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There are lots of nice, kind people at Microsoft (and Google, Apple, Facebook, and Amazon) - I have friends who work there. But what they're working towards is *all bad*. They work within a largely ethics-free machine (they just laid off their entire 'ethics team' as they were pointless): an autocracy ready to do anything to maximise shareholder value. They are not making the world better (nor will they 'improve it from within'). Their vision is clouded by their association & paycheque.
I should note that one of my friends - who worked for Microsoft since I move from Seattle to Aotearoa 29 years ago - just got made redundant. I've had a couple long conversations with him about Microsoft. He knows what I'm saying is true. He defended it by saying that he needed the job to pay his mortgage & maintain the lifestyle to which they'd become accustomed. He rationalised it. He was a good person working with other good people towards a very bad end.
@lightweight I've been in the job market, I can sympathize.
The whole concept of "overqualified" can get in the way of avoiding work you disapprove of...
@alcinnz and yet, if we want the world to suck a lot less, good people have to shun those 'employers'.
@lightweight @alcinnz I'm feeling grateful I was never in household-name big tech.
I did work for a business-to-business company that was public for a year or two before being bought by a huge private tech company. But because it's not well know outside the MSP space, it's not like having Google on your resume. Also worked for a government contractor for a couple years, but again, it's not a career altering thing.
I've taken a pay cut each time I switched jobs, but this latest one is well worth it to be in the EU working on software that gets stuff done in the material world.
@legumancer @alcinnz the only good corporations, in my experience, are small upstarts, and they're only temporarily good: if they succeed they go bad, if they stay good, they fail. More details: https://davelane.nz/megacorps It's just their nature.
@lightweight @legumancer I'd say the only good corporations are the ones which aren't actually corporations, but rather small principled groups. Though yeah, in their early stages corporations can be fine.
It's not wrong to call yourself a corporation for tax purposes, or to make a profit (which our society unfortunately demands).
What's wrong is to make money your ends, as opposed to the means to an end!
@alcinnz @lightweight I also tend not to judge people for where they work, aside from people who appear to have lots of options working at the worst of the worst places.
Tangentially related - the time I worked at a place that was Not Great to employees, especially in certain departments, it was surprising how many of my coworkers vocally supported the company, praised its' culture, etc. Even in places they didn't have to, like friends-oy social media posts. (Disparaging a current employer is risky, but you don't have to talk about work at all.) Is this just a human psychology thing?
@legumancer @alcinnz @lightweight I've seen the same psychology. I've never been one to avoid telling leadership the truth. A lot of the company cheerleaders would tell me in private that they agreed with me, but they'd tell me I'd probably get fired.
