Pros
The people themselves are nice, good social events
Cons
The quality of leadership is questionable in every sense. This Microsoft and AOL partnership really could have been something marvelous instead everyone seems lost with no clear direction on where we are heading and how to make this successful. There will always be the "talk" of how everyone is happy and everything is running smoothly, but it's lies and every employee knows it. They need to stop treating us as if we are ignorant. Logic is ceases to exist here at all. When asking why certain process are in place there is no clear answer apart from "that's how we do things here". How is this going to be successful when the management can't take on suggestions about how to do things better. Microsoft partnering with AOL was a very bad move indeed. It's a complete shambles compared to the wonderful company we came from. We've been successful and how we did things worked there, hence why we achieved quota year after year (Have AOL been achieving quota every year? NO is the answer). This will be the first time it will be a failure and it's because they can't get off their pedestals to take on suggestions that can make things better around here. The calibre of talent at AOL is unimpressive compared to Microsoft and Milennial Media. Especially the managers running the teams, they are not good leaders and quite simply are drowning. A good manager and leader takes on the feedback from people working the job day to day but here nobody wants to entertain change. These same managers would never have been hired had they applied for a position at Microsoft. The difference in talent is crystal clear. There is clearly so much resentment from AOL folk when we came here, especially around taking on the top positions. Maybe this happened because the Microsoft employees are a level above. While I'm on the topic, people should take a moment to reflect on why Microsoft partnered with AOL. It wasn't because we were a failing business. It was because Microsoft wanted to have a larger focus on their software/hardware and search businesses. So AOL'ers should perhaps take that on board when they think about why we are here. We were a success there and we can be a success here if they actually take on board the changes that need to be made.
