“Microsoft Corp’s chief executive officer suggested on Thursday that women in technology should not ask for raises but have faith in the ‘system,’ bringing a torrent of criticism and causing the executive to backtrack after the statement,” Bill Rigby reports for Reuters. “Satya Nadella, who became CEO in February, was asked how women should get ahead in the tech world at a three-day conference in Phoenix, Arizona, intended to celebrate women in computing. ‘It’s not really about asking for the raise, but knowing and having faith that the system will actually give you the right raises as you go along,’ Nadella said, according to a recording on the website of the event, the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing.”
“‘Because that’s good karma,’ Nadella continued. ‘It’ll come back because somebody’s going to know that’s the kind of person that I want to trust,'” Rigby reports. “Nadella later tried to patch up the damage. ‘Was inarticulate re how women should ask for raise,’ he tweeted several hours after his remarks. ‘Our industry must close gender pay gap so a raise is not needed because of a bias.'”
“Nadella also admitted his error in a memo to Microsoft employees which was posted on the company’s website,” Rigby reports. “‘I answered that question completely wrong,’ said the memo. ‘I believe men and women should get equal pay for equal work. And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it’s deserved, Maria’s advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask.'”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: A Microsoft clown CEO desperately trying to extract his foot from his mouth? Shocking.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews readers too numerous to mention individually for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Microsoft CEO Nadella begins rearranging the deck chairs – March 3, 2014
Satya Nadella? Seriously, Microsoft? – January 31, 2014
The spirit of Ballmer lives!
I have absolutely no love to MS. However, after reading the entire interview with Nadella, I don’t think he deserves the ire he is receiving.
What Nadella was saying is what most high tech executives believe, that is, you succeed on your merits and when you are good, pay raises will follow.
But in the politically correct USA these days, that is not acceptable. The basis for pay raises in the USA is equality and making up for past injustices. Merit has nothing to do with pay.
With that being said, Nadella’s biggest mistake was even talking to the press.
Nah his biggest mistake was taking the CEO job. And Microsoft’s mistake was not hiring outside the company.
I nominate “Wrong Again” as CEO, because he seems to know everything about MS.
Does Apple pay women equally? Cook seems more interested in gay pride. Is that better leadership?
I would shut down the company and return the money to the shareholders!! 🙂
Why not return the money to us poor sots who have lost so much productivity and time in our lives rebooting, reloading, recovering, replacing, upgrading, etc…
The POS that is windows in lots of cases was foisted upon us, we deserve the money more than the shareholders that chose to purchase their shares…
I, for one, took back my life and don’t do windows any more. Dividends are being paid to me in the form of time that is more valuable than all the cash M$ could give me !-)
If it was “foisted upon” you, then that was, I presume, a work situation — where you were being paid by your boss to sit there and watch as you rebooting. So, surely, no loss to you.
If you had any choice at all, then, sorry, no sympathy for the wasted months of life that you’ll never get back.
Years ago, a PRO Microscum group (Gartner, I think) estimated a full MONTH per year of unproductive time compared to using a Mac. Just pissed down the toilet. A month of work time! Mind-boggling.
Wish i could have been one month more productive per year, probably would have gotten a promotion instead of a layoff (no i did not get a layoff due to non-productivity, it was because the company was losing money, 20% of the company was let go)
Question: would the company be losing money with 1/12th increase in productivity?
I dunno, they were blowing it anyway, by letting IT drive tech in the company such that we wasted one month a year on the M$ tax (not to mention all the antivirus and other MS taxes associated)
Can’t find it now. The summary quote was something like, “It is clearly the fiduciary duty of any corporate management to switch to Apple products.”
Despite it being a rarity, there are scads of us who love to work and in return we require a working environment that works for US. Microsoft anything works AT ODDS with us. That’s why I hate the crap. I’m here to work. Get the hell out of the way Microsoft.
It’s not a matter of “political correctness”; it’s a matter of citizens (called women) being paid equally for the same job or precisely equivalent job held by other citizens (called men).
It is pathetic and ridiculous that any group — for no other reason than membership in that group — be paid more for the same work than another. But it happens at every level – from janitor to CEO. Recently, there was a bit of a stir when a woman CEO discovered she was being paid markedly less than the previous CEO who, needless to say, had been a man.
The trouble is though as we still see even today, there are plenty of male bosses out there that pay their female staff less than their male staff, even for doing exactly the same job.
Until that blatant disregard for the abilities of women stops women are not succeeding on their merits alone. They are being prevented from doing so, hence why they should be bringing up the topic of pay rises and Nadella is completely and utterly wrong on this matter.
Given MS’s recent layoffs, I would say Nadella is right!
Women ought to just quietly line up another job and quit.
First class idiot. How insulting and offensive not only to women, but the millions of nice guys who aren’t anything like him.
I personally don’t want to be associated with a bunch of the things that call themselves male, unfortunately, I have grown attached to the flaps of skin that give me away.
You refer to your wings, of course…archangel… 😉
my wings let me fly, thankfully, as it does for all the peoples,
but the wing of evil allows flight we can’t imagine, and don’t want to…
my wings are invisible to most mortals, so my other markers are obvious (the flaps i speak of), i only hope the ones with other flaps of skin can see my good, and not judge me as nutella…. or those men who would make others out to be worth-less or consider them worth-less than those with my flaps of skin
can i say this? i fly , and the wings of my power are only limited by those that judge me, some by my gender, and that is the point of this thread
may the best fly the highest, and the rest,,, let them draft the ones that soar
e
Ok, so…
my dream is that all of the world comes to the conclusion that all peoples are worthy of consideration and acknowledgment, no matter whether they have wings, or spears
they both have value in their situations, and the fact that the future holds both no matter what, means war or peace exists or nothing
and, that according to that one and only one future
(or none, so do not consider my other statement),
we all share a possibility that was once only managed by the spears in the past
this hope is the wings hannajs speaks of,
they are the ones i not only stand for, but….
i choose to fly with with the wings she speaks of, even if i was born of the spear….
all those please forgive me the spear i was born of who would judge me otherwise
Those who would consider me a betrayer please be aware that you yourself have chosen yourself unable to consider yourself bigger than the flaps of your skin, and then render yourself vulnerable to the rath of your own inability to see the power of others, be they people who were born with wings, or those who took their spears to the sky with the wings they learned to use to free all the peoples
we will share our belief, we will spread the ideals, we will be triumpunt in the quest to make sure that all those with wings will fly, and that those with spears will learn that the winged ones will teach us to fly, thereby giving us the power that they possess, so that together, the men and women of this earth will survive, only without this agreement will we all perish
what a steve-wannabe.
NO CLASS!
Lucky thing Microsoft has that arrangement with the NFL.
Sounds like Nadella is perfectly qualified to be the water boy.
Gunga Din? You didn’t do that, did you?
Microsoft: the world’s leading supplier of horses asses since 1975.
As a professional technical female, I was not offended by his comment and well… let’s give the guy a break. I too am not a MS lover but really get tired of the media making mountains of molehills all the time regardless of the source. Yes he stated it and if you are offended… get over it is my own opinion… Life goes on…
It’s not that what he’s said is offensive, it’s that it is totally ignorant of the actual situation. Women in tech in the USA on average earn only 80% the amount their male colleagues do. So when one of the most powerful men in the industry turns around and effectively tells women to shut up about that of course it’s not going to go down well.
Women know their place in India and get the pay they deserve if they keep quiet. They deserve the same pay as any man who stays home and makes chapatties.
Microsoft: Suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuure. Women can have raises. Raises are located in the classic Start menu.
Yup. the one that they included in W8…oops!
I was sad, missing Ballmer – but Hey! – this guy shows real ass-clown potential!
Nadella can’t help but be true to microsoft DNA .
You can’t fix stupid.
Maybe there IS hope we have got another Ballmer in charge. Was missing reading about the big dummy, maybe we’ve got our replacement.
Let’s hope he has better instincts when I comes to technology.
Women should not ask for raises, just like Nadella should not ask people to buy a Surface or Windows Phone. Shouldn’t both just happen magically? /s
I heard his little speech on the radio this morning. It was asinine. Just having faith in men screwing over women for comparable pay makes more sense. 😛
My father always liked to say, a woman does a lot more with a bit less, than the man that needs more to do the same.
😀 Smart man, your father. I want to meet your entire family, dear goddess. Very nice new avatar BTW. I watch you thinking…
Ah, you with the X-ray eyes…
In my 40 years in the work force I would say that any company that pays women less are complete idiots and have ego/insecurity problems that need addressing.
If men are from Mars and women are from Venus then I can understand why having both equally represented has always, in my experience, resulted in better ideas, planning and execution. At a basic level diversity of thought improves outcomes.
I can only hope women feel the same way about ensuring men are present in their work teams.