Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023 • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#291

Post by bluefirebrand » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:08 AM UTC

king_magic wrote: post #271

Pretty impossible to respect a CEO that takes a 10% bump but cuts off raises for everyone else. Honestly, just disgusting.

Does anyone still actually have much respect for executive levels of big corporations?

All I ever see is more and more naked greed and talking down to employees as if we are idiots that cannot see through their BS.

Like all of the return to office stuff. We all know it's not about "in-person collaboration", but that's the line they think we're most likely to swallow.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#292

Post by smegger001 » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:14 AM UTC

heyoni wrote: post #279

dclowd9901 wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not skittish or reactive. They simply don’t need to give raises, so they won’t. What are their devs gonna do? Go somewhere else?

Unionize.

hard to make that call to strike when there are many recently unemployed tech workers looking for work. sure you might get what you want or you might get fired and replaced by someone willing to work for lower compensation

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#293

Post by naruhodo » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:18 AM UTC

foogazi wrote: post #286

bruce511 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally speaking, holding (significant to you) stock in your employer is a bad strategy. Because if the company goes under you lose your job, and your savings at the same time. In other words it consolidates risk rather than diversifies it. But honestly the idea that you don't need a raise but rather invest and wait for a dividend return is bonkers. Those are to completely unrelated things. By all means invest. The…

> Because if the company goes under Microsoft is not going under

I can dream.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#294

Post by tombert » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:19 AM UTC

paulpauper wrote: post #248

just buy the stock, which keeps going up....this is effectively the same as a raise. Profit that would go to employees goes to shareholders. It's like a conservation law.

You could buy Microsoft stock while working at a job that gives you an appropriate raise. I'm not sure what you're even trying to say here.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#295

Post by deanCommie » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:21 AM UTC

king_magic wrote: post #271

Pretty impossible to respect a CEO that takes a 10% bump but cuts off raises for everyone else. Honestly, just disgusting.

10 Million dollar bump

220,000 microsoft employees

Assuming each was in line to get more than a 5$ raise (obviously), the bonus to the CEO MORE than offsets the cost saved to the employees.

From a financial perspective, a bonus to the CEO makes perfect sense. Welcome to capitalism.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#296

Post by jasmer » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:23 AM UTC

In year of fairly high inflation this is a big deal and I don't suggest it will go down well.

To be a bit cynically Machiavellian ... 'any' kind of raise would have allowed them to at least avoid the 'no raise' kind of language.

This feels like a short sighted tactic - the economy is doing 'well enough' and MS is definitely forward looking at this point, this is going to be a bit of subtle 'sand in the gears'.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#297

Post by tombert » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:29 AM UTC

deanCommie wrote: post #295

king_magic wrote: post #271

Pretty impossible to respect a CEO that takes a 10% bump but cuts off raises for everyone else. Honestly, just disgusting.

10 Million dollar bump 220,000 microsoft employees Assuming each was in line to get more than a 5$ raise (obviously), the bonus to the CEO MORE than offsets the cost saved to the employees. From a financial perspective, a bonus to the CEO makes perfect sense. Welcome to capitalism.

Not really. If the CEO was in charge of the direction of the company, and that direction was so bad that they have to make major layoffs and cuts, then they shouldn't be rewarded for this.

This isn't a fucking game. These are human lives. Microsoft laid off 10,000 humans [1] because their idiotic CEO decided it would be a really good idea to overhire like crazy in 2021 and 2022. This was the wrong decision and now they have to do massive layoffs and paycuts.

Compulsively making high-risk decisions in the hope of short term rewards is such a common thing that we actually have a word for it: gambling. This gambling addict has uprooted 10,000 human beings' lives, and yet he still gets a $10,000,000 bonus. Get off your high horse.

[1] https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/09/tech-industry-layoffs/

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#298

Post by ukuina » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:30 AM UTC

ChicagoDave wrote: post #204

And the IT industry thought job hopping was bad enough. Wait until the market leans towards talent again. Everyone will be accepting the highest bids. They may have erased a 5% raise this year, but lose it (and more) in new hires in a year or two.

This assumes the pendulum will be allowed to swing back and not be held in place by AI tentacles.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#299

Post by wildzzz » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:35 AM UTC

paulpauper wrote: post #248

just buy the stock, which keeps going up....this is effectively the same as a raise. Profit that would go to employees goes to shareholders. It's like a conservation law.

If MSFT matches the same YTD return this time next year, a $120k salaried worker would have to invest $18k to get the same return they'd receive with a 5% raise. $18k is a lot of money for someone making $120k, probably living in an expensive city, to dump into stock that has no guarantee of a massive return.

Re: Microsoft Freezes Salaries for 2023

#300

Post by whatshisface » Thu, May 11, 2023, 3:36 AM UTC

krainboltgreene wrote: post #259

nineplay wrote: post #150

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm so bored with these comments. Companies care more about profits than people - can we put it on a banner somewhere so we all get over it?

Shareholders care more about profits and than people. Coops and nationalized companies do just fine at caring about people.

Nationalized companies care about the hierarchy that ends in the parliament or political system of the country they're in, which can be a mixed bag and doesn't really involve caring about their employees beyond the basic decency of their overseers.