Kurt Shintaku's Blog

I’ve been with Microsoft for 14 1/2 years. 

THE DAWN OF 32-BIT
When I joined in late 1995, Microsoft was still in the buzz of releasing Windows 95, our first truly 32-bit consumer operating system, transitioning the industry from DOS-based computing. 

Windows NT experience & certification was very uncommon (the reason I was hired) and we had just released “Daytona”, Windows NT Server 3.5 which was for all intents and purposes the dawn of the CAL model of licensing that we have today.

THE CLASS OF ‘95
There were about 19,000 employees at the time worldwide and it was fairly rare to find someone at the company for longer 3-4 years if you were in sales.  If you’d been at the company for longer than that, it meant you’d persisted past the great stock drought of the early 90’s, a period between 92-94 where MSFT stock was essentially flat, similar to what we’ve sustained recently. 

Individuals that had been around since before then had witnessed a few very relevant stock splits back in 1991 that likely made them multi-millionaires in the mid-90’s when the stock skyrocketed and people’s stock options grants went galactic.

THE ‘OLD’ TENURE AWARDS
The awards people used to get granted were as follows:

1. The “5-year” Aluminum Clock
   People were given a clock commemorating their 5th year of employment.  I still have mine sitting on my desk at work.  The batteries have died obviously but it’s a funny reminder of where we’ve come from.
2. The “10-year” Stock Certificate
   We got 10 shares of Microsoft stock and a glass award commemorating the grant.  With the stock hoving around $25 these days, it’s not worth much so I keep mine for  posterity.  This was the first award I was really excited about.  I never imagined I’d be here 10 years later.
3. The “15-year” Sabbatical
   This was the first award that I was kinda upset about because it used to be that every Microsoftie, after 15 years, got a ‘rest’ or a sabbatical of I think a couple months.  Since then, they’ve recinded this policy and I think only managers at a certain level are granted a sabbatical.  Sob.

Back then, I wasn’t aware of anyone that had been with the company for 20 years or more other than ‘founding fathers’.

THE ‘NEW’ TENURE AWARDS
So over the last few years, they re-standardized the awards we employees get.  The photo in this post shows what the awards look like now.  I think they look pretty cool and I’m actually a bit excited about getting my big-assed “orange crystal” for 15 years!  (Assuming I make it halfway through FY11, God willing.) 

I’ve known a few cynical, ungrateful, mightier-than-thou types here at Microsoft that have made some not-so-nice comments about the awards but personally, I think that at the very least, it’s a really beautiful piece of art symbolic of a wonderful career thus far.  And who knows – as an engineer, maybe I can turn it into a cool laser!

Obviously these crystal awards get larger and heavier as more tenure is accrued.  It was recently advertised that our CEO/President Steve Ballmer, at our latest Worldwide Sales meeting was awarded by our COO Kevin Turner, a monstrous, one-of-a-kind 30-YEAR CRYSTAL.