Tech Goes Boom

Mini-Microsoft and The Future of Employee Feedback

Mini-Microsoft is getting a lot of press lately, and rightly so. It's anonymous author is advocating a slimmed down, more agile company focused on shipping good software and pleasing it's customers.

He pulls few punches in calling out Microsoft's leadership issues, and there's been a massive reaction by other softies who anonymously contribute comments in support of his views.

It's a powerful example of how employees are banding together anonymously to make the company better against the fumbling of middle management. Obviously, Mini-MS has hit a nerve, and one wonders how Steve Ballmer is going to react.

Considering that there is a talent exodus from Microsoft at the moment, they should probably pay close attention. The way I see it, this is one of your employees conducting employee engagement and satisfaction research for free. And while it's in public, and is potentially a black eye, it's also the only way employees can be certain there won't be repercussions for their dissent.

With unions quickly becoming a thing of the past, I find it amazing that anonymous blogging can at least provide on-the-ground reporting of conditions to prospective new hires, who can come into interviews ready to ask pointed questions about the future of the company. It also provides shareholders an insider look at how the business is run that they could never achieve otherwise. It circumvents the fantasy world that management and PR people would create about the company.

Of course, this could definitely be a double edged sword. It would be easy to get into libelous territory, and one has to be very careful about making statements that a court could construe as willfully damaging the company with lies. But this is always an issue when you have a great many unhappy employees.

I'd love to see more blogs like this pop up, and hope that MS learns from what Mini-Microsoft has to offer.