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The bullshit you get for doing your job

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Rail poster

Working for Microsoft you tend to develop thick skin because of all the stuff people say to you; insults, imputation, indictment & bad mouthing.  I guess you could argue that it comes with the territory, it's par for the course or something you inherit from the history of working for a successful company.

In the face of adversity I tend just to smile and try and have a conversation with the person.  If in a large audience the heckler normally embarrasses themselves simply through the act of heckling - there's no response needed.

What does wind me up is faceless, anonymous criticism and personal attack that demonstrate a real lack of spine and admission that the act of commenting on a blog of an employee in such a way is in fact wrong.  I'm referring to comments that my colleague Darren has been enduring over the past few days.

Fair play to Darren for allowing this abuse to go out on his blog, I think in itself it's a powerful message of defiance and transparency.  Yes, this is what we have to deal with and yes, I will be coming into work tomorrow to try and change the perception of people like that.

I've only worked for Microsoft for a year and a half and to borrow a phrase from my previous employer's co-founder, Robert Noyce; “Don’t be encumbered by the past, go out and do something wonderful!”.  I'm too interested in the cool stuff Microsoft do to pay attention to all the history and stuff that surrounds the company like a mist of FUD.  I'm here to shout about the stuff that excites me, the technology.  Mr. Noyce said go and do something wonderful, so tomorrow that's what Darren and I are going to do.

What would you do?

UPDATE*****

I should have been more clear about what I was referring to as "personal attack".  Someone wrote this comment on Darren's blog:

"Got your little feelings hurt? Good. But a far cry from good enough. The day they put you on the electric chair, I'm going to watch and applaud for the justice done."

Technorati tags: Abuse, Work

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Hey Pete If i bump into anyone out the front of TVP with a billboard I'll know who to blame ;-) I think the guy who made that accusation had been watching too many movies!

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 21, 2007
    Sounds similar to my blog entry http://scottisafool.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!FABDDDC5CAD93494!1886.entry about people hiding behind anonymity SL

  • Anonymous
    May 21, 2007
    Hey It comes with the territory, people don't like Microsoft, it may be Microsoft's "Monopoly" troubles, or its battles with the Linux Community, but that is no excuse for being rude. I do personally think that Microsoft will have to follow IBM's lead since Microsoft has been the "new" IBM since the early 90s, if Microsoft wants to improve their image then they need to embrace open standards. Open standards is much of a ideal then a requirement, much of the formats we use today are certainly not open source or free, but its certainly where the market is heading. I have a few problems with Open XML, the main fear is that Microsoft will update the spec and deprecate old specs, which in turn will lead to incompatibility. I guess the main thing that makes a open standard "open" is that is stays more or less the same throughout the software that uses it, and updating that spec calls for creating a whole new spec that software makers can choose to or not to support. My question is how can Microsoft deal with updating a spec with deprecating it?

  • Anonymous
    May 22, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 22, 2007
    This is absolutly disgusting. No one no matter what company or organisation you work for, you shouldn't have to put up with the rantings of small minded bigots. These kind of things are getting more and more apparent see here for reminder: http://tinyurl.com/32s5p3 I applaud Darren for having the resolve and integrity to allow these comments to remain on his blog, it shows far more than the shortcoming of the "comment" poster. Darren here's you to and the great blog!

  • Anonymous
    May 23, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    May 31, 2007
    thanks for all the encouragement everyone. Especially from those who may disagree with my opinions but still believe there is value in discussion.  It is you that I blog for and I'm proud to count myself as one of you.  We have to rise above and be better.

  • Anonymous
    July 12, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 23, 2008
    The comment has been removed