The Garret Tree
Friday, September 16, 2005
  Meet Microsoft's "Teamakers"

A writer for Business Week online recounts his secret meeting in a Starbucks (where else?) with the mysterious Microsoft inside blogger, Mini-Microsoft, a sort of combination of the Teamakers and the rest of us (since it is uncertain whether mini is a staff microserf or a staff micromanager).

You'll find the article here.

A key quote:
Mini pulls no punches, calling Microsoft a "passionless, process-ridden, lumbering idiot," in a Sept. 4 posting. Yet the blog is also chock full of humor, intelligence, and earnest suggestions for fixing Microsoft.

Doesn't that sound familiar?
it has become a virtual watercooler for employees. Hundreds anonymously vent their frustrations there without fear of retribution. Mini has emerged as something of a folk hero. Visitors to the site and other bloggers describe Mini as the employee most likely to save Microsoft -- and the most likely to be fired.


And why does he (it is a he) do it?

So why risk a career to vent about his employer? "There was a recent post by a guy who said he used to bleed Microsoft blue. That's how I was too," says Mini, who does indeed have a Microsoft blue badge, the type given to full-time staff. "Microsoft has been wonderful to me. I really want to improve it. I really want to make a difference..."
Over the years, however, Mini says he found it increasingly difficult to affect any sort of meaningful change. As a regular employee, his was a lone voice in the wilderness. Ironically, anonymity has helped Mini become a clarion call for change.

Businessweek goes on to say:
Analyst Charlene Li of Forrester Research advises companies not to try to suppress their bloggers. "You can keep it hidden or get those voices out there and deal with the problem," she says.


A couple of comments.

How often have we felt that the CBC is a "passionless, process-ridden, lumbering idiot" and that at the same time, it has sometimes "been wonderful."

Microsoft employs thousands of casuals (the infamous microserfs) and apparently, as Businessweek says, that blue staff badge is highly sought. Perhaps the triumvirate of Rabinovitch, Stursberg and Chalmers somewhere attended a business seminar with Bill Gates (in Niagara perhaps?). But there is one difference, Microsoft is a private sector corporation, not a public broadcaster.

I'd just hate to see the blue screen of death on the TV screen.

You'll find the Mini-Microsoft blog here.



Technorati tags
, , , , , ,
,,

 
Links to this post

Links to this post:

Create a Link



<< Home
I write in a renovated garret in my house in a part of Toronto, Canada, called "The Pocket." The blog is named for a tree can be seen outside the window of my garret.

My Photo
Name: Robin Rowland
Location: Toronto, Canada

I'm a Toronto-based writer, photographer, web producer, television producer, journalist and teacher. I'm author of five books, the latest A River Kwai Story: The Sonkrai Tribunal. The Garret tree is my blog on the writing life including my progress on my next book (which will be announced here some time in the coming months) My second blog, the Wampo, Nieke and Sonkrai follows the slow progress of my freelanced model railway based on my research on the Burma Thailand Railway (which is why it isn't updated that often) The Creative Guide to Research, based on my book published in 2000 is basically an archive of news, information and hints for both the online and the shoe-leather" researcher. (Google has taken over everything but there are still good hints there)



New blogs as of Sept. 2009
Robin's Weir
Tao of News

ARCHIVES
November 2004 / December 2004 / January 2005 / March 2005 / April 2005 / May 2005 / June 2005 / July 2005 / August 2005 / September 2005 / October 2005 / November 2005 / December 2005 / January 2006 / February 2006 / March 2006 / July 2006 / August 2006 / September 2006 / December 2006 / January 2007 / February 2007 / April 2007 / May 2007 / August 2007 / September 2007 / October 2007 / December 2007 / January 2008 / February 2008 / March 2008 / April 2008 / May 2008 / June 2008 / August 2008 / September 2008 / November 2008 / January 2009 / February 2009 / March 2009 / April 2009 / May 2009 / August 2009 /



    follow me on Twitter

    A River Kwai Story
    A River Kwai Story
    The Sonkrai Tribunal