I was at Microsoft from 1991 to 2007, almost always as an IC, and don't ever recall stack-ranking teammates. That was always something done by the managers, not the ICs.

Even my short stint as a manager (with one report, lol), I wasn't on any of the stack-ranking meetings, thankfully.

No. Microsoft is manager based. There's a peer feedback system but it's mostly useless

AND Microsoft took it from Jack Welch at GE. https://www.businessinsider.com/stack-ranking-employees-is-a...

Microsoft is manager centric. Even when they tried to move away from bell curve, it led to more power in the hands of manager by giving them the budget.