Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#101

Post by veeti » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 5:38 PM UTC

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #14

RankingMember wrote: post #5

I'm continually blown away that the modern titans of industry readily bow down to a glorified reality show egomaniac. Allying to price-fix is one thing, but surely they can ally to resist culture war nonsense from making its way into their employee handbooks?

Nobody in the tech industry cares about DEI (most people I've met are downright hostile to the idea). All those companies in 2020 who hired DEI consultants and made big announcements about DEI and changed master to main were just buying cheap good will

The cynical take is that main was about shutting up Github employees protests against ICE contracts [1]. And it seemed to work: no more protests and another diversity consultant enriched.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/29/microsofts-github-has-become...

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#102

Post by rockskon » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 5:55 PM UTC

shortrounddev2 wrote: post #14

RankingMember wrote: post #5

I'm continually blown away that the modern titans of industry readily bow down to a glorified reality show egomaniac. Allying to price-fix is one thing, but surely they can ally to resist culture war nonsense from making its way into their employee handbooks?

Nobody in the tech industry cares about DEI (most people I've met are downright hostile to the idea). All those companies in 2020 who hired DEI consultants and made big announcements about DEI and changed master to main were just buying cheap good will

Didn't Microsoft spend years basing the bonuses and performance reviews of middle management based heavily on the gender and race of who they managed to hire or promote?

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#103

Post by beej71 » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 5:59 PM UTC

rtkwe wrote: post #68

beej71 wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

However, in the United States, the President is supposed to have very limited unilateral authority over any company.

That's proved to be an idea only held up by the fig leaf of norms like the independence of the DOJ and the idea of the other two branches actually acting as a check on the others. Instead after the 70 year project we now have a compliant Supreme Court rubber stamping practically every action and flirting with ratifying the unitary executive as law. That plus a compliant Congress either ideologically aligned or cowed…

But on the plus (???) side, he's extremely bribable.

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#104

Post by mariusor » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 6:00 PM UTC

guywithahat wrote: post #100

mariusor wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because it's not impossible that there are non diversity hires that fuck projects up.

Sure but the practical result of considering diversity is you end up not hiring the best engineer for a project. Projects fail or run over budget all the time with the best engineer, so hiring fifth best engineer for a project to achieve a particular diversity requirement feels irresponsible at best.

> you end up not hiring the best engineer for a project

I don't think this has actually been proven as of yet, since "best" is a very loaded word, especially you're required to measure on more than one axis. (But feel free to point me to any source that disagrees with me.)

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#105

Post by rtkwe » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 6:02 PM UTC

beej71 wrote: post #103

rtkwe wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's proved to be an idea only held up by the fig leaf of norms like the independence of the DOJ and the idea of the other two branches actually acting as a check on the others. Instead after the 70 year project we now have a compliant Supreme Court rubber stamping practically every action and flirting with ratifying the unitary executive as law. That plus a compliant Congress either ideologically aligned or cowed…

But on the plus (???) side, he's extremely bribable.

For minor things with immediate payoffs like a pardon that seems correct. If you're ask is longer term though I'd be hesitant, he shows the same inclination to go with whatever the last person in a room wanted for longer term stuff, see his aggressive oscillations on Ukraine.

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#106

Post by ImPostingOnHN » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 6:10 PM UTC

alt227 wrote: post #37

ImPostingOnHN wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The OP was actually not questioning that at all. It was lamenting that they are bending the knee to someone unworthy of it, in furtherance of a culture war spearheaded by said someone. In particular, a glorified reality show egomaniac who treats their current job as a glorified reality show. It certainly isn't useless information that the person is currently president, but that alone doesn't say much, because no pres…

Again, that said someone is the President of the United States. If he wasnt the president, these companies probably wouldnt be doing this. I still feel thats pretty relevant.

Sure, and again, that someone is also a 34-time convicted criminal and rapist. He wouldn't be doing these things if he wasn't predisposed to criminality and abusing people over which he has disproportionate power, or if he wasn't a malignant narcissist and glorified reality tv show egomaniac, with a track record of amoral transactional relationships aimed at improving his position at the expense of others.

So, your points and others' are all 'pretty relevant': we now have the means (provided by the article), the motive (provided by others), and the opportunity (provided by you). Thank you for your useful and equal contribution to the trifecta.

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#107

Post by AnimalMuppet » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 6:25 PM UTC

alt227 wrote: post #57

neogodless wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm continually blown away that the modern titans of industry readily bow down to the president of the United States. While I don't think "corporations should be in charge", I also don't think a President should be dictating corporate culture or policy short of going through the proper channels of using Congress to write legislation that keeps corporations in check and doesn't allow their power and influence to grow…

> I'm continually blown away that the modern titans of industry readily bow down to the president of the United States. If you dont, you could suddenly find that the thing you sell has a ridiculous tariff imposed on it. Then that might mean you sell a lot less. He has done much more for much less in the past.

If you make that thing in the US, good luck having the US government slap a tariff on it.

I mean, yes, Microsoft is international, and the president could probably find an angle to put a tariff on some part of their business. Not most of it, though.

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#108

Post by antibull » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 6:34 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#109

Post by Arodex » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 6:48 PM UTC

terminalshort wrote: post #92

Arodex wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Yeah at those tech companies that are notoriously all white. Remind me, which ones are they?

Oh, thanks for reminding me that Indian managers are accused to only hire other Indians (from good castes).

But they do something you (and the original poster) would never do, of course! They have a mote in their eye! Look at their mote!

Re: Microsoft is quietly walking back its diversity efforts

#110

Post by guywithahat » Mon, Dec 08, 2025, 7:19 PM UTC

mariusor wrote: post #104

guywithahat wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure but the practical result of considering diversity is you end up not hiring the best engineer for a project. Projects fail or run over budget all the time with the best engineer, so hiring fifth best engineer for a project to achieve a particular diversity requirement feels irresponsible at best.

> you end up not hiring the best engineer for a project I don't think this has actually been proven as of yet, since "best" is a very loaded word, especially you're required to measure on more than one axis. (But feel free to point me to any source that disagrees with me.)

I think you're misunderstanding; this is a logical exercise. The best is a hypothetical ranking, and to add a independent variable which means we must detract from hiring the best person. To disagree would be to say someone is better strictly because of the color of their skin.

It's like if you were tasked with buying the most powerful engine produced for a locomotive. How you define powerful is arbitrary and is an optimization problem on its own, but if you then say "and the engine block must come from the factory painted red" you are, by definition, no longer optimizing for the fastest engine, you're optimizing for the fastest red engine. Being red is independent from being the best engine.