Bunnies!

That giant sucking sound you're starting to hear whistling past the door seals on Microsoft campus buildings are the hopes of (hundreds? thousands? tens of thousands?) employees being whisked into the void that is rapidly becoming LisaB's internal "I'm listening, but it's not in my commitments to do anything with what you tell me" blog.

The blog appears to have ground down to four camps. 1) People who will bitch about anything and everything, even when presented with positive information. 2) People who think we have some serious problems and propose serious solutions or proposals to fix things. 3) People who think things are mostly OK, and berate those in group 1 and 2 for their negativity and ungratefulness for how good we really have things and encourage people to vote with their feet if they don't like it. (Hi, Mini!). 4) The lurking group that is beginning to tune out as it appears the blog, which began with such great hopes, is a HR ploy to create the illusion that something is being done.

I was neutral on Lisa until her blog launched and it nudged my opinion of her up to positive. Six months on now and the needle has swung to negative based on her condescending comments.

Now, more than ever, it's clear that our executive leadership is completely disconnected from the reality that is working life for the lunch box crowd and that it is past time for change.

Let them eat bunnies, indeed.

Elbow Room

Overcrowding brings on all sorts of socio- and physiological problems. Depression, stress, aggression, increased risk of infectious disease, etc.

Sounds a bit like the cafeterias and bathrooms on campus, no?

It is with mixed emotions that Microsoft's chronic lack of office space issue surfaced again today.

Reading MSW's hard-hitting interview with Chris Owens makes it clear that we've turned the corner and that the future will be so bright in my future office, I'll have to wear shades. Then you read stuff like this and wonder if it will be worthwhile to hang around to luxuriate in all that space.

While it will be nice to ease the overcrowding, how about also thinning out the management ranks to create even more space? Perhaps we could start with clearing out the ones that caused the problem in the first place by authorizing the hiring binge and then not doing the simple math (more hires = need for more space)?

If something so basic as space planning has gotten so fudged up over the past few years, what does that say about other issues and endeavors?

Me? I'm heading down to my local elbow room to ponder who or what team will be the one cut the Gordian Knot that is Microsoft.