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Doug's Mailbag: Giving Credit Where Credit's Due

One reader discusses Microsoft's charitable side:

I do think Microsoft is a good corporate citizen and is doing a lot of good for the world. However, tagging Microsoft with the full 360,000 hours of volunteering and the full $14 million dollars irks me.

Microsoft may in fact allow its employees to get paid while volunteering, but I doubt it. Most large companies require that volunteer time be on your own nickel, so those 360,000 hours are not Microsoft's -- they are the hours of the great people that work at Microsoft.

Also, most companies do a matching system for the donation to United Way --  dollar for dollar or two for one --  but they usually count the entire amount as having come from the organization rather than from the big-hearted employees of Microsoft.

Yes, I understand that without Microsoft providing its employees with well-paying jobs, none of this would be possible. However, the credit should go where it belongs. There are great people working at Microsoft.

And because the Ribbon e-mails will never stop, here's one more:

The kindest thing I have to say about the MS sadists who dreamed up the Ribbon is that they did, at least, provide a customizable QAT to help users restore a bit of order to what otherwise I wouldn't give squat for.




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