Company: Microsoft
Date: 2013-06-25
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

Three steps forward, four steps back...
Pros: Middle and lower layers have lots of smart people with great ideas and a true desire to serve their audience.

A connected story around seemingly disparate products/divisions is finally coming together.

Compensation model revisions have helped offset a 5-year stagnant stock value.
Cons: Leadership teams (Director to GM level) top priority is competing with each other to retain funding & headcount. 

Stack-ranking causes the wrong employee behaviours and priorities. At the employee level, it blocks team collaboration by fostering a "me" culture instead of a "we" culture. At the management level, it significantly underscores a poor manager's inability to get their team its due compensation or job stability.

Tunnel vision on external competitors - to the point that leadership seems to overlook the actual reason for competing: Customers.  This defunct method of operation will never result in delighting customers or driving long-term loyalty.

Redundancy is rampant and is mostly driven by the need to accommodate repeated changes in direction. Most of the day is spent in meetings and you only begin your "real work" in the evening at home. While the pay is competitive, when you factor in a 70-80 hour work week, your actual hourly wages are comparable to the rates of your plumber!