One of the Worst Places I've Worked. - Data Center Technician Microsoft Employee Review

1.0
Nov 5, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There's no real pros working in this Microsoft Data Centre in Grangecastle Dublin they will destroy you and not give a damn.

Cons

I worked on Shift in the Data Centre, in Grangecastle Dublin and it's got one of the most Toxic working environments I ever witnessed. Management have no interest in helping you progress, the only way you can progress is to rat on your colleagues back to management, boot lick, hard work is not recognised only numbers and if the metrics don't add up you're not doing your job, work quality suffers as a result then they get on your back, the constantly change the goal posts and don't pay you extra for working bank holidays. They can't leave you to do your job you are highly harassed and micro managed to the point of breaking. Even your own colleagues will be looking through the ticket system to see what other colleagues are doing, interfering with their work and hanging them to management if they feel they thought they were doing something wrong, this is the culture they nurture in Microsoft. Nepotism is rampant and this has created a gigantic click which see people get promotions who don't deserve it. People who haven't a clue, just in the door next you know they're giving you orders. You are forced to watch training videos on how to think and behave and to accept their way and political views. One Brainwashing video I watched wants you to be paranoid about your colleagues, if they come to work in a new car and you feel their salary doesn't reflect that they should have a new car you're to report it, if they say they're depressed, you're to report it, if they say anything against management you should report it etc, you would have to see this material to believe it. They're big into Diversity making you feel if you're white and a Native and male you're not important. On site security is a complete joke, airport like check points all over the place, empty pockets, take off your belt, take off your shoes, security are even minions carrying out orders from management and they're not even Microsoft staff. This creates an illusion that data bearing devices can't be taken out of server rooms and just adds to the stress because they don't need to be there causing extra stress. Access to parts for techs is a complete joke, this site is massive and you might have to walk 2 Km for simple things like hard drives in the p1ssing rain at 3am because the site is made up of many separate buildings and you have to drive around or walk around it's a lot of hassle, getting in and out through security with parts through security portals, basically the whole job is endless hassle, if they can make the job more inconvenient they will. They won't stock each building with the needed parts only some basic parts, you spend so much time walking around a massive site which adds to the burn out meanwhile the clock is ticking and you got to do so many tickets which half your shift goes looking for parts or walking. No shelter between buildings in Irish Weather ? absolute joke. They have what they call a monthly Goal which involves paying employees to find fault in other employees such as not wearing of high vis vest, maybe someone was seen driving a little faster on site than they should, so you have your own colleagues walking around waiting and hiding around corners to see if you do something, once a month then when management review the monthly Goal one Employee is awarded 100 Euro's for ratting out another colleague, basically they want normal non management staff doing the job for managers. My advice is never to waste your time applying for Microsoft Data Centre in Grangecastle Dublin. It's toxic and they'll burn you out and toss you out like dirt, the novelty of working for Microsoft wears out very quickly.

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5.0
Jun 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Interesting and varied work. Seasonality to the job allows for rest period

Cons

Less stability than there used to be makes people afraid to take risks

4.0
Jan 28, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. If you love tech, this is a great place. No doubt you'll talk tech (mostly the MSFT stack) from enterprise to consumer - from PCs to phones to Xboxes - from datacenter to desktop. 2. What were GREAT benefits are now VERY GOOD (took a small step down) but still probably better than you'll find at 99% of large corporations. If you've got family - the value of the benefits is even higher. 401k match is nice. 3. Even with it's struggles MSFT is still a cash printing machine. This means if you can keep your nose clean and do reasonable work, you can have a stable job, pay your bills, feed your family, and not worry (too much) about layoffs. The stock you own likely won't tank, but probably won't go up much either. You'll get a bonus each year and some stock. It's a decent life if you aren't looking to light the world on fire.

Cons

Brand on Your Resume: After many years of losing market share and struggling to be at the front end of innovation and the fact that there's 90,000 employees, don't think MSFT is necessarily going to be attractive on your resume to more agile and smaller companies. Managing Your Career: Make you say this out loud so it registers - 90,000 employees work there. Double that for vendors. It is VERY hard to "stand out" and move up in the company. Don't expect your manager to be much of an advocate or enabler to help you meet your career goals - they are basically trying to survive the stack rank every year too. Not familiar with the stack rank? Check out the 2012 Vanity Fair article called "Microsoft's Lost Decade".

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