Bill Gates Monitored Microsoft Employees’ Work Hours by Memorizing Their License Plates

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates used to memorize employees’ license plate numbers so that he could keep track of when they were arriving at work and leaving.

Gates, who is now co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, described his intense management style from Microsoft’s early days during an interview on the BBC Radio 4 program “Desert Island Discs.”

“I had to be a little careful not to try and apply my standards to how hard [others at the company] worked. I knew everybody’s licence plate so I could look out the parking lot and see, you know, when people come in,” he said. “Eventually I had to loosen up as the company got to a reasonable size” . . .

The philanthropist also described his relationship with Apple co-founder and tech icon Steve Jobs during the radio interview.

“Steve really is a singular person in the history of personal computing in terms of what he built at Apple,” he said. “For some periods, we were completely allies working together – I wrote software for the original Apple II. Sometimes he would be very tough on you, sometimes he’d be very encouraging. He got really great work out of people.” (Read more from “Bill Gates Monitored Microsoft Employees’ Work Hours by Memorizing Their License Plates” HERE)

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