locals wouldn’t be caught dead in a Starbucks. Basically if the cup is taller than 4 fingers 8-10cm or the ingredients include anything other than coffee, water and milk, or it was made by percolating - then it’s not coffee as far as we’re concerned. It’s either dishwater or a confection of some sort. It may be a fact that Melbourne has…

Those rules seem to eliminate both Turkish and Cuban coffee. That would be a shame.

Yeah, sorry - a modicum of sugar is allowed :)

(I love my Saturday morning Turkish)

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#233

Post by lioeters »

DoreenMichele wrote: post #208
simondedalus wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe your experience is “another interesting perspective worth writing about or considering” and not a refutation of the author’s experience and her conclusions about what it meant.

My original comment wasn't intended as refutation of anything. It was intended to offer a broader perspective on her piece. She waited 18 months to say publicly what she thought about it. She's still quite young and 18 months is not a lot of time in the grand scheme of things. I'm 53. I had an affair in my twenties. I then read as much research as I could get my hands on. Some common themes: People frequently are unf…

I for one appreciated your original comment - thanks for sharing your experience and perspective. It's a good point, that culture shock and dissonance, growing up and being humbled by the unreasonable chaos of the real world, are important aspects of what the author of the article lived through.

The phrase "cult-like atmosphere" of corporations is meaningful too. Having lived in different national/regional/organizational cultures, I'd agree that there's a significant correspondence between culture and cult.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#234

Post by lioeters »

trpc wrote: post #178

Welcome to capitalism, little bird.

There's a truth to your quip, I think.

Phrases from the article that jumped out for me were: The real world will eat you alive. Everyone was fake.

Much of that cruelty and superficiality arises from the dominant ideology driving corporate culture. It can be tough and heart-breaking growing up in such a world.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#235

Post by abhi152 »

noego wrote: post #69

It felt like the key parts of the story were being left out here. From her telling, it sounds like everything was going well for her in Poland. Then she did a very short stint in Seattle where everyone was "extremely closed minded... only caring about their manager’s approval" . I'm not sure what that even means, but it sounds like that triggered in her a major depression. After which she spent a lot of time "pretend…

She never said she was very good at what she did. Yes, she was working like crazy but that is a different thing. Being overly invested in career mostly makes you very good at what you do.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#236

Post by thrower123 »

screye wrote: post #117
adamsea wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Phd Graduate students seem to like labor unions - they have been organizing and striking for them a lot recently. And classical musicians (The Chicago Symphony Orchestra recently went on strike). Are they all stupid and listless?

It's simple. When the supply vastly outpaces demand, it opens up many doors for exploiting those lower on the ladder. Both grad school and classical music are 2 such areas. Software Engineering still hasn't reached that point. The profits earned by having top percentile employees, far outpace the compensation packages they demand.

A decent software developer might be worth three to five mediocre ones, without being particularly valuable. The idea of the 10x developer is so overwrought, but there are just so damned many people who are not capable of producing anything at all.

It's really a profession that does not scale well.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#237

Post by taneq »

bumby wrote: post #191
taneq wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're hungry, or cold, or have no safe place to sleep, money will fix that. If you're just managing to make ends meet and in constant fear of losing your job, money will fix that. If you're overworked and stressed from your high pressure job, money will fix that. In fact, until you're rich enough to be way off the pointy end of Maslowe's hierarchy, money will fix pretty much anything that ails you.

From what I've seen, there's a clear line of demarcation below what you're implying. If I remember correctly, the research says it's around $60k-$75k in the U.S. where the happiness levels out in response to money. I'd have to look it up again to make sure I'm not misremembering

Yep, that lines up with what I've read and what I've personally experienced. Beyond $75k (or your local currency equivalent), more money is more of a theoretical "can do more nice things", "drives a nicer car", "can go skiing for holidays instead of rent a beach shack." It's nice, but it's a change in degree, not a change in kind.

Below $75k combined income is where those "do I want X or Y because I can't have both" situations come about increasingly frequently. Below $45k it becomes "do I want to pay the electricity bill or the rent?"

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#238

Post by taneq »

AmericanChopper wrote: post #165
taneq wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Having work life balance is somewhat of a luxury, and it's a luxury to be able to say "money doesn't make me happy". It's a luxury to come to that conclusion. Exactly. Any time anyone says "money doesn't make me happy" what they really mean is "I already have enough money that it's no longer the limiting factor in my happiness." The vast majority of peoples' lives and happiness could be markedly improved by giving…

I think this is unnecessarily cynical. I’ve been through multiple periods of both success and extreme hardship in my life. I can confidently say that money doesn’t make me happy, because I’ve managed to be happy at my lowest points of financial stability. If losing financial stability robs somebody of all their happiness, then I’d say they should question whether they were really happy to begin with, or just comforta…

> I can confidently say that money doesn’t make me happy, because I’ve managed to be happy at my lowest points of financial stability.

I'm not saying that being poor makes it impossible to be happy. I'm saying that money can remove many stresses which make it harder to be happy.

Also, there's 'low income' and then there's 'financial instability'. If you get paid $100/week, spend $50/week on rent, and $25/week on enough food to keep you well fed, and have $25/week spare, and you have a reasonably reliable job (or can easily find another one) then you're financially stable.

If you're on $2000/wk but you have $1500/wk in rent/loans/whatever and $450/wk in food and transport costs, your boss is constantly threatening to fire you, and you know you can't get another job if you do get fired, you're going to have a very hard time being happy.

> If losing financial stability robs somebody of all their happiness, then I’d say they should question whether they were really happy to begin with, or just comfortable.

I'd flip that around and say if your happiness levels aren't affected by 'losing financial stability' then you've lost income but not financial stability.

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#239

Post by threadlock »

fc373745 wrote: post #115

I really don't know why I read what I just read. There's a lot of red flags - going to clubs, going to burning man, having an affair, renting a penthouse apartment in freaking Seattle. I'm not passing judgement on those who wanna live life to the fullest, but the failure of achieving the white picketed fence type of life she originally wanted to live is totally on her and not on Microsoft at all.

Yeah what the hell? This just seems like someone spending a shit load of money and thinking that it'll make them happy. Shock horror, cheating on your partner makes you feel like shit, who'd have thought

Re: What I gained, lost and learned while working for Microsoft

#240

Post by alain94040 »

fc373745 wrote: post #115

I really don't know why I read what I just read. There's a lot of red flags - going to clubs, going to burning man, having an affair, renting a penthouse apartment in freaking Seattle. I'm not passing judgement on those who wanna live life to the fullest, but the failure of achieving the white picketed fence type of life she originally wanted to live is totally on her and not on Microsoft at all.

You may be forgetting that her job was to socialize with potential clients (developer evangelist). That's a pre-sales marketing job, completely different from the typical life of a developer at Microsoft.

The job means you have to go out most evenings to every possible hackathon or meetup and talk to everyone.

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