Current Microsoft employee here. Every tech company I've worked at has some bullshit aspects to it. I was just telling someone yesterday about the first company I worked at where we were required to track our time on various projects in 15-minute increments, but it just led to everyone punching in some semi-plausible numbers. I guess Microsoft's bullshit - from the author's perspective - is that it uses Connects and it focuses on growth mindset?

A lot of anecdata in the article, so I guess I'll add mine here: I don't think the Connect process is too onerous, and I don't think any of my managers have ever really brought up the subject of growth mindset except for as it relates to our twice-yearly or sometimes quarterly Connects. YMMV depending on the group and team you're in, but growth mindset is very much in the background for me. And while I do have my copy of Hit Refresh on my bookshelf that I was given, no one has ever used it to push any talking points or corporate agenda. It was really just kind of a PR push.

This article feels like it's making a mountain out of a molehill to push an agenda. Maybe all the people this author interviewed have a particular angle, but the overall "culty" message here does not ring true to me at all.

Also, to be picky:

> Over the coming decades, [Carol Dweck] further refined and defined her ideas, coining the terms “growth mindset” and “fixed mindset” in 2012, a mere five years before Nadella took over at Microsoft.

Nadella became CEO in 2014. At least get the objective facts right, please.