Aggressive manager at Microsoft

EA
Waterwets

Go to company page EA

Waterwets
Sep 28, 2019 19 Comments

My wife works at Microsoft and for the 1st time in her career experienced over the top aggressive behavior from her manager

He was blaming her for potential risks on a project he already sold to SLT. While explaining to him she always flagged in her communication engineering commitment was not 100% confirmed but had high confidence, her manager was looking away, nervously taking deep breathes multiple times before making eye contact again with her to re emphasize aggressively she was to blame

She was shocked, felt really uncomfortable and just nodded to everything he said from there as no matter what point she would bring, none would be listened to

They ended their meeting then he came back 10 min later apologizing 3 times in row saying that after reading all the communication threads he understood and supported how she framed the project

This is really hard for her, never happened this way before in her career, she is really intimidated by this aggressive behavior and fears this can happen again

Iโ€™m looking for guidance on who to deal with this. Should this be brought to HR and or skip manager? Always thought Microsoft is an environment where those type of behaviors are unacceptable. Is HR or management supportive in those type of situations? Have you experienced this yourself? Are there risks of retaliation or damaging her career if an official complaint is made?

Thank you all for your help and sharing your experience

comments

Want to comment? LOG IN or SIGN UP
TOP 19 Comments
  • Apple
    Shouldyou?

    Go to company page Apple

    Shouldyou?
    Dual income will become single income if you go to HR.
    Sep 28, 2019 3
  • Nothing happened so far. He got stressed out and apologized. If it happens again it can be brought to skip manager if s/he is trustworthy. Avoid HR at any cost.
    Sep 28, 2019 0
  • Yahoo
    oldblo

    Go to company page Yahoo

    oldblo
    This is common among mediocre managers. Lashing out at people like that means either his wife just divorce him or probably lost a bunch on stock market.

    I would be passive aggressively looking for team to switch to and prepare for job change at the same time.
    Sep 29, 2019 0
  • He overreacted and said sorry. What else do you want? Is this a pattern or a one time thing?
    Sep 28, 2019 4
  • This is very common, difference is in this case the manager apologized- which means he was at least fair, even if not able to handle stress well. That said, if she feels uncomfortable, best thing is probably to start looking at other teams for an internal transfer. Look into performance review timelines to ensure itโ€™s done by the new team.
    Sep 28, 2019 0