Ed Kaim - HB1515 And The Publicized Internal Scrutiny Of Microsoft

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Sunday, April 24, 2005

HB1515 And The Publicized Internal Scrutiny Of Microsoft

There has been a huge amount of debate over Microsoft's decision not to take a stance for or against HB1515 (at http://www.leg.wa.gov/wsladm/billinfo1/dspBillSummary.cfm?billnumber=1515), a Washington state bill intended to amend a series of existing non-discrimination laws to protect people of all sexual orientations in the same way they currently protect people of race, creed, and so on. Microsoft decided not to take a public stance on this bill and CEO Steve Ballmer has written a broad company memo (published at http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002251461_webmemo24.html) explaining how his personal feelings support the bill, but that the company cannot take a position for various reasons, including the fact that the company is largely made up of people on both sides of the debate. As a side note, I think this email was one of the most finely written emails I have ever seen. I also personally feel that discrimination for any reason is wrong in the IT industry (the only industry I know well enough to make a claim about) and will do my best to follow practices that reflect that feeling. But I digress…

Over the past few days, a number of Microsoft employees have publicly blasted the company for not coming out in favor of this bill. The general sentiment from these individuals is that if Microsoft claims to be supportive of the concepts included then the company should come out in favor of it, regardless of the fact that a significant portion of the company, its shareholders, and its customers may feel against it. They feel that the moral thing to do is for Microsoft's management to act unilaterally in favor of what they feel is right, and that Microsoft only decided not to support it because it was in Microsoft's best interest to stay neutral.

In other words, these individuals feel that Microsoft lacks integrity for not doing what they themselves feel is right. They feel so passionately that they publicly lambaste the company for following its own best interests. They're the kind of people who scorn those who continue to work for a company they feel acts immorally (or doesn't support the morals they hold dear) just because they enjoy the paycheck or “love the technology”. It's these hypocrites that are bad for the process, but hopefully those who have spoken out are truly sincere.

It will be interesting to see how many of these rants end up in resignations and how many were just angry at the time. I certainly don't expect these individuals to resign their highly paying, highly rewarding positions because it's not in their best interests, but I have great respect for those with the passion and willingness to leave their jobs over what they feel is right.

4/24/2005 7:19:38 PM (Pacific Standard Time, UTC-08:00)