Since Satya Nadella took over as CEO of Microsoft at the start of 2014, Microsoft's employees have been on a roller coaster.
He's presided over multiple layoffs including cutting 18,000 people in 2014 and thousands in the following years.
On the other hand, he's also changed Microsoft's culture. Gone are the combative rivalries, the dreaded employee stack review system and the obsessive focus on Windows.
Nadella's Microsoft, which shocked the world this month by buying LinkedIn for $26.2 billion, has regained a lot of buzz. And for the most part, employees are loving the new Microsoft. Nadella has a 93% approval rating on job hunting site Glassdoor.
Based on comments on Glassdoor, Quora and other sources, here are the best and worst things about working at Microsoft:
No. 5 best thing: Great salary and benefitsWikipediaMicrosoft employees rate the benefits package as a 4.4 stars our of 5. The mean pay across all titles in 2015 was $137,000, Glassdoor found.
"Bar none the salary, perks and benefits exceed all of my former employers and I've worked at some very good companies," says one former employee.
No. 4 best thing: Diversity in the work you can doBusiness Insider
Microsoft makes money on a huge assortment of tech products and employees can and do move from team to team. But they can also simply collaborate to build new stuff.
"Because Microsoft has so many product offerings, it is easier here to take a little from Column A, a little from Column B, and make something new and different and exciting," one long-time Microsoft employee wrote on Quora.
No. 3 best thing: InfluenceReuters/Eduardo Munoz
"Sounds like a cliché, but you get the chance to work on products used by everyone," says one engineer on Quora.
No. 2 best thing: the CEOGetty Images/Mat Hayward
Because of all the changes, most employees say they think CEO Satya Nadella is taking Microsoft in the right direction. "Got its groove back with Satya," says one.
Another says, "Life under Satya is MUCH better than under [former CEO Steve] Ballmer, no question."
No. 1 best thing: working with great peopleReuters
Under Nadella, there's a new emphasis on teamwork and collaboration, rather than competition and glory grabbing.
"Microsoft values its employees. The culture also shifted in recent years from super individual competitor to making others successful and team work which reduced stress level at work to low," says one employee.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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