Microsoft HR changes - LisaB, Mini-MSFT, Office Supplies, Reviews, etc

Ever since the widely reported changes to Microsoft’s HR-related announcement
happened, a few people asked me in e-mail what I thought.

Alas, I’m crazy busy shipping software to answer in depth right now, so I’ll
just point to some links that I think are relevant, and offer a few super quick
thoughts:

• Seattle PI reports:
  
  Microsoft unveils new worker perks
• 
  Bubba’s thoughts
• Omar’s thoughts

My quick thoughts:

• I have a lot of respect for
  LisaB.
  Back when I worked in the MacBU, Lisa, as VP of our group, would make the
  effort to schlep down to SVC to host a local All Hands meeting multiple
  times a year. She would often get some tough questions (and then there was
  the infamous Jimmy question) and
  answer them with candor. I greatly appreciated the effort. Since she became
  SVP of HR, I’ve sent her an email with some feedback, and she took the time
  to thoroughly reply, and again with candor. All good things.
• I hope more changes are coming. More transparency would be better.
  Personally, I think we should experiment with 360 reviews. But for now, I’m
  just glad that office supplies are going to be restocked.

• Mini-MSFT’s blog
  isn’t exactly a non-trivial blog to write. Mini clearly spends time writing
  and maintaining the blog. I think that’s one of the things that really sets
  Microsoft’s employees and culture apart from others. It’s not just a rant
  blog, it’s an effort to get things changed. That said…

• Mini-MSFT’s blog’s commenters definitely do not represent
  the best of Microsoft much of the time. In particular, I’m exceptionally
  appalled at the comments comparing working at Microsoft to "sweatshops".
  Having spent a bit of my time in New York’s garment industry, I know a
  little something about sweatshops, and let me tell you, unless you are
  getting paid a nickel per .cpp file/spec/bug regardless of the prevailing
  minimum wage, you are not working at a sweatshop. When your company commits
  to paying at least at the 65th percentile (which should mean better than
  market if the assumptions hold), you are not working at a sweatshop. I truly
  hope that some of the more whiny commenters don’t actually work at MS, or if
  they do, that I never have to work with them.

• MSFT
  stock… well… I don’t know what to say.