Microsoft staff ask why ‘good deal’ question vanished

Microsoft employees – After Microsoft released findings from its latest employee surveys, some workers pushed back on internal message boards, focusing on the disappearance of a long-used “good deal” question about compensation. Employees also questioned whether other leadership-re

For a question many Microsoft employees treated like a compensation barometer, the latest survey didn’t just change—it disappeared.

When Microsoft released the results of its latest employee surveys recently. a portion of employees noticed that the survey item asking whether they were getting a “good deal at Microsoft (i.e. there is a reasonable balance between what I contribute to Microsoft and what I get in return)” was not included in the results. according to a copy of the results viewed by Business Insider. That omission sparked immediate discussion on the company’s internal message board.

One Microsoft employee asked in a comment that received more than 200 “thumbs up” reactions: “Can you please provide clarity on whether or not the question has been removed and why.” Another employee responded with a meme of the famous line from the movie A Few Good Men—“You can’t handle the truth!”—and added. “I don’t think they value getting an answer to a question they already know the answer to.”.

The “good deal” question has carried weight inside Microsoft’s internal culture. For years, after low and declining responses to it, Microsoft announced significant pay raises to address growing dissatisfaction with compensation and stop employees from leaving to competitors including Amazon.

Since those pay changes, the tone inside the wider tech industry shifted as big job cuts hit and employees faced more pressure to perform. Microsoft adopted parts of that new approach as well, freezing salaries the year after the raises.

In the midst of this backdrop. another question also drew attention: whether an item about employee confidence in company leadership had been excluded. An individual on the message board with the title “Head of Employee Listening” responded that Microsoft had received questions about where to find those specific survey questions and said. “Those questions are still being asked and acted on; they just show up in different surveys based on how our listening programs are designed.”.

The employee listening leader added that the “good deal” question, for example, was included but sent only to a subset of employees. The stated reason was to “cover more topics without increasing survey length for employees.” Microsoft confirmed this response and did not provide further comment.

Other workers questioned the survey results more broadly. One employee wrote that the results didn’t seem to track with sentiment in other forums such as “Ask Me Anything” meetings with executives. “Really confusing results,” the employee said in a comment with more than 70 “thumbs up” reactions. They added that it “seems like employees essentially have zero concerns about the company. ” while describing that in public forums. AMA sessions. petitions. and similar channels. “thousands of employees are raising concerns about Microsoft’s contracts with the Israeli military. ICE. US military. and so on. with ethical questions being by far the most upvoted discussion topics.”.

The dispute over survey wording and what it signals landed inside a company reshaped under CEO Satya Nadella. Microsoft is pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into AI and data centers while, at the same time, tightening expectations for employee performance and cutting costs.

Microsoft employee surveys compensation Satya Nadella AI data centers internal message board employee listening Amazon pay raises salary freeze leadership confidence