back to article Nadella says senior management pay now linked to improving gender diversity

Karma no longer seems to be the main factor in improving gender diversity at Microsoft, with CEO Microsoft Satya Nadella saying the compensation of the senior team is now anchored to making progress on the issue. Speaking at the launch of his book Hit Refresh at the Lords Cricket Ground, Nadella said: "When we talk about the …

  1. Rajiv_Chaudri

    Diversity used to have a positive meaning in the Silicon Valley. The American Dream used to mean that any person, of any sex, any race or religion can succeed in the USA based on their Merit and Achievements.

    Today, Silicon Valley has turned "Diversity" into an ugly code word for "Acceptable, selective racism."

    In the Silicon Valley now, many companies have blatantly racist "Diversity" programs that will hire a less qualified Black candidate over a more qualified Indian, Chinese, Korean, White, etc. The "privileged" black candidate gets hiring preference simply because of the color of their skin.

    America is going down an ugly slippery spiral of "acceptable racism" in the name of diversity. Whoever cries the loudest seems to get the most pampering. These corporations are essentially being held hostage by a few self-entitled racists.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Some groups now afraid that accepting a lower pay is no longer a simple way to get the job of a more skilled applicant?

    2. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Today,

      Nothing new about it. Not particularly American problem either.

      For example, most Eastern European countries had different entry criteria for men and women to try to balance things. As a result, it was relatively easy for a guy to get into life sciences or for a girl into physics while the opposite took straight As and sometimes even that was not enough.

      USSR went even further. It had equalization quotas based on nationalities. They were defined based on percentage of the population. As a result nationalities with higher than average education level like Jews had trouble getting into the top end universities even with straight As. At the same time some of the more "obscure" minorities pretty much just needed to show up. So, it is not surprising that the USSR equal opportunities program is always quoted as a classic example of anti-Semitism.

      One of the first things to go after the fall of the wall was the equal opportunities program.

      I have no opinion what is right or wrong here - history shows that BOTH approaches (leaving things to itself and affirmative action) have their downsides.

      1. Commswonk

        ...history shows that BOTH approaches (leaving things to itself and affirmative action) have their downsides.

        Or to put it another way life is inherently unfair. Get used to it.

    3. This post has been deleted by its author

    4. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Flame

      "America is going down an ugly slippery spiral of 'acceptable racism' in the name of diversity."

      has been happening since the concept of racial (and sex) hiring quotas were introduced as "a way" of ensuring that discrimination doesn't happen (back in the 60's) - which of course means discrimination DOES happen in the name of anti-discrimination.

      Stupid l[aw]yers. Stupid politicians. Stupid gummint. Stupid liberals.

      Must be some "quota hire" that thunk THAT one up

  2. tiggity Silver badge

    Tactics

    So the tactical PHB has a word with some of the men they are in charge of...

    "I get a pay rise if we get more women, but obviously you want to keep your job"

    "I will split some of that cash if you claim to be transgender and identify as female (getting our female numbers up, as if anyone says, "no, you are a bloke" then its jump on the LGBT(etc) persecution HR route & you get lots of discrim cash & split some with me)"

    We both get richer, you keep your job, Female numbers up. Win, win.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's always amusing when these men come on here to whinge about how they are being discriminated against, especially so if they play the LGBT card. Surely, the canonical definition of snowflake.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      especially so if they play the LGBT card

      Well of course. That's one thing that has NO PLACE IN THE WORKPLACE.

      I really don't mind what people get up to in their bedrooms, nor with whom. My wife and I were married by a gay vicar (brilliant bloke, the Cof E did NOT approve of him, but wouldn't take action against him).

      But whilst I don't go round shouting "Hey! Hetero-guy here! Look at me in my masculine trousers! Do you know what me and a female woman did in bed last night? Would you like to see my chest hair ladies!", a significant minority of LGBT individuals seem to want to broadcast their proclivities, be thanked for it, and still bloody whine that they're being dealt a shit hand in the workplace. Look at the fabulous own goal the National Trust scored by foisting a Guardian-columnist LGBT agenda on their unpaid volunteers - what the fuck was the point of that, other than to please the LGBT-activists? And on that subject, worth noting that decent politically active people of an LGBT persuasion like Peter Tatchell have been targeted by the moronic ingrate LGBT militants.

      I'll say it again, I don't mind what you get up to at home. But don't expect special treatment because of what you do there. If there's snowflakes here, it's the militant LGBT twerps, getting a bad name for the majority of LGBT types who simply wish to be allowed to get on with their lives without being labelled and fitted to a quota.

      1. katrinab Silver badge

        I think you will find it is the "moronic ingrate" LBTIQA militants who don't like Peter Tatchell, because he focuses on the G part of the alphabet to the exclusion of everyone else.

      2. wallaby

        "decent politically active people of an LGBT persuasion like Peter Tatchell "

        Wasn't he the leader of the group who outed people in the public eye regardless of whether they chose to be outed or not ? I hardly think (whoever it was if it wasn't him) that they deserve the "decently politically active" tag, rather "invader of privacy troll"

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Quality over quantity...

    Within the field of technology shouldn't you be focusing on qualifications over gender? It doesn't matter if the person is a male, female or AI as long as he, she or it is qualified.

    Which is another thing: people keep talking about the "Technology sector" and all but in the end it's still evolved around commercial companies which try to make money. And in order to do that they hire the people which they deem fit for the job. Their company, their environment, their payroll, their jobs.

    And with that also comes their right to include or exclude certain people I think.

    1. Commswonk

      Re: Quality over quantity...

      Within the field of technology shouldn't you be focusing on qualifications over gender?

      (Pause for thought)

      Within the field of technology work shouldn't you be focusing on qualifications over gender?

      If I was in hospital facing complicated surgery I would want the surgeon to be the very most qualified and experienced, not the one who could accumulate the greatest number of ticks in "disadvantaged" boxes or the one who is there based on some sort of "quota".

      1. GrumpyOldBloke

        Re: Quality over quantity...

        The old hospital surgery straw man, well not for much longer. You can lie there happy knowing that diversity makes us stronger. Though some security was missed in the hospital electronics, a performance bias was included that considers your relative worth on the rainbow scale and your privilege level. While you might die, a cross dressing Latino man may live. See how warm and fuzzy that makes you feel. Similarly the AI in your self driving car will be capable of split second value judgments as to who should live and who should die in a collision, even if a circuitous route is needed to reach that outcome. Diversity is not just about gender, sexual orientation and colour but about value and intent.

      2. bombastic bob Silver badge
        Trollface

        Re: Quality over quantity...

        everyone knows that quota hiring and "diversity" is much better than quality or qualifications. Get with the political correctness!!! </snark>

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Quality over quantity...

        Surgery is still a highly technical matter...

        The problem is people outside the technical world don't understand (or do, but don't like it) the fact that outcomes can be measured quantitatively without ambiguity, and thereby you can tell who is factually more skilled.

        That's very different from the "arts" world (including politics) were value is subjective. You just need to gather enough "consensus" that your work is more valuable - hoping no one cries "the emperor has no clothes!".

        Still, the same "arts" world may be one of the less diverse you can see... strictly tied in canons you can't violate.

  5. keithpeter Silver badge
    Windows

    Numbers

    The magic of numbers.

    Numerical targets lead to strange phenomena in my experience.

    What the computeration business needs to do is just be grown up and accept people on the basis of what they can produce.

    And, sure, outreach programs to your local community, code clubs &c to give people a chance to find out what computeration is all about.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let's face it, less than 10% of your co-workers do 100%

    40% does 60%, and the rest is dead weight between meetings and long bathroom breaks.

    The Women and Minority hires have definitely not helped these numbers.

    I could talk about them as individuals, unfortunately, they were hired, not based

    on meritocracy but because of their gender, skin color or religious beliefs.

    Screw'em and the extra work they cause others.

    1. keithpeter Silver badge
      Windows

      Symptom of bullshit job

      "40% does 60%, and the rest is dead weight between meetings and long bathroom breaks."

      I'm a teacher. In teaching, there is, I can assure you, no dead weight. You sink or swim. Your colleagues will know which within a couple of weeks. In the UK, teaching jobs have a one year 'probationary period' - which is HR speak for 'if you are crap we can get rid of you quickly'. My posse is diverse, to the extent of being like a Benneton poster. We can all deliver. Students find familiar faces and body shapes reassuring. Teaching is not a bullshit job.

      What I'm sneaking up to here is a 'challenging question' (as we say in teaching)

      Are most IT jobs actually bullshit jobs where the performance in the role actually has little impact on the org?

      1. John H Woods Silver badge

        Re: Symptom of bullshit job

        "Are most IT jobs actually bullshit jobs where the performance in the role actually has little impact on the org?"

        Yes.

        1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

          Re: Symptom of bullshit job

          "Are most IT jobs actually bullshit jobs where the performance in the role actually has little impact on the org?"

          I second the "yes" comment.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Symptom of bullshit job

        Our Higher Managements is, and guess where "Those" hires aspire to...

        I need a bigger stick, or I can go back down the chain and enjoy getting dirty again.

        I already do both side of IM/IT anyways.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Symptom of bullshit job

        This is a bullshit comment.

        My experience of teachers, is unsurprisingly, like everything else that there are some very good ones and some very bad ones with many somwhere in between.

        Probationary periods are not something exclusive to teaching but near universal.

        On the diversity of your 'posse' teaching is a a notoriously sexist profession with a disproportionate number of women and a high attrition rate for men. The commonest reason given by men leaving the profession early is fear of unfounded accusations against men.

        Teaching obviously has a serious sexism problem if you go to the NUT website and follow the equality link they have pages for black, LGBT, disable and women teachers (who are a massive majority anyway!) but nothing for men. The NUT obviously considers equality fine as long as it does not apply to men. This certainly was my experience at school with a number of women teachers being quite openly sexist and making disparaging comments about boys in general. When you consider the relatively poor performanc eof boys at school this should be a much bigger concern than the supposed issue in technology.

        1. keithpeter Silver badge
          Windows

          Re: Symptom of bullshit job

          @AC

          "teaching is a a notoriously sexist profession"

          I'd accept that there is an institutional gender bias. Teaching in primary schools offers mandatory hours and a calendar that fits well with having children, so attractive to people who are the main carers in a family, and that I accept is still predominantly women. I accept the point about the scarcity of men in primary sector - but teacher gender ratios closer (but not equal to) parity in secondary, the figures I can find are in the 60% to 65% women range. College sector (where I teach) is in my experience closer to parity.

          "This certainly was my experience at school with a number of women teachers being quite openly sexist and making disparaging comments about boys in general."

          I used to hear that kind of stuff in 90s/00s but not so much recently at College level. There is an awareness that boys/men are underperforming and there are attempts to counter that.

          My team/group whatever is 5 chaps and 4 chapesses

          Opinions vary. Most Colleges and adult education settings will welcome volunteers subject to dbs if you have time to spare. Many have found the experience illuminating.

          1. Alan Johnson

            Re: Symptom of bullshit job

            Teaching not sexist?

            "This certainly was my experience at school with a number of women teachers being quite openly sexist and making disparaging comments about boys in general."

            I used to hear that kind of stuff in 90s/00s but not so much recently at College level. There is an awareness that boys/men are underperforming and there are attempts to counter that.

            So teachers can make disparaging sexist commente to large numbers of children and nobody blinks an eye. If I said any such remark against women to a single adult let alone a roomful it woudl be worng and I would be in serious trouble.

            The awareness of boys underpeforming may be wide spread but the NUT equality information only has information to support for women, LGBT, disabled and black as does the NASUWT web site.

            We constantly hear about th3 need for more women in technology but nothing about men in schools. In technology there is little reason to think diversity directly relates to the quality of output whereas there is research suggesting problems with boys taught exclusively by women teachers. An OECD report showing strong gender bias by women teachers against boys being just one.

            Yes the teaching profession has a serious sexism problem especially comapred to science and technology.

        2. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Devil

          Re: Symptom of bullshit job

          "The commonest reason given by men leaving the [teaching] profession early is fear of unfounded accusations against men."

          /me plays 'Don't Stand so Close to Me" by Sting & the Police

          (I hear Sting used to be a teacher)

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Trollface

      "40% does 60%, and the rest is dead weight between meetings and long bathroom breaks."

      you mean long SMOKE breaks. There, I fixed for ya.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    In the UK the senior team is split 50-50...

    Yes, there's the management team (men) and their PAs (women). Equality reached!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: In the UK the senior team is split 50-50...

      "Yes, there's the management team (men) and their PAs (women). Equality reached"

      In my experience the PAs do 90% of the work!

  8. Arthur the cat Silver badge
    Trollface

    So they've given up on improving their software?

    1. Citizens untied
    2. herman

      If they subtract $1 from the executive pay for each reported security bug, then MS revenue will climb.

  9. a_yank_lurker

    Dear Slurp Head PHB

    I do not gave a damn about your diversity efforts when you produce crappy products such as Bloat 10. Start producing quality products that make sense in the marketplace then worry about diversity. Otherwise there be nothing to diversify.

    Signed - a diversity token

  10. inmypjs Silver badge

    Simple solution...

    If you are a bloke and want a job at Microsoft (no idea why you would) just tell the stupid libtard fucks you identify as a woman.

    They will be gagging to hire you.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Simple solution...

      I will never Work at such a drone factory ever again.

      They've actually pitched two positions to me over the last ten years.

      I told them I'm never going back. Their management is delusional.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Now the search for the ultimate diversity employee starts.

    Criteria, any race other than white (preferably transracial), religion muslim or jewish or some recognized religion other than anything those based on Jesus, transgender, LGBTQXYZ (whatever it is now), have a mental disability, a physical disability, a military veteran that is over 50. This one person will then count as nine people on the diversity charts maybe more if they have schizophrenia.

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Re: Now the search for the ultimate diversity employee starts.

      "religion muslim or jewish or some recognized religion other than anything those based on Jesus"

      Um...Jesus is an important prophet in Islam...

      1. herman

        Re: Now the search for the ultimate diversity employee starts.

        I'm a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist Confusion, you insensitive clod.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Now the search for the ultimate diversity employee starts.

          Sorry best add trans religious in there and trans age too.

      2. Kurt Meyer

        Re: Now the search for the ultimate diversity employee starts.

        @ Trevor Pott

        "Um...Jesus is an important prophet in Islam...

        Um...Islam, not exactly "a religion based on Jesus"...

    2. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: Now the search for the ultimate diversity employee starts.

      "military veteran that is over 50"

      Yeah, I _WISH_ that gave me an advantage. More likely to get AGE DISCRIMINATION because I believe I'm worth more [or am more willing to bargain for higher wages] for all of that experience, tend to speak up to those "young whippersnappers" who _FEEL_ (not think) that their ideas are "so great" [but obviously aren't, to an old guy], etc. etc..

      [it's never fair]

      1. Kurt Meyer

        Re: Now the search for the ultimate diversity employee starts.

        @ bombastic bob

        Bob, there seems to be precious little room in the multi-culti, gender-bender crowd for any recognition of, much less any discussion of, age discrimination. As you are well aware, it is out there in the workplace, and it is growing, not shrinking.

  12. Steven Guenther

    Female CEO

    So they NEED to get a female CEO to show the world how progressive they are.

    Let him see HIS JOB on the block.

    1. katrinab Silver badge

      Re: Female CEO

      As long as it's not an idiot like Meg Whitman, Carly Fiorinia, Dido Harding or Marissa Mayer. There are plenty of useless men as CEOs as well, I could go on for ever, but still, people like them give women a bad name.

      1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

        Re: Female CEO

        "people like them give women a bad name"

        So a handful of female CEOs that screwed up "give women a bad name", but thousands of years and millions of male leaders of companies/governments/transcontinental empires etc. don't give men a bad name?

        Look, I question the validity of affirmative action as much as the next guy, but dude, that's some completely unsupportable sexist bullshit right there. What the fuck.

        1. katrinab Silver badge

          Re: Female CEO

          “So a handful of female CEOs that screwed up "give women a bad name", but thousands of years and millions of male leaders of companies/governments/transcontinental empires etc. don't give men a bad name?”

          Yes, I know. It shouldn’t be like that, but it is.

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Female CEO

            The problem is one of ratios. For every Emma Walmsley there's a Liv Garfield and a Veronique Laurent.

            Whilst we have good male Prime Ministers to balance out the majority of awful ones, on the female side there is no one, just Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May - both almost pure evil.

            Or with monarchs, Liz 2 and Victoria don't erase the memory of Mary 1 and Liz 1.

            Marjorie Scardino was massively better than John Fallon, but John is just another male CEO whereas Marjorie was a one-off.

    2. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge

      Re: Female CEO

      @Steven Guenther

      Let him see HIS JOB on the block.

      Or, offer himself up for gender reassignment surgery - i,e HIS XXOB on the block. Instant Transgender CEO at Microsoft.

      1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
        Joke

        Re: Female CEO

        PS to my earlier post -

        If Nadella elects to have gender reassignment surgery whilst CEO of Microsoft, then he'll be eligible for enhanced remuneration under his gender diversity plan.

        1. bombastic bob Silver badge
          Joke

          Re: Female CEO

          "If Nadella elects to have gender reassignment surgery whilst CEO of Microsoft, then he'll be eligible for enhanced remuneration under his gender diversity plan."

          and what if you could CROSS THE LINE TWICE???

      2. Steven Guenther

        Re: Female CEO

        Is that what happened at Apple?

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Diversity for diversity's sake leads to lowered standards

    Enforced social goals is usually at odds with meritocracy.

  14. travisgriggs@gmail.com

    There are two more social strata that aren't being militantly enforced. Yet. I'm waiting for them.

    Age Diversity. Too many old people at the top. Too many young people at McDonalds. Obviously, for a company to be successful, and approved, and worthy of my business, it should have an age distribution that matches the world's global age distribution.

    Intelligence Diversity. Google employs too many smart people. This is unfair. I'm just an average guy that thinks he's slightly better than average. Google would be better if they employed a better cross section of intelligence and aptitudes. I want an interview process that accommodates me and my less-than-stellar-riddle-solving-skills better.

  15. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Trollface

      "23% will be muslim"

      I think conservative christians are way under-represented. Hire more of THEM. And while we're making RELIGION a quota, how about POLITICS?

  16. Reg T.

    At least the little Aryan

    isn't pushing "free" vaccines yet. Or, hasn't purchased an NBA plantation yet. What could one expect from MS other than BS?

    His "earlier" statement concerning females was likely based on a long-held affection for Sati.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    A politically incorrect defence of diversity

    A few years ago, a 3/4 of a million pound project I was working on came grinding to a halt when a crucial document for a critical path task turned out to have been sent to us in Chinese script. I couldn't even stick it into a translation website because there weren't any letters to type.

    Fortunately, thanks to my organisation's fondness for diversity, all I needed to do was walk over to a colleague with the right facial features and ask "can you read this?" - five minutes and two coffees later and he'd annotated the margins with the details that I needed to know and the project was moving once again.

    Diversity isn't, or shouldn't be, about fairness or about who is better at the core skills that your team requires. It's about having a diverse set of other skills in case you need them someday. Literally nobody thought my project would require Chinese language skills.

    Yes, there are things that women are more likely to be good at than men and there are things that men are more likely to be good at than women. As long as they're good enough at the core skills then hedging your bets at having access to as wide a set of other skills, hobbies, knowledges and contacts as possible is a reasonable business strategy.

    Quotas or dedicated diversity posts I don't approve of. Nor do I like too rigid a definition of what is diverse. By my reckoning furries can be diversity hires just fine, as can morris dancers or kabaddi players, if those are not already overrepresented.

  18. Sssss

    This area is so wrong. Work actually depends on merit, suitability, performance and availability etc. Sure, you make some concessions for diversity, but on the average there are just areas where women or men perform better. To hire past this is just plain sexism.

    Now, what he said to start with, male or female, if you fight and go on in the workplace, you are not really happy promotional material. Now, even in wage negotiation there are tricks. In male testosterone dominated professions, testosterone leads to submission and dominance srtuctures in chain of command. If you have a ignoramus, knuckle dragger, thug, you are in trouble. However, some psychological research in the 1980's finally got away from fanciful research onto some concrete stuff, instead of trying to prove whatever colorful idea they wanted to justify their beliefs. They found if women spoke to men contentiously in the study (classic feminism) men would get their backs up and resist. But if they spoke calmly, gently/softly (maybe also assertively, I forget) the men were far more likely to agree. Which was pretty obviouse, but not to everyone by the looks of it. Whiny little voices are grating, male or female. I heard a football player talking on the TV today in his whiny little voice, and it was so grating, it was like I could not do any work at all. Imagine that nagging, it is sort of fighting territory among males. Among certain technical males (see below) it actually produces pain due to medical issues, and they can find female voices too penetrating for work. If that suits your high performance work force, then you have issues. Another illustration, I have a freind, she is very testosterone dominant, and a real handful otherwise. I use exactly the same technique as above on her, with great success, otherwise she gets into dominance fighting mood. For short periods she goes into submissive estrogen dominance (note estrogen is produced from testosterone, as is DHT, the so called extra aggressive form of testosterone. So, it is possible to be high in all three by the looks of it. So, upside down triangular upper body shape is from testosterone, pear lower body shape estrogen I think. This is only one of a number of axis's of human personality). On either side, you have to learn to deal with what you have got in yourself, and deal with other people.

    So, the tech industry itself has bigger issues than above. The tech industry draws very heavily on autism spectrum disorder Asperger's people, not the most imaginative or touchy feely, understand your feelings etc. They have greater technical ability, can be associated with being socially withdrawn, less interpersonal ability, inflexible, distinct thoughts of the way things are done, internalisation and developing self hypothesis of the world around them and how it works. Because of this, they may reach very bad conclusions and need freinds to talk with and reflect with, growing up and on the way, in order to check their understanding. There are a number of times less females with aspergers than males, but people with aspergers are prime people to hire in technical industries due to performance. Now, when you combine this with interest and aptitude of women to seek his type of work, along with comittment, maternity (it would be truelly sexist to leave it out) and all the other things, it is truely unethical to demand a 50/50 employment split in particular areas like that. Now, the truth is, that the exec jobs are probably less on the Asperger's side, but you still get the other issues. Here is the cruncher on these high commitment jobs, it is like the committment of a woman raising a family, you have to be available 24 hours a day as needed, and work longer hours, there is not time for another family (so, you have a partner looking after it). It does not leave the time for women to devote the time and raise the family (the normal work market is already producing huge issues) and many women want to do this. So, the point is that diversity will help decisions be more balance, as well as learning respect for each other, and there are naturally talented competitive females to hire as well. See, a job may strongly, or less so, favour one sex over another, but strongly or not there are still people in the other group that have more ability than their peers who would make great employees in the job. So, we can expect a job to suit between 0-100% of either group. It's not sexism, but practicality. However, wouldn't any boss that demands a 50/50 split to the detriment of the company be at risk of shareholder class action over potential looses?

    The real issue is certain women, like some men, do not respect how other women work. What happens when you get high testosterone women who think, like men, that they should be top, but also all other women need this and should think like them, especially, in their eyes, those pesky little lowly house wives (thus transfering their desires onto them). Thankfully that obnoxious viewpoint seems to be less these days, but at the same time, women in sports and excercise has increased testosterone.

    A finale area is concentration of benefit, and productivity. You can do a job that does not produce much or concentrate much benefit, and not get much pay. You can do a job where you are responsible for 10-1 million times more productivity and benefit, and get paid more (and hopefully not one of those sevices jobs which is just unproductive money leeching). Men tend to do and invent these sorts of jobs, like it is their children.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How about the media takes responsibility for making tech, the sciences and engineering seem unattractive to well... everyone. We need less liberal arts students and more stem students.

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Trollface

      "We need less liberal arts students and more stem students."

      what, don't you need people to deliver your PIZZA? A liberal arts degree is pretty good qualification for THAT...

  20. Destroy All Monsters Silver badge
    Windows

    Good idea mylord! (Of course i't s a good idea!)

    Because forcefully pulling in people who are neither particularly interested nor particularly competent in the subject matter for reasons unrelated to products and services will do wonders for Microsoft's blingy stuff.

    I can't wait until Microsoft's employee structure reflects exactly the percentages of a segmentation of the world's population (as made up by some harebrained diversity guru; since USA groups everything to the east of Alexander the Great's empire under "Asian" this could mean anything). Definitely a "goal-directed outcome" or whatever it is called.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      "forcefully pulling in people who are neither particularly interested"

      Believe me, they are very interested in the salary they can get - if they don't have to work much because their lack of competencies the better. Note that all this crazy started when IT jobs became appealing especially from a salary perspective, and also because the associated social status increased. Also, for some strange reasons, it is believed to be a "easy" job.

      For a long time time the same jobs have been neglected - up to the point that being a "programmer" or anyway someone "working with computers" was something you shouldn't tell too loud at parties.

      Just look, for example, at movies: how many main characters have been IT people, instead of law/advertising/financial/medical/arts people? And how were the characters usually depicted?

      Now the smartphone and app developer made the IT job appealing to people who despised it just yesterday, and want the money.

  21. Jtom

    Don't talk to me about racial and gender diversity to match the general population until it is applied to the NBA and NFL. If meritocracy is not the right way to run competitive IT businesses, then why is it right for competitive sports businesses?

  22. YARR
    Meh

    It would be ironic if the (presumably) most highly paid male within Microsoft increases his salary by paying women more in raises then men, just because they are women. The overall effect will be an increasing disparity between the most lowly and highly paid employees (contrary to his supposedly Marxist background).

    He's certain to succeed and get his bonus by simply instructing his minions to hire and promote more women. But hiring / promoting more women is simple, the hard problem is addressing the gender disparity of available skilled employees, and students interested in pursing a career in the IT profession (assuming this is a problem that really needs solving).

    Nadella also wants Microsoft's hiring practice to represent the global population (which is code for more ethnic minorities). This is fair enough given, Microsoft is a global company, but this is a justification for creating more jobs and finding more customers across the world. It's not a justification for bringing the rest of the world into the west to undercut or replace the existing workforce. Doing so brings global companies into a conflict of interest with western workers. Western governments represent their voters not lobbyists of global companies. So they should recognise this conflict of interest and support their voters interests first.

    There is clearly a political agenda motivating this (top-down rather than bottom-up / grassroots). Their agenda is presented as moral but is not the truth. Frequent news headlines suggest the IT industry is inherently sexist and discriminatory. Future generations will read those headlines and believe it to be the truth. IMO this is a serious misrepresentation of the industry, but if CEOs are willing to accept this, then they must also accept responsibility for the apparent historic discrimination that has taken place within their organisations.

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