Advice - Interoffice Relationships - Don't do it.

I just got out of a relationship with another fellow softieinthefield. It's tough. I miss her. We work in the same office. Yes - I guess I lack common sense. Frankly, I 'm lonely...older than most folks in the office. It's tough to meet people outside of the office. MSFT is a place you could say I grew up in. C'est La vie - however, it doesn't make my heart or head feel better.

Optional, but NOT Optional

One thing that has bothered me is that our leadership speaks out of both sides of the mouth. MS Poll is supposedly a "voluntary" activity, but from what I hear, managers get pushed from more senior leadership to complete the poll. Completion reports are sent out to the district in an attempt to get people to complete the poll. If a team has a low completion rate, it doesn't reflect well on that manager. So that creates a flood of email and conversations to "encourage" people to complete the Poll. Call a spade a spade. It's completely hypocritical. Is it really "optional" if a manager is viewed poorly if their team has a low participation rate?

Softies what do you think?

Long Time No Post - My Appologies...

It's been a long time since I originally made my initial entry. I've been dealing with some significant personal issues that have kept me away from making any postings. It's nothing directly work related, but it has kept my head focused somewhere else. However, I have returned and I will be posting on a much more frequent basis.

For all those in the MSFT field. I'm still with you.

So Why Did I Create a Blog?

I think that the Mini Microsoft Blog is a great thing, and it really provides a great picture about Microsoft. However, I find the blog oriented towards folks up at corporate and I wanted to bring a view of the average Microsoft foot soldier in the field. This is my view and my perspective, I'm sure some will disagree with me, but I feel that I have a responsibility to my own conscious and I have to look at myself in the mirror every morning.

I'm a Microsoft field sales employee - I have always been in the field and have never held a position in Redmond, so my view of the world is very different than folks up in Redmond. I talk to customers everyday. I hear the platitudes of our executives. We've come a long way - from Ballmer pitching Windows (with REAL Genuine excitement) to hearing some tear jerker emotionally manipulative story told by Kevin Turner. It's like the commercial - where do you want to go today? I felt like we got suckered into Walmart.

My committment is to tell it like it is from a sales reps perspective. You might think I really dislike working for Microsoft. I writing because I care about this company and see how hard we work in the field. The things that I see from our executives betray the values that are often quoted as Microsoft Competencies. Well it's been a long day, but there is much to write about and you'll hear more in the entries to come.