Microsoft as a Golden Cage
Just in (6 hours ago): "I was laid off by Microsoft and can't find a job. I'm weeks away from giving up my apartment and moving across the country to live with family." (That's the headline; the item is catalogued under "Unemployed Ex-Microsoft Worker Struggles to Find Job, Pay Rent")
Based on my research, even way prior to the reports about Beijing layoffs, Microsoft is asking workers to "relocate" (or sometimes to "apply for another position" in "another department", "another location" etc.) or leave the job. It's a form of "silent layoffs", those are not "silent quitters" or "quiet quitters". In many cases, there are no real positions to apply for or they were already reserved for people who had applied for a worker's visa while overseas (Microsoft sponsors them to do this because they get paid less and work so hard they can literally drop dead late at night inside the company's offices). That's aside from nepotism and other forms of corruption. We saw the same at IBM.
Working for Microsoft isn't a good deal or a bargain. Ever wondered why most Microsoft workers want to leave (if only they can find some other job, elsewhere)? █
