A good work party is fun. Microsoft work parties that attempt to pander to younger employees and fail entirely at this goal? Not so fun. The software giant doesn’t have the best track record of catering to millenials, as evidenced by their teen-centric experimental AI program Tay that turned into a racist nightmare almost immediately. Recently, another effort to be the hip, cool billion-dollar software company that you totally just wanna, you know, hang with went completely and totally awry in cringe-worthy fashion.
https://twitter.com/pburtchaell/status/750494339860615169?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
The company sent the above email to its interns in the Bay Area. Now let’s be clear: there’s nothing wrong with inviting your interns to a work function and there’s nothing wrong with trying to not sound completely robotic when doing it. But you should also probably make sure you actually understand the words you’re trying to use to communicate with your younger employees and not just assume that you can throw the word “bae” into any context and have it not come across as extremely weird.
The whole email is something of a masterclass in how to alienate millenials. From the awkward use of “hella noms” to the clear miscomprehension of what the word “lit” means (they clearly didn’t understand that getting lit is not something you want to do at an office party, especially if you’re still an intern), it is stunningly awkward from top to bottom.
Microsoft has stepped forward to apologize and, miraculously, did not use the phrase “mad sorry, y’all” when doing so. “The email was poorly worded and not in keeping with the core values of our company,” they told Gizmodo, “We are looking into how this occurred and will take appropriate steps to address it.” At the end of the day, at least they realized the error of their ways and apologized. They might not be the most bae, but props to Microsoft for keeping it 100 in the wake of defeat.
(via Gizmodo)