Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What is the worst thing about working at Microsoft?

forbes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 80 posts

Re: What is the worst thing about working at Microsoft?

#21

Post by chris_wot »

frenger wrote: post #8

> Wait, Microsoft makes chairs? No, not directly. But the part of that chair? Manufactured in facilities running on, you guess it, Microsoft software. Transported in trucks built by Microsoft software, on roads built by Microsoft software, sold by companies running Microsoft software. The whole premise of this paragraph is wrong. Yes, most big businesses run Microsoft Windows, but most people hate and struggle with i…

So in other words, they make chairs, despite being forced to use awful, expensive software? I, too, thought this.

Actually, this puts a whole new perspective on the "Microsoft tax". Everything we do in life has been "taxed" by Microsoft. The argument is specious: you could be sitting on a chair that was sold for less money. You might be working in a more spacious building if better software was in use. You'd probably be paid more money if the costs for IT weren't so high.

Note I don't actually believe any of those things, but they could be valid counter arguments, depending on your own perspective.

The reasoning used in the article is pretty badly flawed. If Microsoft employees are disheartened by the general public's view of their company, that's probably something their management should fix.

Re: What is the worst thing about working at Microsoft?

#22

Post by gum_ina_package »

RyanZAG wrote: post #16

The author seems to revolve his article around MS software running manufacturing, ambulances, etc. This is only true in the most literal sense possible. The software that runs these industries just happens to be written upon an MS platform due to a number of unfortunate market incidences that forced other OS players out of the game for less than technical reasons. This trend is now rapidly reversing and new software…

I think you're forgetting that when the software systems powering manufacturing, ambulances, etc. was first being deployed MS was the best solution out there. The problem was that corporations didn't upgrade their tools and MS was forced to support aging, obsolete, and insecure technology. They didn't innovate for several years, and we're now seeing the market correct itself as businesses turn towards Linux powered solutions which seem to reside in the cloud.

As far as MS lying about Bing, if you read the author's other post defending the Bing it on Challenge, he rebukes Ayres point-by-point.

Re: What is the worst thing about working at Microsoft?

#24

Post by aaronbrethorst » 

    That’s right. The worst part of working
    at Microsoft has nothing to do with our
    internal culture (that’s not quite true;
    more on that in a bit). It isn’t stack
    ranking or ship cycles or trying to get
    things done. It is working at a company
    that people don’t believe in, despite
    the immense importance it plays in
    their daily life.
Uh, no. It's the politics, and the stack ranking, and the interminably long ship cycles, and the typical unwillingness to even consider a market unless someone else has proven that it's a billion dollar business. And especially the politics and the stack ranking. They're absolutely toxic.

n.b. I haven't worked there in six years (and in fact the ten year anniversary of my FTE interview was this week!), but my feelings on the matter have been confirmed in every conversation I've ever had with an ex-MSFT FTE. Call it survivorship bias if you want, but this has been consistent in every conversation I've had, regardless if the person left a year ago or five.

edit: and the in-fighting. and the backbiting... but I guess those are just politics by another name.

Re: What is the worst thing about working at Microsoft?

#25

Post by covox »

Anechoic wrote: post #6

But the part of that chair? Manufactured in facilities running on, you guess it, Microsoft software. Transported in trucks built by Microsoft software, on roads built by Microsoft software, sold by companies running Microsoft software. Imagine you got out of that chair for a second. Walked across the street to get a cup of coffee. Got hit by a bus. The ambulance that picks you up? Microsoft. The hospital that saves y…

"You said you wanted to live in a world without Microsoft, Jimmy. Well, now your car has no battery!"
Post reply on HN