Microsoft Temp Organizer Reconsiders Pay-Cut Protests
The leader of Microsoft’s (MSFT) aggrieved temporary employees doesn’t want the job anymore.
“I decided that I did not want to become a labor organizer and give up my work in software,” Phil Palios blogged Thursday. “I love software, it is my passion in life and I still had a great job on an amazing team at the best software company in the world. I spent the day with my cellphone off and trying to stay out of the world of protests and labor organization so that I could devote my full attention to my job, which I was struggling to do the previous two days.”
The 23 year-old raised a ruckus when Microsoft said last month that it would cut pay for third-party temps. Mr. Palios, who has worked as a Microsoft software engineer through the Volt Agency since 2006, said he heard about the pay cuts last Friday and decided he had to do something about it, so he emailed some 2,000 temps asking them to meet for daily protests until March 13.
But, as Mr. Palios blogged, after receiving 800 emails and expecting around 200 people, only about 30 showed up at each event. “Overnight, I had gone from a software engineer to a labor organizer, and it scared the s— out of me,” he wrote.
