Company: Microsoft
Date: 2013-10-08
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

Feels like they're circling the drain...
Pros: Good benefits and pay although medical coverage took a hit this year.

Work with some very talented and intelligent people, international name recognition, and flexible hours.  

Many opportunities to move around the company and work on something completely different.  

The early days when I worked there were filled with lots of hard work but also hard play--morale events, trips to Vegas, and a great sense of camaraderie.
Cons: Flexible hours also means work/life balance is a joke--you have the flexibility to decide which 80 hours you want to work each week.

Stack-ranking system is a teamwork and morale killer.  This is the most pathetic and antagonistic policy I've seen implemented over the years.

Lack of flexibility and drive at the upper management levels.  We had smartphones, touch screens, tablets, and such well before Apple--nobody took them and kept improving on them to deliver something that would wow the world!  They just shelved it or kept insisting that it would have to run Windows.