Company: Microsoft
Date: 2015-03-23
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Junior

Good but too overheaded still
Pros: Good working climate between colleagues, especially since performance system was made less rigid a year ago. Old performance system still visible in mindset, causing competition, which is not always bad.
Cons: Attrition target in some departments is "hard coded", meaning that 5% of employees are to be actively managed to cause a "healthy" performance culture with new hires bringing in new ideas. This system may be useful for a year or 2, but at some stage you realize that you have to let go of people who are from an absolute perspective more than good enough. The system is based on the 5% bottom *relative* performance, and hence fully ignores the absolute performance of such employees.