This entry was published at least two years ago (originally posted on October 23, 2003). Since that time the information may have become outdated or my beliefs may have changed (in general, assume a more open and liberal current viewpoint). A fuller disclaimer is available.
UPDATE: Please take the time to read my followup post, Fifteen Minutes of Fame, for my thoughts on what happened after I posted this picture, why it happened — and most importantly, why I don’t blame Microsoft for their actions. Thanks!
It looks like somebody over in Microsoft land is getting some new toys…
I took this shot on the way into work on the loading dock (MSCopy, the print shop I work in, is in the same building as MS’s shipping and receiving). Three palettes of Dual 2.0Ghz G5’s on their way in to somewhere deep in the bowels of Redmond. Hopefully they’re all in good condition when they arrive — the boxes are slick enough that a few of them took a bit of a tumble (you can see them back in the truck)!
i think its funny microsoft needs apple’s you should get that shit in the newspapers im only sorry 4 Michael
You people are ridiculous. Look at the facts here. ANY company (yes, ANY company) would have fired a temp employee (and given a full-time employee a damn strong warning) for photographing company property/goings-on behind the scenes and blogging the photo without permission. If you don’t believe that, and if you have a job, just ask someone in your HR department about what happened here and see what would happen at your company. Cry about the injustice of it if you want, but it’s reality. If it was your company and you had some temp jackass taking pictures behind the scenes and posting them on the web without your permission, what would you do? You’d walk his ass out the door like they did. Regardless of this photo in particular being harmless (everyone knows that MS owns Macs), what he did illustrates a severe lack of judgement (read as — if he did this without permission, what else will he do without permission). Hell, he even mentioned his company’s name, which implies some sort of endorsement for the post. Go on and cry about this being another example of big bad MS, but they did what any other company would do. Some lessons in life are learned the hard way. Hopefully, this guy learned his lesson and next time, he will leave his damn camera at home and focus on doing his job.
So here is what comes to mind. Why would Microsoft Want to hide the fact that they bought G5’s. Microsoft Makes does software for the macs, aka OFFICE. What, are they going to test apple software on a PC????? That is just gay all around. If make software for apple you need apple computers to test it on … simple and easy.
Microsoft is lame if they fired him.
As trivial as these photos are, it can easily be considered industrial espionage.
For Bobby T. and other religious fanatics, Xerox (parc) invented many many many things
(gui ,event drive programming) and gave them to Apple (and the rest of the world).
MS did not steal the ideas from Apple, it took what was freely available.
Trademarking the generic “windows” term was a dirty trick though.
Never forget the MS is the one who bailed Apple out when they were going under.
SOLIDARITY!!! Rise up my fellow workers! Rise up! You have nothing to loose but your chains! :)
I’m taking the FISH… Who’s with me!?
Good luck, hope you find a better job. Seems like M$ doesn’t understand even a little bit of humor (think even at Apple they have some Windoz-machines). Greetings from Hamburg Germany and best wishes for future (you did right man!) … Tice ; )
Sure, everyone involved was within their rights to take the actions taken. Microsoft’s actions are still kind of suprising because those actions turn a non-event into unfavorable news.
Gasp! Microsoft might actually have a Macintosh in use! No way! … Yeh, right. We’re supposed to believe they’re so talented that they can develop and test software for Macintosh without actually having Macs?
Microsoft markets software to provide Windows connectivity to Unix platforms too. It wouldn’t even be news to me if Microsoft had to move their IBM mainframe and a stack of Solaris boxes to make room for the Macs. In recent months Microsoft even stated they were setting up a lab to evaluate Linux.
So what’s the news here? “Heavy handed Microsoft fires employee.”
“While it is true that Microsoft has a booming Macintosh software division, all of their Macintosh development is done in San Francisco, at their “Mac Business Unit”, as it is called. It seems notable to me that 18 G5s have arrived in Redmond.”
Perhaps MS has tech support for their Mac software in Redmond. Or perhaps the tech writers who write the manuals for Office v.X are there.
I worked there for a while. Someone that was interviewing for a job blogged about what a “stupid asshole” her boss was, his boss was “a fucking bitch”, and everyone else (including HR) were idiots. She got the job, but she continued to complain about specific details every day. They finally found the blog, and yes, she was fired… and I don’t think many people would argue with that.
I dislike MS probably more than most Mac users because I have five years of reasons. However, they aren’t any different than most companies. If you publicly mention anything that happens on the job, it can be grounds for termination.
You boss probably would not have fired you. Since he mentioned the official “security” word and phrases like “not welcome”, chances are he was getting pressure from above.
Just remember that when it comes to business, whether it is a boss, coworker, company, temp agency, whatever, nobody is your friend… and I wouldn’t be surprised if you have problems getting jobs in the future because of these blog entries.
Was the firing over the mention of M$ having G5’s or the posting of an image from the campus?
When I worked at Apple, they had a very strict “no photo” rule.
And what about that other pallet of G5’s that arrived at Bill Gates house?
Lets face it though , You dont want to work for a company that are such bastards to their staff anyway.
Apple should hire you :)
Releasing that information for the public is not the right of the blogger. If was the right of Microsoft. It would be like your girlfriend showing your mom your porn collection. It is not their concern. Why is it when linux users infringe on the rights of Micro$oft, Micro$oft is the a-hole, but when M$ ask for you to register a product to protect their OWN intellectual property, the linux nerds take up their torches… Linux users are arrogant and have a double standard. If you had AIDS do you think it is the responsibility of your employer to tell its employees?
M$ sells about a $billion worth of Mac software…
they’re not going to jeopardize that much money…
they WANT MS Mac software to work and work good…
With the open source Office suites getting better and better they have reason to sweat…
If you get a chance, can you reveal what that graffiti painted on the loading dock says? Looks like “FREE REDMOND” maybe?
microsoft dont have the rights to do that, isnt wrong! damn, they suck.
the slashdot crowd awaits!
Heh, Mircosoft lost a Huge PR opportunity here. They could have milked the “Hey, we play nice with our competitors!” Edge. In this day of massive lawsuits and enourmously bad PR, such as DRM and viri scurring about the Windows world, Microsoft needs all the help they can get with the public.
Of course, we are talking about Microsoft here…
SOLIDARTY! Rise up my fellow wrokers! You have nothing to loose but your chains! :)
Did they have a justification to let him go? Sure. How good of one is debatable. Did they have the right to let him go? Sure. Could he have seen it coming – well certainly he should have seen trouble as a possibility.
But I ask – was it SMART for them to fire him? His boss acknowledged his right to do what he did and called it “unfortunate” that they had decided to fire him over it, and asked whether he could make ammends by taking down the posting. So it seems he was a decent employee and his boss wasn’t looking to get rid of him. So, they incur the cost of restaffing, training, and the lost productivity of the learning curve. Because they offer no justification to take the posting down, even if it does indeed represent a “security violation,” (and I find it pretty difficult to believe that the relevant pieces of information – that Microsoft buys Macs and that MSCopy is in the same building as MS’s shipping and receiving, represent particularly sensitive or secret information) their action guarantee that the information will STAY out there on the internet, and in fact gain more noteriety (I surfed in from Metafilter) because now it is not just, oh funny, stacs o’ Macs at Redmond, it’s ooh, the Evil Empire fired a blogger! They could have made a deal – we think this is a security issue, here’s why, if you want to keep your job take it down, and allow us to ask anyone reprinting it to take it down since they would by definition be doing it without his permission. He keeps his job, Microsoft keeps a good employee, and the “security issue” is taken care of as best as it, at this point, can be. So. was it that they didn’t really care about the security thing, but are so bound by their own rules that they can’t make the more intelligent play in this kind of situation? Or is it that it really was just the “we perceive this as a dig against Microsoft, so trump up a security violation and fire him? (If so another misfire, see the issue of greater publicity above). Or are they too stupid to see that it WASN’T malicious, that any chance of eliminating security issues lay in being flexible, and that firing him could only cost them resources for no gain? Sounds pretty stupid to me.
That’s quite right Ed. If you work for a corporation you should expect to be screwed at random… BUT, it is hard to see why Microsoft would want to deny that it purchased a few G5s given that they write software for these machines.
Also, any corporation does “opposition research”… who would be surprised by that?
A rational organization would simply point this fact out.
But when you work for a large corporation you are not likely to be working for a rational organization… it’s hire and fire at will. Get used to it.
Sorry but….DUH….what the hell did you expect?
I dunno if anyone forgot, but Microsoft is located in what country? Under what laws are both Microsoft and this former employee protected? Although it isn’t advisable to photograph things within the confines of your employer’s campus, unless a specific “no picture” edict was issued I doubt they’d have a legal leg to stand on. Because he didn’t photograph anything but the inside of a delivery truck (for this particular page) it doesn’t even seem that it would be comprehensively covered under a law banning sharing of trade secrets or other similar nonsense. Although I’m no lawyer, you should collect unemployment if possible and screw them the legal way–if you don’t want reinstated. If you DO, then talk to a qualified attorney if you haven’t already…
I don’t understand why there is such an outrage for MS’s actions? If you think MS shouldn’t have fired him then at what point to you draw the line about what you can take pictures of or release to the public? Employees do not know the reason behind every event or action within a company. What appears to be a harmless picture could in fact be exposing a particular business strategy or direction that is intended to be kept secret (though I doubt Microsoft direction here was “towards” Apple). The contract a person signs when hired binding them to keep company activities secret is there for a reason–everyone can assume a level of confidentiality that permits work to be done without unecessary security checks. Microsoft had to set a precedent or the gray area that would exist allowing employees to take pictures of whatever they wanted. By the way, I’m willing to be there is a no-disclosure agreement somewhere in his work contract (temp or full-time) restricting what he can say (with pictures, words, etc) about the activities of Microsoft. I’m also willing to bet taking pictures and presenting them on the web in the manner he did falls under prohibited behavior.
I guess it depends on if Michael signed an NDA or was advised of the restriction on workplace photography. If he did, then he knew what he was doing was wrong. If he didn’t, then Microsoft has no grounds for dismissal based on a single incident, unless they can prove intent to cause material harm or corporate espionage, etc. – which I think any reasonable judge would throw out on its ear. (On the other hand, if you can, why not sue ’em for wrongful dismissal?)
What’s more worrying to me is that Microsoft obviously has their own version of Echelon or something out there, monitoring all employee
activities online whether at work or at home. I realize the software biz is competitive, and Microsoft didn’t get to be king of the hill
by playing nice, but there are some serious ethical considerations here. Seriously, though, who does it harm to show some G5s arriving at Microsoft? Apple develops for Windows (Quicktime, iTunes, iPod, AppleWorks, FileMaker, WebObjects, to name a few) and Microsoft develops for Mac (WMP, Office, hardware peripherals, IE, VirtualPC which was acquired from Connectix, etc.) so it makes sense they’d have some for compatibility testing at least!
Microsoft sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This is why I turned Microsoft down when I was approached by them. I use their software but
I am more partial to any form of Unix(TM) for many objective reasons.
They (Microsoft) simply need to grow up.
Good luck.
-Chuck
an Apple geek that work for Microsoft and has a server on a GNU/Linux box… good mix :-)
you will easily find a new job thanks to slashdot ;-)
Hye even we need paperweights
They’ve truly made a martyr out of you. In all honesty the picture really isn’t that poignant. It doesn’t show “MS HQ” in big bold letters or anything so it’s not like it could turn into a huge email chain letter or something. Taken outside of your blog, one could speculate it could’ve been shot behind an office depot or something.
Just one more reason my views of M$ seem more justified. Good luck in your job hunt.
What a crappy reason to let someone go. M$ Hiding behind G4’s and Linux servers….. LOL
Thanks for the story… it was awesome, sorry it cost you your job though.
Hey you,
the responsible people for that kickass action at Microsoft …
Why you don’t go outside and play hide and go fuck yourself?
These were only pictures. Everybody in the whole world knows, that you are using Macs.
Microsoft has every right to fire this guy, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that Microsoft is a predatory monster that also happens to be as hypocritical as they come.
This reminds me of a (reliably sourced) story of a guy who went in to get interviewed, thought it would be funny, when asked why he wanted to join the Corporation joked that he wanted to see what it was like to work for the “Evil Empire” & got in return stonefaced stares.
& regarding this incident, yes, someone shouldn’t go around taking pictures on company property but this is just one image, could easily have been taken down — & it seems to me to have much more to do with the attitude revealed in the Evil Empire anecdote than any rational policy. If you say anything even obviously in jest to criticize the Corp., they are through with you forever. (Readers of Franken’s latest book can compare this to the paranoid with-us-or-against-us attitude of Barbara Bush & perhaps various of her offspring.)
(Wow, great comment preview feature!)
Bla, Bla, Bla… a Mac is Mac! Good luck for you…!
There are many companies that allow no cameras or photography equipment on the premises.
Seems Microsoft is one of them. Quite common. The young fellow was punished appropriately.
Remember this: Their game, their rules. Also “Don’t do stupid stuff”.
Seems strange to fire over something like that.
And it’s not not like that buying Mac in any way should seems strange.
Any company ought to find out how the competitors are doing, to improve their own products.
Microsoft develops applications for use on Apples computers.
Microsoft owns a number of stocks in Apple, why not check the investment by testing the products?
Does this suck? Yes.
Is Micro$oft the enormous, humorless corporate omnivore we all think it is? Yes.
Is that the same M$ that was found guilty in 2000 of hiring a gazillion temps that were de facto permanent employees, then denying them benefits? Yes. (Google “Microsoft permatemp” – the settlement is still unpaid).
Is this predictable given the paranoid environment of a corporations-world first we live in? Quite likely.
Could the M$ managers have thought hard for about two seconds and avoided all this bad PR? Maybe.
Could Michael have seen this coming? Probably (unfortunately).
That said, I wish you well in your job hunt. Remember, getting fired is just the opportunity to find a better job (was for me, anyway). ABSOLUTELY look beyond the temp agency – they’re fine for paying the bills, but not much for starting a career.
And actually, Aardvark, M$ doesn’t own ANY “amount of Apple” (I presume you mean voting stock). The $150 million investment from 1997 was non-voting (controlling) shares, was Does this suck? Yes.
Is Micro$oft the enormous, humorless corporate omnivore we all think it is? Yes.
Is that the same M$ that was found guilty in 2000 of hiring a gazillion temps that were de facto permanent employees, then denying them benefits? Yes. (Google “Microsoft permatemp” – the settlement is still unpaid).
Is this predictable given the paranoid environment of a corporations-world first we live in? Quite likely.
Could the M$ managers have thought hard for about two seconds and avoided all this bad PR? Maybe.
Could Michael have seen this coming? Probably (unfortunately).
That said, I wish you well in your job hunt. Remember, getting fired is just the opportunity to find a better job (was for me, anyway). ABSOLUTELY look beyond the temp agency – they’re fine for paying the bills, but not much for starting a career.
And actually, Aardvark, M$ doesn’t own ANY “amount of Apple” (I presume you mean voting stock). The $150 million investment from 1997 was non-voting (controlling) shares, was Does this suck? Yes.
Is Micro$oft the enormous, humorless corporate omnivore we all think it is? Yes.
Is that the same M$ that was found guilty in 2000 of hiring a gazillion temps that were de facto permanent employees, then denying them benefits? Yes. (Google “Microsoft permatemp” – the settlement is still unpaid).
Is this predictable given the paranoid environment of a corporations-world first we live in? Quite likely.
Could the M$ managers have thought hard for about two seconds and avoided all this bad PR? Maybe.
Could Michael have seen this coming? Probably (unfortunately).
That said, I wish you well in your job hunt. Remember, getting fired is just the opportunity to find a better job (was for me, anyway). ABSOLUTELY look beyond the temp agency – they’re fine for paying the bills, but not much for starting a career.
And actually, Aardvark, M$ doesn’t own ANY “amount of Apple” (I presume you mean voting stock). The $150 million investment from 1997 was non-voting (controlling) shares, was Does this suck? Yes.
Is Micro$oft the enormous, humorless corporate omnivore we all think it is? Yes.
Is that the same M$ that was found guilty in 2000 of hiring a gazillion temps that were de facto permanent employees, then denying them benefits? Yes. (Google “Microsoft permatemp” – the settlement is still unpaid).
Is this predictable given the paranoid environment of a corporations-world first we live in? Quite likely.
Could the M$ managers have thought hard for about two seconds and avoided all this bad PR? Maybe.
Could Michael have seen this coming? Probably (unfortunately).
That said, I wish you well in your job hunt. Remember, getting fired is just the opportunity to find a better job (was for me, anyway). ABSOLUTELY look beyond the temp agency – they’re fine for paying the bills, but not much for starting a career.
And actually, Aardvark, M$ doesn’t own ANY “amount of Apple” (I presume you mean voting stock). The $150 million investment from 1997 was non-voting (controlling) shares, was <5% at the time, and has long since been bought back – at a healthy profit, I might add..
GET A
Respect where it’s due. Nice One :D
Classic picture, Honest person.
Poindexter wrote:
We are all considered disposable employees. Don’t fool yourself into thinking otherwise.
Welcome to the (corporate beehive mentality) machine. Being out of work sucks. Not working for M$ or its ilk sounds pretty good, though. There is life beyond corporate enslavement. The trick seems to be to live a good life and a good working life.
That really sucks.
They must have wanted to get some real work done on an OS that does not contantly hang give you non-reponsive program errors all the time. I work on MS technologies all day an I spend a lot of time waiting for XP, Visual Studio , or some other MS app just to do what it is supposed too.
well WelcomeToTheRealWorld is right but Ed is also right Microsoft is lame if they fired him.
If you were in the military. You would be executed for treason. Consider yourself lucky.
Nobody that can think or act in an independent fashion is welcome at Microsoft or Real or any of the companies that have used all of the technological marvels created by the ‘disposable’ generation of engineers to make themselves rich beyond comprehension. Here is what You must all understand…You are all replaceable right here in Your own country by cheap copies of american Engineering excellence from all over the planet. The lies these companies and the government have told and gotten away with to replace over 2.5 million american workers is the real story that is slowly coming out. You need to know and understand that censorship is the first and fastest way to control public opinion. fortunately it is too late for all of these companies because the truth is out and there is no stopping it now.
“The best weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”…Steven Biko
http://www.complex-numbers.com
Anyone here think that Apple’s never looked at a Windoze box. Of course they have! It good business to see what your Competition has. It just business.
And, of course as an employee of a company its not smart to make fun of it in a public forum. Such an act is clearly disloyal and should result in Disciplinary Action.
I work for a rather large, rather blue computer company, and I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement before I began working stating that I would NOT BRING ANY CAMERAS on the site. They even have signs posted on the door. I’m sure it’s the same at Microsoft. Employers are sensitive to this because of a little term called “corporate espionage”.
Microsoft did the right thing. This guy made a mistake and he become famous because he was trying to embarass Microsoft by taking Mac pictures. I think he deserved it.
Best wishes from the UK , never worry about telling the truth , you get tremendous Kudos and support from us Brit Macheads for this .
Will send your blog address to everyone I know , espescialy my newly qualified MSCE mate so he knows just who he’s signed a pact with . . .
Good luck with whatever you do next and “don’t let the bastards grind you down ” ( old british trade union phrase ) Chin Up !