Microsoft Pays Staff $1,500 for Work in Pandemic

[DEAD7]

Microsoft Pays Staff $1,500 for Work in Pandemic

The company told the BBC it was a symbol of appreciation "during a uniquely challenging year." It added: "We are proud to recognise our employees with a one-time monetary gift." In the first quarter of 2021 Microsoft's profits rose 38% on the same period last year. The Verge reported that employees below vice-president level who joined no later than 31 March 2021 would receive the payment, including part-time workers. The big tech firms have done well during the pandemic and Microsoft is not the only firm to have made bonus payments to staff. In March 2020, Facebook gave employees a $1,000 bonus to help them with increased expenses caused by the pandemic, such as those associated with setting up a home office. Google made a similar $1,000 payment in May 2020. In December, Amazon gave front-line employees a $300 dollar bonus with part-time workers receiving $150.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

In case anyone is wondering, these bonuses cost Microsoft about $150 million.

Since the pandemic began, Bill Gates's net worth alone has increased by $30 billion.

From 2020 through 1st quarter 2021, Microsoft's net income after expenses was just over $60 billion, or approximately $460,000 per US employee.

 

[DEAD7]

In case anyone is wondering, these bonuses cost Microsoft about $150 million.

Since the pandemic began, Bill Gates's net worth alone has increased by $30 billion.

From 2020 through 1st quarter 2021, Microsoft's net income after expenses was just over $60 billion, or approximately $460,000 per US employee.

Your point being?

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Your point being?

If you don't find that information relevant, the point wasn't made for you.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Your point being?

I guess I'll explain slightly just in case it really is tough to understand.


In a feudal society, the lords of the land dominate control of all economic life. They take so much from the produce of the peasants that it supports a lifestyle unimaginable to the rest of society. In order to hold off peasant uprisings as well as fulfill the universal human need to be liked, the "good feudal lords" will occasionally gift the peasants with a festival or some supplemental goods or some other token to help them get by. The irony, of course, being that the "gift" was really the product of the work the peasants themselves, and would not even be necessary if the lords had simply allowed the peasants to retain a decent portion of the fruit of their own labor.


The pandemic created an enormous degree of suffering, and resulted in uncountable difficulties for the poor, and was disruptive even to the lives of normal working folk, but was tremendously profitable to our modern feudal lords. This was not an accident - through a concerted effort to consolidate all power and eliminate all competition, a limited # of corporate giants have gained control over the market to a degree that virtually all events increase their profits and consolidate their power. Bad events and good events both seem to make them stronger. They now hold all the cards.


So when Microsoft keeps 99.75% of its outsized profits from this year of suffering while spreading out 0.25% of the blood money among 100,000 employees as a token "symbol of appreciation", it's almost laughable. When Bill Gates's net worth increases by $30,000,000,000 due to this pandemic but they call $1,500 for each employee a symbol of appreciation, it's obscene. Bill Gates could have simply distributed 10% of his gains this year to the employees and it would have increased their per-person gift to $30,000! Giving away these peanuts is simply their effort to gain favor and some degree of goodwill while actually demonstrating an unfathomable display of human greed.

 

[Professor Emeritus]

Imagine if the Coli mods organized some money-making scheme that all Coli posters worked full-time to implement. Through a great deal of hard work the scheme nets the Coli community $1 million in profits. Everyone puts about the same time into the project, but the five mods split half the money amongst themselves, and split the other half among the 5,000 posters. So each mod pulls in $100,000 for their work while each poster gets $100.


In any normal human community we would see this step as incredibly greedy. Occasionally in small communities some benevolent persons choose to split all the profit of an endeavor evenly, though really we'd find it totally fair if they took a double-share because their idea benefited everyone in the end. Them getting $400 each while the rest of us get $200 would be understandable. That seems like a normal human interaction. But taking a 1000-fold larger share? Keeping fully half the profits for their tiny group on top? In any normal-sized community that would be seen as incredibly greedy, far beyond what any reasonable person should need.

And keeping half the profits for themselves, which should be super greedy, isn't even in the discussion anymore. That sounds almost quaint - the next great corporate giant that spreads half their annual profits evenly amongst their employees will be hailed as the second coming of Mother Theresa. We're talking about them actually keeping 99.75% of the profits of pandemic for themselves and then spreading 0.25% amongst the employees. A world in which that is normalized is an evil world, and you're only okay with it and justifying it because you've become normalized to evil.

 

[jj23]

Capitalism at its best.

The issue is Microsoft isn't obligated to pay this. All employees at a company like Microsoft would have competitive salaries and perks and that's their contract. So something like this which some on the outside see as tokenism, would be appreciated by staff as it wasn't something they may have expected.

Capitalism has never been the type of structure to mix business and morality.

 

[Pressure]

I get the point some folks are attempting to.make, but it's not really accurate when you disregard the promotions, raises, stock gains, and performance bonuses the employees have received due to increase in growth.

Tldr, employees aren't just receiving 1500 in additional compensation during the growth.

Should employees receive a larger share of pie in general, yes, but I don't think we need to juke the numbers.