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submitted 1 year ago by L4s@lemmy.world to c/technology@lemmy.world

Leaked Microsoft memo tells managers not to use budget cuts as an explainer for lack of pay rises: ‘Reinforce that every year offers unique opportunity for impact’::Managers are being ordered to dodge employees' questions about how the latest budget cuts will impact their pay.

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[-] andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 204 points 1 year ago

This is so backwards. I had to read this a few times to try to make sense of the memo. Apparently, the reasoning is that instead of telling employees that they didn't get a raise because of company-wide cuts, try to convince them that they just did a bad job?

That's stupid. That would obviously have the opposite effect of softening the disappointment. Whoever wrote this memo is an idiot who has no idea what employees do or what they think.

[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 52 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yes, this is a tactic used by lots of the large software companies when they want to raise the bottom, and phase out an aging workforce because saying the word "layoffs" affects share price. It also helps to reduce the salary demands of any incoming workers to replace the outgoing, because the baseline gets reset without having to justify why profits are high, but workers won't be getting any of that.

An example with Google in 2021-2022: tell all your middle-managers they'll need to do something unreasonable like relocate to keep their job, wait for some to leave, then put the rest on PIPs and promise their underlings they can apply for the soon-to-be vacant role if they keep up the good work. Effectively, Google only had to publicly acknowledge firing 12,000 employees, when closer to 20,000 were displaced for various reasons. It's a shitty shell game to keep the share price high, and force people who stick around to more work for less money.

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 1 year ago

I might get sick. This is so disgusting I can’t even. Thanks for pointing that out. As an entrepreneur, I always try to make it worth everyones time. Seeing stuff like this just makes me sad.

[-] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

As an entrepreneur, I always try to make it worth everyones time.

The "Win-Win" strategy is always the best strategy, long term.

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

Honestly, I agree that it’s the best strategy for all people involved but not one to retire with. I think our world is much too harsh to accept all people winning. So, while I‘m not willing to do the „fuck you I got mine“, I think that’s the way to make the home run.

[-] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Honestly, I agree that it’s the best strategy for all people involved but not one to retire with.

I don't know, I retired with that. /shrug

I think our world is much too harsh to accept all people winning

It's only harsh because we don't help each other with the win-wins. Honestly, just think of a world where we all cooperating with each other 24/7, how that would look.

So, while I‘m not willing to do the „fuck you I got mine“, I think that’s the way to make the home run.

When everyone is fighting everyone then only a few benefit from that, usually the ones already at the top.

[-] Haui@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 year ago

I appreciate your thoughts, I really do. But so far we have made different experiences and neither of us can prove that their theory is (the only) viable. I can tell you that I would have retired, had I not given back as much as I did, you‘re saying you actually did. Neither of us knows how much or little the other one actually did, how viable their strategy was to begin with and so on. I don’t see this going very far on that basis.

[-] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

For what it's worth I'm not basing my opinions on your life experiences, but what I see everyone going through, and "The Human Condition", and how people are.

I believe you're being overly cynical, but I totally understand one's personal perspective can set that level of cynicism, as they go through life.

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this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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