Microsoft UK is boyish and boozy

SOFTWARE SHOP Microsoft has a rather wild UK office by all accounts. Though not in a good way.

According to the Telegraph and court papers, Microsoft's UK offices are full of drunkenness and lewd behaviour, which is something that we never expected at all and makes us wish that we had taken up one of those offers of a tour.

The case centres around Simon Negus, who was dismissed by the firm last year after he was accused of kissing a colleague. This kiss however, looks to have been one of the least his concerns as it was later alleged that he had indulged in "a pattern of sexual misconduct" and "harassment" of his female staff.

This was not proved, but Negus, who is married and denied the claims, was dismissed by Microsoft and was asked to return part of his signing bonus. He has counter sued the company and is suggesting that rather than it being him that was out of order, it was actually the culture at the firm that was sick.

Papers filed in court suggest that a Microsoft sales conference was full of drunken people, high on vodka and Jagermeister and indulging in "outrageous misbehaviour". In one instance a man was so drunk that he followed a female manager into a toilet and another was "so p***** he could not remember a thing", the papers add.

Negus has argued that joining Microsoft actually held his career back and suggested that he was better off at Dell, where he held a more senior position. This, he alleges, is because his superior Gordon Frazer was reluctant to cede his position to him.

Other court documents suggest that Frazer emailed to Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, with a plan to oust and replace Negus even before the investigations into his behaviour were complete. µ