Satya Nadella was speaking at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference on Wednesday. He was asked to offer advice to women who are uncomfortable asking for a raise. His response opened up a viral firestorm of criticism. Before you move on, take a minute to listen to what Nadella actually said, starting at about 1:33:56 in the video below.
Even better, go to about 00:28:00 to learn about the BRAID initiative, launched by Harvey Mudd College, “an initiative to work with computer science departments at 15 universities across the U.S. to increase the percentage of their undergraduate majors that are female and students of color”. BRAID is sponsored by Facebook, Google, Intel and Microsoft. Anyone at Apple pursuing this? If you are interested but need contact info, ping me, I’ll be happy to connect the dots.
But I digress. By now, you’ve watched the Nadella comment. Ham handed, but I don’t get the sense from context that this was meant in the way it came across. To his credit, Nadella followed up with an apology, sent it out to the entire company and posted it here for public consumption. From the letter:
Toward the end of the interview, Maria asked me what advice I would offer women who are not comfortable asking for pay raises. I answered that question completely wrong. Without a doubt I wholeheartedly support programs at Microsoft and in the industry that bring more women into technology and close the pay gap. I believe men and women should get equal pay for equal work. And when it comes to career advice on getting a raise when you think it’s deserved, Maria’s advice was the right advice. If you think you deserve a raise, you should just ask.
I take him at his word.
I also didn’t see his initial statement as intentionally callous. However, at his level of influence, every word uttered is scrutinized under a microscope and he should’ve given it more thought before spitting it out. Especially going into a conference geared towards women. This is why I enjoy Steve Jobs’ interviews because he pauses a lot to think it through before answering questions instead of shooting from the hip.
Some of his answers are brilliant, too. I remember his first WWDC back, a developer kept asking OpenDoc questions. Steve Jobs answered one or two off the hip, then took a really insulting question. He answered with that pause and then gave a real answer to the real question: Why did Apple cut a great technology? The answer was sincere, even if the premise (that OpenDoc was one of those great technologies) was probably foreign to him. (And for the record, I’d agree with him: Great technology, tough to build real things on. And time has proved him: applications are no longer rectangle-in-a-page based.)
It was very masterful and telling of how much he’d changed in his absence.
Here’s the question/answer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF-tKLISfPE
The question’s a little hard to take. I usually can’t watch it out of the feeling that the person asking it should have suffered severe embarrassment. 🙂
I remember that interview well. Even if you’re not a fanboy, it pays to learn the art of public speaking from Steve. It’s not necessarily about “spin”. It’s about making yourself (and by extension, your audience) BELIEVE in what you’re saying. If you can’t convince yourself, you can’t fool anyone.
Having said that, I still believe (hope) that Nadella’s sin was a simple case of “mouth running ahead of brain”. Maybe he needs to do acid once in a while. 😉
basically Women want special privileges that is what they call equality.
Next Nerds should complain that women don’t treat them equally either.
Nerd should get to bully jocks as well.
Pass a constitutional amendment
Yeah, I don’t even think it’s spin. I think the big part of it is Steve Jobs REALLY shifting his thinking to match the person he’s dealing with. He really put on the other guy’s shoes, and he at least thinks through walking a mile in them during that pause. 🙂
I’m not sure if Nadella was guilty of not thinking things through, or actually having stupid ideas. If it’s the latter, it’s fine if he’s actually changed his mind. Isn’t it?
Sadly, there doesn’t seem to be a “flag as dumbass” option here.
Not sure what there was to miss from context. Asked plainly if women should ask for raises, he said no. It’s his belief they should simply “trust the system” to reward them. Well, that’s great, the system has been wonderful so far to women who’ve simply “trusted it” to work. Further, he makes it clear that the type of female employee he values is one who doesn’t ask for raises. Keeping quiet and not asking for what you feel you deserve is what he calls “good karma”. WTF??
Sure, once the inanity of his remarks were laid bare for all to see, he was quick to recant. Nonetheless, I don’t think it gets him a free pass.
WHY hasn’t the Board fired him yet??
When a group has power and you want equal power, trusting that they will just give it to you is absurd. I’m not sure Nadella did not give his true feelings away with this comment. His apology does not really address that. Saying the right thing and actually believing it can be two different things. If his future actions result in the former, the latter could evolve to match.
Women already have loads of special privileges, especially the beautiful ones.
Men learn early and are reminded daily they should not expect anything for free.
I hope you’re just pandering for pussy points, otherwise you’re the dumbass.
nope. but you get a “I’m a Dumbass!” button as well. wear it with pride, son!
what rubbish. attractive people of either gender are often rewarded in ways that unattractive people aren’t. only a complete idiot would think that’s limited to females.
Thank you! I love it when my competition underestimates me.
Nope.
Rich men and beautiful women have it easy.
Poor handsome men get laid more than poor ugly men, but they don’t get significant economic benefits.
I’d like to say your logic is flawed here, but there is no logic.
Nadella’s comments were crude, alright. But, while missing the mark, he speaks like every other corporate wonk in the 21st century. “You’re on your own, we’re always right and the system will work.” engineer speak for, “I don’t know how I got to be the head of thaws large company, but I think I need to go back and learn that business is not necessarily engineering.”
Just, as Jim put it, ham handed.
I think Satya answered a different question – which is, in world were you don’t have a salary gap to close, what advice would you give someone who wishes to ask for a raise? The sense I get is that his tendency is reward people who produce results and don’t automatically ask for the pat on the paycheck.
Because he hasn’t done or said anything that would be a considered a firing offense?
If we all got fired after misparsing a question or misphrasing an answer after a 90 minute conversation, the unemployment rate would be 100%.
That’s same impression I got having known MS employees for some time.
Anyone—gender irrelevant—asking for a raise has been gauche in Redmond, and even if you had the chutzpah to ask, everything (historically) came down to stack ranking anyway.
So, yes, it makes perfect sense than in Nadella’s world his advice to women (despite the chance they may well be underpaid relative to their male counterparts) is the same as his advice to anyone: Don’t rock the boat. If your managers think you’re worth a raise, The System will deliver.
Not that the internet rage machine is concerned with context.
1) I’d be willing to bet ANY bounty that’s not what the women of Microshaft think, and,
2) if Satya DOESN’t think EVERY employee of Microshaft isn’t coin-operated, then he’s as crazy as you.
It’s not that Nadella’s answer is wrong, it’s just that it’s proven to be ineffectual over a very long period of time.
Women have always had to wait for things eg voting, equal pay etc. As such his advice to “trust the system” fails because there are many women who have probably done so and are still waiting for that raise or promotion. Some will never receive them.
Also, Nadella’s answer is naive. The system has worked for him so he may be assuming that it should work for everyone. But the system has most likely worked for him because of his gender.
For these reasons, his host’s advice was more direct, “Don’t be stupid like me. Just ask…” That is, don’t trust the system, do something about it. Don’t wait till the system changes because it may never will.
Nine years after the Summers controversy at Harvard, we haven’t found thoughtful ways to discuss such things? It’s actually easy to understand several sides to these controversies, yet much debate prevent reflexivity. Evidence suggests that women have a harder time in STEM than they did before, but we focus on each slip-up as though it were an isolated incident.
If you think the world is governed by logic you have much to learn.