Microsoft rethinks its reviews on performance

Happy almost Friday! If you agree to a thirsty Thursday – do people still call it like this? – Don’t be surprised if the happy hour looks a little gray. While generation Y and the Zers generation reduce alcohol, the number of baby boomers by based one (or a few) behind increases.

In today’s big history, Microsoft rethinks the way he assesses employees and manages underperformance.

What is on the bridge:

Markets: The report on jobs is tomorrow, but do not expect a drop in the numbers of the size of a Doge. Here is why.

Technology: Meta has a list of ex-employees that he will not rehire.

Business: Public relations tactics of Lulu Cheng Meservey annoy some of its peers, but its renowned customers cannot have enough.

But first, HR will join us for this one.

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The great story

Being examined

Microsoft; Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng / Bi

Microsoft The performance review is on a PIP.

The technology giant is Rethink how he assesses employeesAccording to Ashley Stewart of Business Insider, who spoke to several people with knowledge of the plans.

The result could be Microsoft adopting a more difficult position on employees deemed at low performance. Evidence of this came earlier this year when Microsoft made hundreds of Blins based on performance in January and February.

In many ways, it is an explosion of the past for Microsoft, which once had the reputation of conducting difficult criticism. The arrival of Satya Nadella as CEO more than a decade has changed this, the company taking a softer position. Some even called Microsoft a “country club”.

Microsoft’s current process to manage low performers can take months of documentation. A high -level manager told Ashley the average time to leave a little efficient after a manager informed HR of about seven months. This process can be delayed if an employee takes leave, which can reset the clock.

But with the heating of the AI ​​race, Microsoft wants to move faster and more efficiently. Like his peers Meta,, AmazonAnd GoogleThis means more closely examining its performance examination and management process.

Getty Images; Chelsea Jia Feng / Bi

Microsoft’s potential pivot also shows where AI has had the most impact so far.

Since the arrival of Chatgpt a few years ago, there has been a lot of speculation on all jobs that risk being automated by AI.

Reality, however, is that technology is not sufficiently advanced to completely replace most roles. Efficiency gains can be performed that allow a company to reduce the workforce, but AI has not completely erased jobs in most cases.

In fact, the AI ​​of the industry disrupts the most is the one that builds it: technology.

It is not only a question of automation of AI automating people’s jobs. (Although they look dcant software engineers.) The giants of solid betting technology make on AI force them to recalibrate all their operations to be as rationalized as possible, and these changes are not easy.

Maybe the change was still coming. The rise of interest rates and the maturation of these companies could naturally have led to A shoe stage.

But spending billions for technology that has not been completely moved from the point of view of companies has certainly not slowed things down.

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Brief

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3 things on the markets

Alex Wroblewski / AFP via Getty Images

1. The dismissal pain of federal workers will be especially invisible in the Friday report in jobs. DOGE’s February shooting will not be reflected in the Bureau of Labor Statistics Report Due to the timing of the cuts. And even if the losses will appear in a more distant report, they will probably not make a big bump overall.

2. Are we at the edge of a “Trump Contests”? Wall Street manager Jeffrey Solomon is part of a group of small but growing forecasters using the dreaded word: recession. In an interview with CNBC, Salomon said that a trade war could have an impact on supply chains and encourage business leaders to pump the brakes on the transaction. Some signs already indicate an economic slowdown and Solomon is not the only one to shake the red flag.

3. Brevan Howard tells investors that the “real risk” does not integrate into the crypto. For years, institutions have kept their distances from digital assets. The CEO of Brevan Howard told Bi that the tilting point for institutional investors was on the horizonThanks to the boost provided by President Trump and Tsar Crypto David Sacks. The company, whose unit of digital assets was up more than 52% in 2024, wants to be the essential place of cryptocurical institutions.

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3 things in technology

Getty Images; Jenny Chang-Rodriguez / Bi

1. Meta keeps lists of “blocks” of ex-employees. Meta hiring managers sometimes pursue workers dismissed for rehiring. They express their interest, have implemented a screening call – then ghosts. It is because some former employees are on lists who consider them “Insemissible for rehiring,” Even if they have written history to go beyond the expectations of managers. Bi’s story caused a reaction of Former Google HR Laszlo Bock chief.

2. Google search goes into AI mode. The technology giant said that it planned to test a new “AI” feature for research which aims to respond to user requests with a “wider and more diverse” set of results fueled by AI. Instead of IA’s overviews, which respond to requests with a direct response at the top of the results page, the new IA mode goes further generate a whole page.

3. Major events for major notes. Television networks have struggled to maintain their audience for years. But Peter Kafka of Bi picked up a pattern to have more eyes: Unmissable streaming of live sports and shows. The most recent Oscars, the Super Bowl and the Olympic Games have obtained bumps in viewers, and streaming was part of their equation.

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3 things in business

Michelle Rohn for bi

1. Meet the Professor Pitbull adored by Sam Altman and Bari Weiss. Lulu Cheng Messervey is one of the most sought -after gurus of the Silicon Valley, known for its unusually aggressive “direct” strategy. The least enchanted are his peers, who are not sold on his style of sidewalk congress, tweeting madly and playing the offensive with the press. However, Cheng Messervey won the admiration of the startup founders by show them how she thinks.

2. A new DOGE staff was linked to a fertility clinic and has links with the pronatalist movement. Miles Collinswhose association with DOGE has been reported for the first time by BI, is a founder of Startup which, according to employees, worked at the Ministry of Labor. Collins was connected to a Californian clinic of fertility which now faces proceedings which accused him of mistreating the employees, although the company denied reprehensible acts. Collins is also the brother of an eminent pronatalist, a movement that Elon Musk also spoke in favor.

3. A price reorner for car manufacturers. President Donald Trump gives the three major car manufacturers – Stellantis, Ford and General Motors – a a month’s break On its recent prices to avoid “economic disadvantage”. But there will not be another break when the second series of Trump trade rates will take effect on April 2, and additional prices on steel and aluminum arrive this month.

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In other news

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What’s going on today

• Macy’s, Costco and Kroger report the benefits.

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Today’s initiate team: Dan Defrancesco, editor -in -chief and anchor, in New York. Grace Lett, publisher, in Chicago. Ella Hopkins, assistant editor, in London. Hallam Bullock, editor -in -chief, in London. Amanda Yen, assistant editor, in New York. Elizabeth Casolo, stock market, in Chicago.