06.30.09
Another Microsoft Vice President Jumps Ship, Employee Benefits Take a Dive
Remark: At this pace of abandonment, who will be left to lead?
LAST week we saw the departure of at least two Microsoft executives [1, 2] (among around half a dozen so far this month) and joining this exodus will be the vice president of Services. Maybe it’s a morale problem.
Maria Martinez, the corporate vice president in charge of the big Microsoft Services division, is leaving the company. Microsoft confirmed the move in response to our inquiry this morning, saying Martinez would be replaced by Kathleen Hogan, current corporate vice president of Microsoft’s Customer Service & Support
In other interesting news, the Seattle P-I shows that Microsoft employee benefits fell by a staggering 26% compared to last year.
Microsoft’s assets available for employee benefits fell by $1.4 billion in 2008, shrinking by more than a quarter from the year before.
The Redmond-based company’s funds available to pay out benefits dropped 26 percent to $4.01 billion in the year ended Dec. 31, according to a document filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In 2007, Microsoft’s available assets for benefits amounted $5.43 billion.
It’s not exactly surprising to those who have paid attention. Microsoft’s earnings are down 32%, to a great degree because of GNU/Linux. █
“DOS will be with us forever. We’ve learned how passionate people are about DOS.”
–Former Microsoft Vice President Brad Silverberg
Charles Oliver said,
June 30, 2009 at 4:09 pm
Assets available to pay benefits doesn’t equate to lower benefits paid out. What would be interesting is if the drop in asset value had a short or long term effect on the maximal expenditure on employee benefits from said assets and whether employee benefits actually, in reality, suffered.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 30th, 2009 at 4:33 pm
Yes, I know. But wages have already declined for many. It is at least indicative.
Sabayon User Reply:
June 30th, 2009 at 5:01 pm
No. You either don’t know, or you’re misrepresenting the quoted article on purpose:
Implying that benefits *paid* to them fell or were reduced. Implying that Microsoft employees are somehow receiving less health or retirement coverage. Neither of which is the case, as Charles Oliver said. You then paste the usual self-referential gunk (contract staff rate cuts) that is completely unrelated to what you’re saying. You are aware that no company in the planet pays benefits to contract staff, right?
So you either don’t understand the article you’re quoting (which means you should not use it to begin with) or you’re lying. Which is it?
contextfree Reply:
June 30th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
I don’t think he’s lying, I think he’s bullshitting in Harry Frankfurt’s sense, i.e. he doesn’t really know or care whether the things he posts are true or not, their truth or falsity is simply irrelevant and the only thing that matters is whether they are unfavorable to Microsoft. Basically the corporate PR worldview, just in reverse.
twitter Reply:
June 30th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
Lying? You trolls have not been paying attention. here are links to other M$ failures. You know, like M$’s amazing $60 billion cash pile dissapearing act, or the loss of 5,000 employees here, 2,000 employees there. How’s a company that’s running out of money because they have abused employees, customers and investors alike supposed to reward employees? That’s right, with an axe. More than 10,000 people have already felt it.
Investors and customers are unhappy. I’m sure you will enjoy these link about investors expressing their dissapointment [2], [3].
Everyone’s favorite seems to be the Vista Failure. More than anything else, Vista’s crater showed that M$ has lost it.
You trolls can spin, slander and otherwise bullshit all day, none of it will do M$ any good. Given how negative the reaction is to your constant harassment, it’s a wonder M$ has not pulled the plug on you guys. They should put every resource they had into software ten years ago. Whey they keep people like you around is a mystery.
Sabayon User Reply:
July 1st, 2009 at 11:34 am
Wow. I must be asking the right questions if the head nymshifter had to come down and do his explosion at the ASCII factory just for me.