Doesn't practice what it preaches so I was forced to leave - Program Manager II Microsoft Employee Review

1.0
Aug 21, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Benefits - are amazing, they cater for everything non-work that you can think of - Stability - No matter what you know you're working for Microsoft

Cons

Microsoft's mission is to empower every person and company to achieve more but it often doesn't practice that in reality. Employee growth is touted as a vitally important part of their corporate culture with various constructs and processes that seem to also encourage this. However, no matter the policies, procedures or training, my experience has been nothing but the opposite. In my time, i've witnessed ableism towards colleagues that had disabilities and even myself once I developed a disability that I partially contribute to my experiences. I've also heard stories of Racism and discrimination too. Managers, teams etc were always talking in secret, sabotaging each others projects. Referring to each other negatively. Playing political games to get things done and generally making my life miserable. Eventually, I started struggling in my position beyond the above issues. I developed anxiety, stress and depression. The heightened level of anxiety in everything at work lead to me dreading starting work. The pandemic actually helped, at least I didn't have to be physically in the same location as the people who were causing the issues. During this time, I developed stress caused epilepsy. Too much stress I get a seizure... yay My manager never helped with these issues despite me asking. My skip level booked some meetings with me but always left early and said they'd re-schedule. They never did. HR of course is a no-go, they're designed to protect the company and don't really care about you. I felt I had nowhere to turn to, with my mental health declining and my sense of self worth flying out the window I had to leave. I'm exceptionally disappointed Call me Neurodiverse or whatever you want

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5.0
Jun 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Interesting and varied work. Seasonality to the job allows for rest period

Cons

Less stability than there used to be makes people afraid to take risks

4.0
Jan 28, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

1. If you love tech, this is a great place. No doubt you'll talk tech (mostly the MSFT stack) from enterprise to consumer - from PCs to phones to Xboxes - from datacenter to desktop. 2. What were GREAT benefits are now VERY GOOD (took a small step down) but still probably better than you'll find at 99% of large corporations. If you've got family - the value of the benefits is even higher. 401k match is nice. 3. Even with it's struggles MSFT is still a cash printing machine. This means if you can keep your nose clean and do reasonable work, you can have a stable job, pay your bills, feed your family, and not worry (too much) about layoffs. The stock you own likely won't tank, but probably won't go up much either. You'll get a bonus each year and some stock. It's a decent life if you aren't looking to light the world on fire.

Cons

Brand on Your Resume: After many years of losing market share and struggling to be at the front end of innovation and the fact that there's 90,000 employees, don't think MSFT is necessarily going to be attractive on your resume to more agile and smaller companies. Managing Your Career: Make you say this out loud so it registers - 90,000 employees work there. Double that for vendors. It is VERY hard to "stand out" and move up in the company. Don't expect your manager to be much of an advocate or enabler to help you meet your career goals - they are basically trying to survive the stack rank every year too. Not familiar with the stack rank? Check out the 2012 Vanity Fair article called "Microsoft's Lost Decade".

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