Comment by moonpolysoft

17 years ago

Great read, but I have to say that I'm disappointed that Tom felt the need to publish actual numbers. There are other folks still working at Powerset/MS who would rather that the details of our offers stay confidential. Very classy, choosing self promotion over the financial privacy of former coworkers.

Why on earth would you think that someone discussing their Retention Bonus would have any relevance on what yours was? Just like there are employees of a company who receive $200K/year and those who receive $50K/year, there are those who receive $300K Retention bonuses and others who receive $20K retention bonuses. Or receive no retention bonus and are put on "Transition Plan" - or hell, are just laid off outright with 2 weeks severance + vacation. (I've always thought that that 160 Hours of vacation everyone in the valley stocks up on is a way of adding 4 weeks of severance as they eventually get laid off)

  • Well, if you made 50k a year and there was someone in a comparable position bragging about their 200k/yr how would it make you feel? How would your boss take it? How would you deal with the situation if you were the boss?

    Companies make offers in confidence for a reason. I'm sure that Tom's business partners wouldn't appreciate him posting about their revenue anywhere public. The same principle applies here.