Orange Badges: Contracting at Microsoft: "I will never work on a contract at Microsoft again, the abuse is horrendous. They want the best, with the most killer resume, perfect references, the ability to pass every kind of background check known to human kind, and to know how to walk on water at the same time, while beating the crap out of you for being smarter, faster, wiser, kinder, more human and not a child carnivore. I have had it with illegal behavior, insults, being treated worse than an animal and forced to work insane hours with no lunch, bathroom or go-home-at-night breaks, with 4 or more people to a windowless, airless closet, overseen by psychotics. Why not just import slaves from a third world country - oh yeah, you're selling our jobs to third world countries. The last contract I was awarded was with a manager so mentally ill, she was shrieking that I should already been done with brand new tasks that she had not yet told me about yet - now that is ill. She just wanted something living to abuse and humiliate and she got someone with more lawyers than she has voices in her morbidly obese head. Just say NO to recruiters when they shop this abuse to you. There are many legal, humane and just employers out here. Never ever go back!"
Orange Badges gives you the inside scoop on contractors @ Microsoft. Hope this guy doesn't have any firearms...
At my previous job, I noticed a smell in our office above an antique store. Crossing off the usual candidates of varnish, primer & the aftermaths of jerk chicken from our developer in the back, I figured out it was natural gas. We all went outside to get some fresh air and noticed a group of construction workers, who all looked under 18, and their foreman, high-tailing it up the street. I asked the foreman if there was any problems. "Nope, all under control" as he was jogging away from the smell.
I got on 911 and made an emergency call to the fire department. Soon other people started coming out of the buildings around us. The fire department showed up, along with what looked like the SWAT team and told us there had been a gas main cut right next to a daycare.
After about half-an-hour the smell was still really rank, but our boss told us all to head back to work and get some billable hours in. I think "Slap the puppy" was the phrase he used.
Of course, that was one of the happiest days of my life, because it was the day after I handed in my 2 weeks notice, so I told him I was going for a walk.
