This description of life at Microsoft is pretty accurate. There’s more to it, of course. Every big company has politics and culture “issues”. Also, not every employee of Microsoft is so privileged to work at a level where they can control their own fate as much as the article implies. But for a certain class of Microsoft employees, it really just as he says it is.
I didn’t leave because I was being overly controlled or constrained by The Borg. I left Microsoft because I was dissatisfied with the business ethics of the company, and was not willing to commit my effort to changing it. Instead, I chose to put my effort into a smaller company where I could more easily reinforce the behaviors I wanted to see in my employer.
I was extraordinarily lucky to change jobs when I did (November 2000) because it became very difficult to change jobs starting in April 2001. I’m pretty sure I would still be there to this day, which is not a happy thought.
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