WELL before the Microsoft layoffs of 2020 (lots of them over the summer) there were many more/lots of dismissals disguised as an "end of contract" (Microsoft isn't unique in that regard). Don't be misled by what companies say about themselves. Last we saw (latest IRS filing), the Linux Foundation operates at a loss while being robbed by executives who don't even use Linux. In Microsoft's case, insiders keep telling us that the company is faking its financial performance. Just because some people amass personal wealth/gain does not mean the companies do too.

"In Microsoft's case, insiders keep telling us that the company is faking its financial performance."At Microsoft, lying is the norm (the management made that the normal; see the Bill Gates deposition for many examples) and cover-up is recommended, even when it is not legal.

Recently, as we already mentioned here a few months ago, we became aware that articles about "how to get fired by Microsoft" (with evidential bits) were being censored. Microsoft+Medium pressured the author to censor his own articles or face account termination. We hoped to maintain a highly available and uncensored version, but that's still work on progress. Only months later the articles got (self-)censored and the evidence was removed from the Web.

As a little bit of background to this, even Microsoft's CEO got involved (he's crushing people quite often, but Microsoft as a company covers for him).

"I also have a Yammer thread in the CEO Connection where Satya flat out ignored me and the fact that his HR department was caught conspiring with my management to retaliate against me after calling out a toxic work environment and idiotic management," the author of the above articles noted. "I may even have a PST [E-mail archive] somewhere where I was accidentally included on an email chain involving straw man bids to help push a big data pipeline between Singapore and Australia... giving the illusion of diligence. Not to mention the intended recipients response to me asking me to keep quiet about it..."

“I truly hope for the day where journalists do their damn jobs and cover them appropriately. At best they want their money, at worst they’re afraid of legal retaliation.”
      --AnonymousThis partly came to the attention of the media (e.g. here in The Guardian).

"Let’s see," the author recalled, "I was initially tasked with the Deloitte exchange online migration but my team passed it off to a dude who had never handled a migration before for training purposes and asked me to supervise. I refused and wanted no part in it; this is my area of expertise and as an expert I don’t take a back seat to newbs when dealing with the likes of Deloitte. Turns out that they fucked up the deployment so bad that they didn’t even bother securing administrative accounts with MFA or password change windows, resulting in data breach of their entire mail system for 6+ months unnoticed. Ironically, the dude was a security moron... Literally them hitting the news over some newb shit had me cackling for days."

Microsoft tried to cover it up (likely an illegal decision, where managers are directly accountable). It didn't go well, did it? But nobody got punished, as usual. We still hope to get our paws on the raw evidence and publish it. In case it happens, stay tuned. As the author told us yesterday: "I truly hope for the day where journalists do their damn jobs and cover them appropriately. At best they want their money, at worst they’re afraid of legal retaliation." ⬆

"If you can’t make it good, at least make it look good."

--Bill Gates, Microsoft