Microsoft exec tells staff there won’t be an Amazon-style return-to-office mandate unless productivity drops

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/microsoft-exec-tells-staff-won-130313049.html

32 Comments

  1. Mountain_rage on

    Looks like Microsoft will have lots of top tallent to steal from competitors. Smart move from a company focused on a large number of remote work tools and decentralization of the office.

  2. blingmaster009 on

    This guy has been great for Microsoft, really turned the company around. Sundar Pichai on the other hand has been a disaster for google. All we have seen is 10 years of google enshittification.

  3. Next week…..”We’ve investigated and found productivity has dropped (based on metrics we won’t actually disclose).”

  4. SloppyMeathole on

    Or until they need to do layoffs without actually announcing layoffs. Then Microsoft will suddenly embrace in office work. Everybody sees through the bullshit at this point. Work from home was never about productivity or employee well-being, it’s about control.

  5. BrofessorFarnsworth on

    This is the right answer. There’s never been any data suggesting that the productivity fell off from WFH.

  6. And that last part is exactly what they’ll use in a few months when they announce their return to work mandate

  7. Productivity is very hard to measure. We need to stop calling metrics and start calling them statistics, because that better connotes just how much bullshit you can accomplish with them.

  8. Productivity hasn’t changed since WFH started, why the fuck would it change suddenly now? At least Microsoft is doing the logical thing here.

  9. For some reason I just received a number of open positions on Microsoft for senior all remote. Curious

  10. Used_Visual5300 on

    MS is the inventor of the ‘new world of work’ and the top seller of the software you need to work from home. We can stop using teams when working in the office, right? Right? RIGHT??

  11. They mandated 3/5 days in office already. The rise of Unions within their company probably plays a big part in this.

  12. CaregiverOk2946 on

    How do they measure productivity? MS stock has gone up 200% over the last 5 years. Are employees not working hard enough for executives to hoard more money at the top?

  13. For those who don’t truly understand the shift in Microsoft’s thinking under Satya Nadella has been astounding. Technical and partnerships aside, HR’s seen a massive change.

    When he came in to Microsoft, they had an HR policy that ranked people across *individual teams*. Managers were ***mandated*** to put:

    – 20% “Exceeded”
    – 60% “Met”
    – 20% “Below”

    Of course, that ranking effected your teams’ raises, bonus and promotions. You happen to have the 2 best engineers at all of Microsoft on your 5 person team? Guess you need to figure out who is the “Met” is then.

    High fliers quickly figured out the game. If you were in “exceeded”, stay put. Joining another team – especially one with a really talented colleague – could potentially bump you down a level. So you’d politly decline.

    The net result was Microsoft couldn’t ever get 2 really good people to work with each other.

    Now they’re the ones bucking the “get back to work trend” so long as people are getting their shit done? It’s pretty amazing to see for us old folks.

  14. “Microsoft exec threatens RTO if employees fail to maintain productivity levels” Alternate spin title

  15. BookwormBlake on

    Smart CEO. Mine has said the same thing. As long as we’re productive, there is no reason to have everyone in the office five days a week.

  16. raining_sheep on

    This is all you have to say as an exec. Just get your fucking work done and you get to keep the perks that don’t cost the company money

  17. Sorry, not a tech worker, but isn’t Microsoft known for solid and fair compensation but excellent WLB? While Amazon is known for amazing compensation, but a major burnout risk anyway?

    If that’s true it seems like it’s fairly consistent with the culture.