My husband worked at Microsoft for 10 out of the past 13 years. He was fired last fall when the hiring freeze hit (and when they were already starting to thin out the ranks a bit). He was not a middle manager, but a seasoned IC (Individual Contributor) with a passion for technology, producing quality product that customers would use and enjoy, and a sincere drive to help Microsoft become a better company no matter what team he worked on.

Ralphie said, “firing them is more compassionate than letting them quit, because they receive severance benefits.” However not everyone that was fired got benefits. My husband didn’t get a dime and was one of those people that was “shown the door” without notice, not given an office to look for another job and kept on the payroll for weeks.

Like many of the times people have been “laid-off”, “re-orged out” or “fired” from a team at Microsoft, there are lots of factors that go into deciding who goes and who stays. It’s political (who’s a$$ did you or did you NOT kiss properly), it’s about who you know (if you are buddies with someone higher up in the ranks, you get to keep you job or they move you into a new position under the disguise of a re-org). It’s about the stack ranking and what looks good on paper, it’s about whether or not you have asked to interview outside the group to find a better job fit (read as: punishment for trying to leave a group after several years of service), not necessarily about who is actually doing the work and pulling their weight.

It’s not always about who has the talent, drive and desire to help Microsoft produce great quality products. If it were, Microsoft would be a lean, mean company with lots of talent and few lazy slackers.

With so many years in the halls of MS my husband (and many of our MS employed friends) have seen it all and some pretty “dirty pool” goes on with the hiring, firing and lay-offs just like in any other company. I’ve seen too many talented people either leave, get “pushed out” or get fired unjustly from Microsoft over the years.

I don’t think the recent and future lay-offs at MS will do anything to improve the company in the near or long term. And unfortunatley there is no way of ensuring that the people that are being shown the door during these layoffs, are people that should have been let go in the first place in order to make the company more efficient, agile or innovative.

However, in line with most American (and British, Dutch and Irish) pension funds, IBM’s is heavily invested in equities and therefore suffered massive losses last year, to the tune of 21 percent of its assets. The resulting huge hole in the company’s pension liability had to be made good – by IBM, with its own money. That’s why its equity halved in one quarter.

For more, see: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1233050211040&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

The Gaudette ariticle was written in 99. That was about the time I told all my MSFT friends that you sell when ever you hear the words “SEC investigation” or “justice department”. Bill Gates said he would fight the Justice department if it took 10 years. And I told those same friends that meant their stock options would be unprofitable for 10 years. It turned out the Justice department was put on a leash, but not the EU… which is still suing over the very same unresolved issues. That indeed was the peak for this company.