14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft will soon appoint a new CEO, so it’s only natural to expect that whoever takes over from Steve Ballmer will implement a series of internal changes that would more or less directly affect its 94,000+ workforce worldwide.
Asked during a Reddit AMA session whether they would agree with a work-from-home ban of the new CEO, several Microsoft employees revealed that quitting is the only option in such a case, as “Microsoft will never go office only.”
Microsoft News is reporting that several members of the ASP.NET team took to Reddit after the launch of Visual Studio 2013 to host an AMA session and thus answer questions about the company’s new software lineup aimed at developers.
One user, however, asked Scott Hanselman, Microsoft principal program manager, Web Platform and Tools, whether he’d agree with a work-from-home ban or not.
The answer was a bit surprising:
“Working from Home: Yes, if they tell me I have to move, I will quit.”
During the summer, Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s new CEO, decided to ban working from home, even though plenty of employees have actually been hired with the promise that they would be allowed to focus on its projects without leaving their house.
And still, Mayer has decided to fire all those who didn’t agree with the policy, leading to an avalanche of criticism from Yahoo’s workforce and other tech companies supporting this concept.
Microsoft employees, on the other hand, think that almost half the company would decide the quit in case the new CEO implements such a change.
“As another MS employee, I can pretty safely say, Will. Never. Happen. A ridiculous, HUGE number of Microsoft employees are remote only, myself included (I’m in the support side of things, and pretty much every person in my 2000 member org is remote). A Yahoo-style edict like that would equate to half the company leaving,” a company worker said.
“MSFT here. This is true. Such a huge percentage is fully remote, myself included. My lunch break consists of a milky brew and walking the dog [...] MS will never go office only,” another one added.
As for the one that will soon take over from Ballmer, people familiar with the matter claim that Ford CEO Alan Mulally, former Nokia boss Stephen Elop, and internals Kevin Turner, Tony Bates, and Satya Nadella are the leading candidates.
An announcement is expected by the end of the year, with the CEO switch to take place in early 2014.