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Woman claims Microsoft caused her PTSD

July 10, 2012 @ 2:10 am (Updated: 10:55 am - 7/10/12 )

Listen to Woman claims Microsoft caused her PTSD

How does your company evaluate employees?

Is the system fair, or are there workers who don't perform well yet keep their jobs because they excel at sucking up to the boss?

MSFTMicrosoft has about 92,000 employees worldwide, minus one married couple who worked for the company for about six years each before the evaluation system known as "Stack Ranking" destroyed them, they say.

"It was hard to get out of the darkness and see clearly," Melissa says.

"We experienced burnout at a level we didn't think was possible," says Jason. "It feels like you're not yourself."

Microsoft burnout is nothing new. The endless work days some employees put in so they can get ahead at the company is almost legendary.

An August "Vanity Fair" article, examining Microsoft's failures over the past decade, concludes the company's employee evaluation system contributes to worker burnout and stress, and "effectively crippled Microsoft's ability to innovate."

Stack Ranking is like "grading on a curve" in school, where there is a pre-determined distribution of grades among the students in a class.

Under this system, in a group of 10 employees one is rated outstanding, one or two are at the bottom of the ranking, and the rest are in muddled in the middle.

Jason says stack ranking isn't entirely objective. It's based on judgments such as "how much your manager likes you, or how much visibility you have beyond your immediate team."

It's a popularity contest.

Jason and Melissa both worked in Microsoft IT and tell me they performed well. Jason says he was promoted every year for the almost 7 years he was there. Melissa received the top review one year after working 12 hour days and taking on extra projects.

"I really did put a lot into my work at Microsoft and it was important to me. You feel like you put so much into your work and end up wondering why it's not being valued," Melissa says.

In 2005, Melissa says she was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder brought on by the "hostile" Microsoft workplace and lack of support from managers.

"I just couldn't think. It was hard to make decisions," Melissa says, describing her PTSD symptoms. "I was very emotional. On the ride home from work every night, I would just cry all the way."

She kept working for the company two years after being diagnosed with PTSD, and then resigned. She says her condition has improved after being on medication for a year to treat her anxiety.

"I could survive there. I could do well. I finally learned the game, but I decided I didn't want to participate anymore. It wasn't for me," she says.

In 2009, one year after complaining to Human Resources about his manager, Jason was laid off.

"It feels like it took away a dream," he says. "I believed I could do something big at Microsoft. When a new manager comes in, all of your great accomplishments can be wiped clean and you have to start all over again."

Jason and Melissa didn't want me to use their last names for this story, but they did attach their Microsoft badge numbers to a book they published this year to help other employees cope with the company's evaluation system. It's called "Stack Rank This! Memoirs of a Microsoft Couple."

Microsoft hasn't commented to the couple about the book. They also won't comment to me about the couple's claims, but they defend stack ranking.

"Our performance review system is designed to measure employees' relative performance across the company using consistent criteria, improve manager accountability, and provide the highest rewards to employees who have the highest impact on our business success," a spokesperson says. "We take employee concerns seriously and work continually to update and improve our performance review system."

Many other corporations use a similar employee evaluation system.

General Electric, Pepsi, Intel and about one third of Fortune 500 organizations use some form of stack ranking, also called profiling, to weed out low-performing employees.

Managers say the most beneficial part of stack ranking is identifying the high performers so they can take proactive steps to prevent them from leaving or being recruited elsewhere.

By LINDA THOMAS

Microsoft photo of entrance to Building 99 on the Microsoft Redmond Campus

More from Linda Thomas

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Comments (38)


  • Add A Comment

  • Steamboat wrote...
    Real Life
    July 10, 2012 5:31 am
    I think they need to go work at a company that has Unions. There they wouldn't be judged by their performance. They could sit around and do nothing or be a great performing employee and everyone would get paid the same. Stack ranking is pretty much how all employees that are not union protected rate and pay their employees. If you do well you get paid more and get better perks. If you perform bad you don't get raises or you get fired. Thats kind of real life. She's saying she got stressed out because in order to get raises she had to perform high at work. Thats how it should be!! Like I said, if you can't handle the stress of that, go work for a union.
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  • Burn_Notice wrote...
    Uh Huh....Right...............
    July 10, 2012 5:36 am
    and I am sure Microsoft Water-boarded her too. BTW, how was that PTSD doing each day she chose to work there and cash a paycheck every couple weeks?

    I swear our county is full of people who want to make excuse for everything or slap a label on something and call it a disorder. Put her on a plane send her to China to make iPad's for $3 a day and then have her complain about her stressful and hostile work environment.

    There are always Bikini Barista jobs available if she would prefer a more immediate broad-based job performance review.

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  • btedd wrote...
    PTSD?
    July 10, 2012 5:47 am
    Insane, this story has devalued the definition of PTSD for me. If PTSD can be diagnosed for someone who is merely stressed at work from working long hours, getting criticized for substandard work, and not getting enough help, then I'll venture to say that I, along with 75% of the working population, too suffer from the same malady. My guess is the stress for this couple comes not from the rigors of their jobs, but from the realization that they were too mentally and socially feable in all aspects of life.
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  • Steamboat wrote...
    Work hard get paid well
    July 10, 2012 5:53 am
    When I was a supervisor for about 15 people a few years back, my boss came to me when it was time for raises and told me, "Here is some money. Get your top 2-3 people and divvy it up between those people. Don't give any to the low performers". That seemed pretty fair to me. On the other hand, this weekend I was talking to a group of union janitors who where enrolled in a college course to get a specific license. They told me that the union said if they take the course they will get a raise. They didn't even have to pass the test at the end to get the license, they just had to participate. Talk about no incentive to do better in life. Congratulations unions, you have destroyed the American worker.
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  • Forrest wrote...
    "Congratulations unions, you have destroyed the American worker".
    July 10, 2012 6:57 am
    Congratulations big business, you pay your workers minimum wage with no benefits forcing them to join a union which destroys America.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Sean wrote...
    Steamboat,
    July 10, 2012 1:01 pm
    that is sad news indeed. That kind of mentality will doom a nation.
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  • Ted Bundi wrote...
    "She kept working for the company two years after..."
    July 10, 2012 6:16 am
    Nuff said, her choice.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • ron prevost wrote...
    POOR BABIES> . And here I was thinking PTSD had something to do with real stress - LIKE WAR ???
    July 10, 2012 6:17 am
    Well, I guess 'stress' can be anything you want it to be. And I do get stressed when my dog has an 'accident' inside the house. I'm not sure how 'traumatic' that is, but... ... But, I'm self employed, and I don't have a union or a HR department to protect me. So should I just go directly to the hospital ER? ... And will this be covered by ObamaCare? ..MORE stress.

    .

    At least now I have a new found respect for the brave men and women working for MicroSoft. I never knew how traumatically stressful making a six figure income for being a nerd can be. .. Must be their mortgages on their Sammamish mega-houses.

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  • adiru wrote...
    Forced to be better than her coworkers?
    July 10, 2012 6:18 am
    There's nothing wrong with recognition of outstanding employees or the ones who for one reason or another are either struggling or should not even be in that job capacity. As the article states, there is the middle 80%. Nobody forced this woman to be above this group. She could have stayed within that pack but she would have gotten less pay. Merit has its rewards so it was her decision.
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  • cg5611 wrote...
    get a clue
    July 10, 2012 6:33 am
    it'a all abour human nature. Whether you're union or non. Alot of people never get beyond the highschool clique mentality. THAT is what makes an excellent employee stressed. If you can not break into the bosses/supervisors group no matter how good you are you will not be recognized. Unions to some degree have ruined things. I do not agree with guarrenteed job clauses and other things; there are very few poeple willing to pay a union wage for good workers. I've worked in both atmospheres and it all came down to the whiners and slackers. The squeeky wheel get the grease and only when everything goes to pieces do the bosses see they paid too much attention to the whiners and slackers and not enought to the workers with an actual work ethic.
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  • Zagnut wrote...
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS7nqwGt4-I
    July 10, 2012 6:33 am
    .
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  • DesertRez wrote...
    Non-PC
    July 10, 2012 7:18 am
    "I just couldn't think. It was hard to make decisions," Melissa says, describing her PTSD symptoms. "I was very emotional. On the ride home from work every night, I would just cry all the way."

    Isn't that just being a woman?

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