Microsoft's president on turbulent times for the company, country, and world

Microsoft President Brad Smith, like many in tech and the broader world, hoped 2022 might bring a bit of a break in the onslaught of national and global challenges. Halfway through, the reality has been anything but.

"This has been another year where, to use an old phrase, we have to borrow from our sleep in order to get everything done," the Microsoft president said in an interview this week in his office in Redmond. "I don't think any of us thought, when the year began, that we'd find a major war in Europe."

But helping to defend Ukraine in the Russian cyberwar is just one issue on Microsoft's radar.

In the first six months of the year, the company has made a series of moves driven by the turbulent economy, new state and national legislation, growing pressure from employees and investors, a shifting labor market, regulatory challenges, and a pending acquisition that would be the largest in its history. Microsoft boosted employee compensation, significantly reduced its use of non-compete agreements, and announced plans to publicly disclose salary ranges in job posts nationally starting next year. The company commissioned an outside review of its sexual harassment and gender discrimination policies and practices, and announced plans for a civil rights audit, joining a larger industry movement. It also removed confidentiality clauses from agreements involving internal allegations of misconduct. Microsoft pledged a new approach to the prospect of labor unions in its current and future workforce, seeking in part to appease regulators weighing the company's proposed $68.7 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. The company has continued to press ahead on its climate initiatives in the midst of all of this, attempting to navigate the challenge of higher energy prices while focusing on the environmental crisis.

And then there's the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. That's where we started our wide-ranging conversation with Smith this week.

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