Microsoft

I worked on one of the Surface teams. There were a lot of perks, like cheap lunches on campus, that disappeared with the pandemic, but I expect they will come back over time. I felt safe working there even during the pandemic, and my managers were very responsive when I needed help.

Microsoft is a huge company, so there is a lot of variance. Some of the other teams I had to liaise with weren't as great as my team. It also means that any requests I had that affected more than just my team didn't get much traction if I was the only one asking.

I know contract workers are temporary, but there are a few things that could benefit everyone.

The big one I noticed was during the pandemic: FTEs could get one free COVID test per week on campus, even if they were working completely from home. This was whereas contractors, who mostly worked physically on campus in proximity to each other, could not.