Thanks, BillG!
Let's go waaaaay back in history, to February 1992, in fact. That's when your pal Tommy went to work for Microsoft.
Now, let's be really clear - I worked AT Microsoft - not FOR Microsoft. I was what you'd call a "non-contract onsite temporary worker". A temp. But hey - I was okay with that. Mr. Gates paid us really well, and I was there for almost 9 months all together. But still - I was a temp.
I was actually one of 350 temps hired for the release of Windows 3.1 -- ooh, remember what a technology gangbuster that was? We worked on the Windows 3.1 hotline, taking orders by phone for the brand new Windows OS. I worked in a building Microsoft owned in Belleuve - nowhere near their main campus in Redmond - with about 150 other people. (The others were spread out around the area.) Because there was no Internet yet (remember: 1992!), you could only order by telephone, by fax, or mail. Hence, it was us you spoke with. Remember me?
So there we were, taking orders for Win 3.1, along with Windows Resource Kits for an additional $59.00. It was fairly easy work, and I was really good at it. I sat down on my first day and added tags to my price binder pages, so if someone asked an out of the ordinary question I could flip right to it, instead of searching. So by the time March rolled around and the orders were really coming in, I was taking almost twice as many as most of my co-workers. The product shipped on April 6, via 6 Federal Express 747's (you wouldn't believe how many people called us at 10:31 that morning to complain that FedEx hadn't been there yet), and as the need for phone help fell off, they started ending our temp status. Out of the 350 people, I was one of the last 30 to go - but they called me back two weeks later and asked me to work on some of their other phone lines. So I was in for the long haul, baby!
I really liked working for Bill Gates & friends. Microsoft took very good care of us - we had access to all the free beverages you wanted - free pop, milk, juice, flavored waters, hot chocolate, you name it. (No booze, but they did have champagne one time.) The employee lunchroom was subsidized, so most food items never cost more than $1.00. (Trust me; you ate VERY well for $3.00.) They gave us Microsoft swag on a regular basis - t-shirts were the most common - and they were incredibly nice to us, even though we were a room filled with "just temps".
It was a fun time - I worked 6:00 AM - 2:30 PM, with a lot of overtime available if desired. (I was flat broke - heck yeah it was desired.) I met a lot of really nice people, talked to a lot of interesting folks (I spoke to Klansman/politician David Duke), told a lot of people "No, Bill Gates is not in this building - sorry, you can't talk to him", and really enjoyed the Microsoft lifestyle, until September 1992 when I sadly left to go work for the Japanese.
I would've stayed with Microsoft, but the big boys at Seiko offered me the one thing Microsoft wasn't about to -- a permanent position. We were temps, and that's all we'd ever be. No benefits, no stock options, no permanent sense of belonging. Most of us were accepting of our fate - we knew that there was no way in the world we'd ever be given a permanent job - but a few people were mad. They'd been "temping" for a year or two - one guy I knew had been a "temp" for 3 years" - and he was about to do something about it, by golly. It wasn't fair that Microsoft left so many people in the lurch for so long, and he was going to sue them. Harumph.
Well, okay. Good luck to you, pal.
So fast forward to December 2000, when I get this letter at my Iowa home about a class action suit against Microsoft. It seems a settlement had been reached in a suit over long-term temporary employees, and I was listed as one of the payees in the settlement plan. Whoo-hoo! Free Microsoft Money! I never had a grudge with Billy Boy, and I left on good terms with everyone. But apparently all 350 of us who took orders on the Windows 3.1 hotline had been screwed out of permanent status, and Microsoft was going to pay us off. Cool!
I filed the letter from the court and promptly forgot about it. No checks ever arrived. No further notices ever came my way.
Now -- here we are, October 3, 2005 - almost 5 years after that class action lawsuit letter arrives, and 13 1/2 years after I left Microsquish. And what do I see online today?
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20051002/ap_on_bi_ge/microsoft_temp_workers_1
Microsoft to Begin Paying Ex-'permatemps'
SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. this month is expected to begin paying $72 million to nearly 8,600 former contract workers who were part of a 1992 class-action lawsuit claiming they were denied benefits.
The workers, "permatemps" who were hired during Microsoft's early growth spurt, won a $97 million settlement in 2001 after a court found they were improperly restricted from the company stock-purchase plan. The ruling forced Microsoft to change its temporary-worker policies and limit contract lengths.
There have been years of delays and procedural haggling since the verdict, and several of the original plaintiffs sued because they thought their lawyers' $27 million share was too much. Then the courts had to review the cases of individual plaintiffs who felt shorted. The IRS also had to determine how much to tax the payouts.
But on Friday, a federal judge overseeing the case approved a payout plan. Checks are expected to be mailed Oct. 17, said Judith Bendich, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers.
After legal fees, processing costs and early payouts to a small group of plaintiffs — along with interest the money earned since 2001 — there's $72 million left to distribute to the remaining class members. That is $8,429 each, on average, before payroll taxes.
Holy cow - they didn't forget us after all! So I'll have to start watching my mailbox about the 18th or so. I'm not expecting to receive 8 grand -- I didn't work there that long - but 20 bucks is 20 bucks, right? With my luck lately, it'll probably be a check for 59 cents, but it's still better than nothing.
So I'll be surprised to see what I get. Like I said, I wasn't expecting anything at all, so it'll all be
good.
Well, as long as it's not a free copy of Microsoft Bob....
Now, let's be really clear - I worked AT Microsoft - not FOR Microsoft. I was what you'd call a "non-contract onsite temporary worker". A temp. But hey - I was okay with that. Mr. Gates paid us really well, and I was there for almost 9 months all together. But still - I was a temp.
I was actually one of 350 temps hired for the release of Windows 3.1 -- ooh, remember what a technology gangbuster that was? We worked on the Windows 3.1 hotline, taking orders by phone for the brand new Windows OS. I worked in a building Microsoft owned in Belleuve - nowhere near their main campus in Redmond - with about 150 other people. (The others were spread out around the area.) Because there was no Internet yet (remember: 1992!), you could only order by telephone, by fax, or mail. Hence, it was us you spoke with. Remember me?
So there we were, taking orders for Win 3.1, along with Windows Resource Kits for an additional $59.00. It was fairly easy work, and I was really good at it. I sat down on my first day and added tags to my price binder pages, so if someone asked an out of the ordinary question I could flip right to it, instead of searching. So by the time March rolled around and the orders were really coming in, I was taking almost twice as many as most of my co-workers. The product shipped on April 6, via 6 Federal Express 747's (you wouldn't believe how many people called us at 10:31 that morning to complain that FedEx hadn't been there yet), and as the need for phone help fell off, they started ending our temp status. Out of the 350 people, I was one of the last 30 to go - but they called me back two weeks later and asked me to work on some of their other phone lines. So I was in for the long haul, baby!
I really liked working for Bill Gates & friends. Microsoft took very good care of us - we had access to all the free beverages you wanted - free pop, milk, juice, flavored waters, hot chocolate, you name it. (No booze, but they did have champagne one time.) The employee lunchroom was subsidized, so most food items never cost more than $1.00. (Trust me; you ate VERY well for $3.00.) They gave us Microsoft swag on a regular basis - t-shirts were the most common - and they were incredibly nice to us, even though we were a room filled with "just temps".
It was a fun time - I worked 6:00 AM - 2:30 PM, with a lot of overtime available if desired. (I was flat broke - heck yeah it was desired.) I met a lot of really nice people, talked to a lot of interesting folks (I spoke to Klansman/politician David Duke), told a lot of people "No, Bill Gates is not in this building - sorry, you can't talk to him", and really enjoyed the Microsoft lifestyle, until September 1992 when I sadly left to go work for the Japanese.
I would've stayed with Microsoft, but the big boys at Seiko offered me the one thing Microsoft wasn't about to -- a permanent position. We were temps, and that's all we'd ever be. No benefits, no stock options, no permanent sense of belonging. Most of us were accepting of our fate - we knew that there was no way in the world we'd ever be given a permanent job - but a few people were mad. They'd been "temping" for a year or two - one guy I knew had been a "temp" for 3 years" - and he was about to do something about it, by golly. It wasn't fair that Microsoft left so many people in the lurch for so long, and he was going to sue them. Harumph.
Well, okay. Good luck to you, pal.
So fast forward to December 2000, when I get this letter at my Iowa home about a class action suit against Microsoft. It seems a settlement had been reached in a suit over long-term temporary employees, and I was listed as one of the payees in the settlement plan. Whoo-hoo! Free Microsoft Money! I never had a grudge with Billy Boy, and I left on good terms with everyone. But apparently all 350 of us who took orders on the Windows 3.1 hotline had been screwed out of permanent status, and Microsoft was going to pay us off. Cool!
I filed the letter from the court and promptly forgot about it. No checks ever arrived. No further notices ever came my way.
Now -- here we are, October 3, 2005 - almost 5 years after that class action lawsuit letter arrives, and 13 1/2 years after I left Microsquish. And what do I see online today?
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20051002/ap_on_bi_ge/microsoft_temp_workers_1
Microsoft to Begin Paying Ex-'permatemps'
SEATTLE - Microsoft Corp. this month is expected to begin paying $72 million to nearly 8,600 former contract workers who were part of a 1992 class-action lawsuit claiming they were denied benefits.
The workers, "permatemps" who were hired during Microsoft's early growth spurt, won a $97 million settlement in 2001 after a court found they were improperly restricted from the company stock-purchase plan. The ruling forced Microsoft to change its temporary-worker policies and limit contract lengths.
There have been years of delays and procedural haggling since the verdict, and several of the original plaintiffs sued because they thought their lawyers' $27 million share was too much. Then the courts had to review the cases of individual plaintiffs who felt shorted. The IRS also had to determine how much to tax the payouts.
But on Friday, a federal judge overseeing the case approved a payout plan. Checks are expected to be mailed Oct. 17, said Judith Bendich, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers.
After legal fees, processing costs and early payouts to a small group of plaintiffs — along with interest the money earned since 2001 — there's $72 million left to distribute to the remaining class members. That is $8,429 each, on average, before payroll taxes.
Holy cow - they didn't forget us after all! So I'll have to start watching my mailbox about the 18th or so. I'm not expecting to receive 8 grand -- I didn't work there that long - but 20 bucks is 20 bucks, right? With my luck lately, it'll probably be a check for 59 cents, but it's still better than nothing.
So I'll be surprised to see what I get. Like I said, I wasn't expecting anything at all, so it'll all be
good.
Well, as long as it's not a free copy of Microsoft Bob....
posted by Tommy G at
2:54 PM
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