Microsoft asks staff to think twice before submitting expenses
- Reference: 1660138210
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2022/08/10/microsoft-business-travel/
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Some business travel, external training sessions, and company get-togethers are all falling under the gaze of Redmond's accountants.
In one recent instance recounted by a loquacious yet unidentified source, as reported by the [1]Wall Street Journal , Microsoft managers personally paid the bill to feed and water staff at a company picnic, something the multibillion-dollar-profit business would have covered itself before.
[2]
Last month during an earnings call to discuss Microsoft's financials for its Q4 ended 30 June, [3]chief financial officer Amy Hood said: "We will continue to invest in future growth while maintaining intense focus on operational excellence and execution discipline."
[4]
[5]
Also in July, Hood reportedly told staff at a company meeting to think twice before submitting expenses.
We have asked Microsoft to comment.
[6]
Microsoft revenues grew [7]12 percent year-on-year to $51.9 billion in Q4 , the slowest growth rate for two years, with some of the PC and consumer-facing units posting single-digit gains and Intelligent Cloud up 26 percent, itself a relative slowdown.
CEO Satya Nadella said it was still seeing a "pretty strong demand signal," adding: "Going into the pandemic, we saw demand increase because of the constraints the pandemic put on corporations and the increased consumer activity.
"Coming out of the pandemic, we are seeing actually a lot of constraints in the economy and the only resource, as I said in my remarks, that can help drive productivity while keeping costs down is digital tech."
[8]
Despite this, Microsoft recently [9]closed unfilled job vacancies in the cloud and security divisions with the company saying it was making sure the "right resources are aligned to the right opportunity" and insisting it will "continue to grow headcount in the year ahead."
[10]Microsoft's fix for 'data damage' risk hits PC performance
[11]Barclays inks multi-year deal with Microsoft, starts rolling out Teams
[12]Google hit with lawsuit for dropping free Workspace apps
[13]DuckDuckGo says Hell, Hell, No to those Microsoft trackers after web revolt
This follows a [14]slowdown in hiring in the Windows, Office, and Teams units, and after [15]Microsoft laid off less than 1 percent of its 180,000 workforce as part of annual trimming.
Others in the industry are acting cautiously too. [16]Apple , [17]Cisco , [18]Intel , [19]Google , and others are also putting recruitment on ice in parts of the business. Chip vendors are starting to issue words of warning about an oncoming slowdown, including [20]Nvidia and [21]Micron , and storage giant [22]Seagate revealed recently it is lowering production . ®
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[1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/microsoft-tries-to-reduce-business-expenses-by-restricting-spending-on-travel-teams-11660069731?mod=tech_lead_pos4
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YvPWJ839oenbQ5QKIjvIHgAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/investor/events/fy-2022/earnings-fy-2022-q4.aspx
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YvPWJ839oenbQ5QKIjvIHgAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YvPWJ839oenbQ5QKIjvIHgAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YvPWJ839oenbQ5QKIjvIHgAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/27/microsoft_q4_and_full_2022_earnings/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YvPWJ839oenbQ5QKIjvIHgAAABA&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/21/microsoft_unfilled_jobs/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/09/widows_data_damage/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/09/barclays_teams/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/08/google_workspace_lawsuit/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/06/in_brief_security/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/05/27/microsoft_hiring_paused/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/12/microsoft_laying_off_staff/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/19/apple_hiring_freeze/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/16/cisco_dials_back_on_hiring/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/09/intel_hiring_freeze/
[19] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/13/google_hiring_slowing/
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/08/nvidia_banks_132bn_charge/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/09/micron_40b_fabs/
[22] https://www.theregister.com/2022/07/22/seagate_q1_2023/
[23] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: "think twice before submitting expenses"
Absolutely, this has happened at my firm recently as well. There was a project visit to another site for a day, 2 hours bus each way for a fairly good full (8 hour) day out. 2 days later, we were informed by management we should only book the 8 hours to the project and the travel time was our free time.
I made it very clear to my manager that under those rules they would never get me to do another business travel.
It was especially galling because the company was bragging about winning a multi billion dollar contract just that morning, so there was a lot of annoyance over this. Oh well, people will get the time back anyway, long lunches, massaged home office times. All this does is kill any goodwill that the travel bought in the first place. But you never can seem to get that through a Beancounters head...
Re: "think twice before submitting expenses"
Not paying legitimate expenses incurred should be a crime (maybe it is!?).
I travelled to Tanzania once for work, total trip was close to 4 weeks, people tend to work long days and 6 days a week, so I did too. Add to that travel time, etc. I didn't get extra wages (though that would be nice, fine, whatever). But they tried to deny a whole host of expenses including suncream and sunhat (it is right on the equator! Often things happened outside). They also refused to pay for my anti-malarials, despite the project I was going out one was malaria research in a malaria endemic area. I won some of these fights, but I never recovered all the costs. Bastards.
Re: "think twice before submitting expenses"
I got sent to the US for training on a contract, I invoiced for the travel insurance, airport parking, mileage, temp phone sim with US number which was cheaper than them paying the roaming etc.
The first of these was rationalised & agreed with If I am injured or incapacited while on your watch, are you going to cover my medical expenses, they were extra-ordinary out of pocket (Icon) expenses that would not be covered under my normal working\operating enviroment.
Re: "think twice before submitting expenses"
Same here. My employer will only pay travel and accommodation expenses for management grades. Staff have to foot the bill themselves, at least the 1st time after which the trips always seem to coincide with a bout of covid. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Microsoft managers personally paid the bill to feed and water staff at a company picnic
So... Microsoft managers paid the bill for a company expense from their *taxed earnings*, while for Microsoft that would have been simply another cost?
Re: Microsoft managers personally paid the bill to feed and water staff at a company picnic
Apparently. If they love the company that much, taking a salary cut would be much more efficient.
On the plus side, this means that taxes have been extracted from people who can easily afford it and apparently don't mind it very much, so that's the system working I guess?
I worked for a company once where at some point they told me that, from now on, travel time is my own time, and travel expenses are my expenses. So, I asked for a raise, making it clear that I would quit otherwise. They insisted on not paying travel time and expenses - but the raise was over twice that cost. Hey, if they're happy with that, I'm happy with that.
I've bounced off similar, but I think it's petty control rules sometimes: buying a round of pizza and beer for an office at the end of a complex move where they all chipped in above and beyond... no great amount, but nooo, there isn't a category for that. Or another occasion where I needed a flight at short notice, and I noticed a special offer where going business class would save a hundred quid or so. So I did. And ended up on the carpet because business class travel requires exec level authorisation (even though the cost came out of already agreed budget on a project I was managing...)
My experience over the years was that the projects that cost millions were barely discussed, and the few hundred quid projects were waved through, but if the budget was about the cost of a house... oh boy, then there was discussion. Obviously that was a number people understood viscerally.
Quirky Fare Deals
I've had similar, when booking a trip on a bank holiday weekend via train, that for some quirk of circumstances never duplicated the trainlline.com offered me a first class ticket from Paddington to home for 10 quid less than the regular quoted price.
I can only assume the cost reduction was down to having to share a carriage with Noel Edmonds*.
*In the continued absence of Paris, could we have a beardy icon (It could double up as Sir Pterry).
Former Colleagues & Bean Counters Cutting Expenses
Got moved to a company that underbid the existing MSP, one ended up on less but was able to work out of one office & later WFH during Covid, the other was given the same rate +$15K (Taxable) to cover his out of pocket expenses, in bigger cities, they expected field calls to be done using public transport.
In that situation & kinda under the gun to remain employed, any trips to the wilder regions of Southern Alberta, would be coordinated to do as many as possible calls in one day/region.
A different companies wizard cost cutting wheeze, was to move all but one of the former field staff in house (No relocation) to corporate to assume our duties (not in Corporate) & send one person out per week to one region across three Canadian provinces for field support.
"think twice before submitting expenses"
No, what you mean to say is think twice before incurring expenses.
If I have to go somewhere to do a job, I'm not going to think twice before submitting the expense.
However, if you refuse to pay my expenses, then I'll definitely think twice before going again - in other words, I won't go.
No expense, so you'll be happy. The customer might be less so.