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Microsoft offers mass buyouts for roughly a quarter of its workforce

Microsoft offers mass buyouts for roughly a quarter of its workforce

doctorzook

Comments (412)

  • AbbeFaria
    Ex-MSFT here. I resigned in June, I was an L63. I spent 8 years at MSFT across two stints.My last 18 months at MSFT were deeply unproductive. Constant reorgs, the work not being aligned to my capabilities and unfortunately just the general feeling that I was under worked and had very little opportunity for career advancement.I would look at my colleagues and sister teams and wonder, why do they need these many people to work on something so trivial ? Or how did this person get promoted for doing that work ? I am sure envy played a part in the second question but it was legitimate. Remember, all this was before LLM tools were prevalent.In the end, I left off my own volition. In my last 6 months, I did very little work, if at all any. I thought why am I being paid so handsomely for such little and trivial work. I did try interviewing in a few different teams but didn’t make it (Azure Files and Hyperscale DB). If I had stayed, I would have been swiftly laid off or if I was lucky enough last long till this buyout.I think same is true for all Big Tech companies. Too many employees doing not enough or quality work.
  • ecshafer
    60k workers, 1/4 of the workers. This is a big deal. It also really puts you into a bind if you receive the offer. Do you accept, take the money, and hope you can find a job (Now competing with many other Msft employees that are looking). Do you decline and hope you don't get hit with the layoff which hits if not enough people accept?
  • theodpHN
    The mass buyout offer to 25% of Microsoft's workforce comes less than a week after Microsoft President Brad Smith proclaimed to employees: 'We stand by our people. We always have. We always will.' in a video he posted to LinkedIn.https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7518428...
  • christophilus
    My former boss at Microsoft told me this sort of thing is a good way to get rid of your best, most employable employees. I guess he didn’t pass the memo up the chain.
  • tandr
    "1/4 of workforce was offered buyouts" does not mean all 60000 will accept them. "Results may vary", you know.I saw it happening in a funny way not long time ago - company offered buyouts, but got insanely surprised when high percentage of people actually accepted it. Management thought acceptance rate would be much, much lower, but when numbers started to pour in on a 2nd day, oh man... Panic spread very quickly because people were accepting packages in fear of layoffs without such package, so management said if any layoffs will happen in 3 years period after this, same package will be offered no question asked. Cooled things a bit, but what a mess...
  • Rotdhizon
    I spend a decent amount of time talking to newcomers and people on Reddit that are interested in cybersecurity/tech about the job market. There's no shortage of people who are frustrated because they can't find jobs. Fresh tech and cyber graduates are basically unemployable. People with 1-5 years experience find it extremely difficult to find work.Layoffs like this are a huge reason for that. Talent pools are overlapping like never before. A person with 5 years of solid experience applying for tons of jobs and getting nowhere, only to realize they are competing with people with 10-15 years of experience freshly laid off from big companies. At that point, early career people are getting pushed almost completely out of the industry.
  • cs02rm0
    I don't know what the situation in the US is like, it's probably relatively well insulated. Normally, I'd expect the middle-of-the-road to stick, and the shining stars to twist, take the money and find something else in short order.But across Europe, the Middle East and elsewhere, it's an absolute bunfight to get a new role in software at the moment. Thousands, even tens of thousands of applicants for every role on LinkedIn, in relatively short order. Invariably, if the role exists, it's too many for them to sanely process. Not just desperate applicants but qualified ones that meet the spec comfortably.If that's coming to the US eventually, there will be lots more layoffs to come and nowhere else to jump to.
  • HumblyTossed
    Take it or wait for the lay offs.Also, good grief, flooding the market with thousands more people.2027 is going to be wild. Stock up on beans and rice, folks.
  • bri3d
    Before getting wrapped up in the usual LLM vs anti-LLM narratives, note that like many of these recent layoffs, this is essentially reversing 2020-2022 net headcount growth.IMO a lot of these layoffs are companies going from an experimental fiscal mindset to a conservative fiscal mindset - ie, rather than acquiring companies and hiring to grow into new markets, a lot of organizations are falling back on what they know works, independent of any productivity impact of LLMs.
  • andrewla
  • usrme
  • chris_money202
    I do appreciate that they are at least giving people some agency into the decision first, rather than ruthlessly cutting people
  • jjallen
    Wow. This is insane news. To think you suddenly can get by with up to 25% fewer people is truly a sign of what is to come. They probably assume much fewer will accept, but still. They probably think 10-20% will actually accept. But they're confident that they can make due with suddenly quite a bit fewer people.
  • dzonga
    microsoft should ideally be doing the reverse. hiring more workers or re-skilling.they've the most deployed software in the world - the software is inadequate most of the times (i.e full of bugs). 2nd the software is prone to misuse cz M$ doesn't have enough people listening to customers and making software meet the needs of its users.if there was a company that should've done the Forward deployed thingy is Microsoft.
  • angrydev
    Anyone want to spill what their buyout offer was?
  • a34729t
    Interesting. Nobody on a visa will take the offer, presumably, so it's kind of a workaround for all the immigration controversy.
  • groos
    The term 'Voluntary Exit Offer' reminds me of the suicide drug Quietus in P.D. James' Children of Men, which the government offers to people who no longer wish to live.
  • sda2
    surely this is a sign GitHub uptime is about to improve.
  • _ache_
  • 6thbit
    Is there any word on which divisions/lines of business they are offering for?
  • Ancalagon
    The terms for this seem kind of not great tbh, unless you have been there for like multiple decades, especially in this job market.I probably wouldn't take this and instead devote more of my time to practicing for and collecting interviews during the equivalent time period with the hopes of keeping my job at the end.
  • sedan_baklazhan
    I’m theoretically wondering what will happen to a country like USA when unemployment hits, say, 25%.
  • asteri000n
    (ex-MSFT) Not surprised. I left a month ago after a chaotic year of reorgs, charter changes, no leadership nor roadmap, being crunched, being asked to de-facto manage 4 engineers with no title bump nor pay increase. Moved to a medium sized company with a compensation increase, better title, more interesting project and amazing work-life balance. I expect many of my friends and former coworkers are going to take the buyout offer as well.
  • throwfaraway135
    Would be interesting to know how much of it is result of AI and how much because the government is looking into their H1B practices, aka how much of the people who got this offer are under H1B.
  • alkonaut
    Here's where I like working with some employment security. If they want to fire me, they'll have to buy me out WHEN that happens. It's not like I need to face some dilemma between choosing a buyout or otherwise get nothing in case I'm fired.
  • tonymet
    Presumably AI is making everyone, particularly sales & marketing more productive. While at the same time, their customers are building more things, and selling more things.Why a force reduction?Ignore AI for a second. If you had a magic wand, that would help everyone at your company produce more, sell more, and all of your customers are producing and selling more, would that be a growth phase?
  • jollyllama
    Having no regard for the quality of the end user experience opens up a lot of business possibilities, LLM's or not.
  • rurban
    Let's just hope this is middle-management only, the ones who are causing all the trouble
  • Mithriil
    A quarter were asked. That seems like a lot.It does seem a bit of a fortuitous timing, with Anthropic IPO S-1 just dropping..
  • fhn
    I hope these people form a group to develop software that directly competes with Microsoft or even make it free now that you have extra time. It'll keep your skills up and good for the resume.
  • WoodenChair
    This can be interpreted as a form of soft layoffs, or it can also be interpreted as an attempt to change their labor culture. Microsoft was notorious for stacked ranking, where supposedly "low performers" were regularly culled. If you offer low performers a smooth way out, it's another form of culling without the harsh push.
  • procaryote
    Give the low quality of microsoft's products, I am very ready to believe that even simple agents can do a better job.
  • anon
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  • sodacanner
    Pretty big, but remember that offering a buyout to 1/4 of their employees doesn't mean they're looking to get rid of that many! Not everyone's going to take the buyout, and they're not expecting them to. Their target is likely much lower.
  • doctorzook
    Obviously, details are thin. I’m very curious how these offers are distributed by role and by seniority.
  • mjburgess
    It seems one quarter are eligible. The target reduction is presumably much less.
  • apercu
    You know what MS also did on Friday? Used auto update to wipe out all Mac Office 2021 Licenses to try to trick people in to 365 subs.
  • paxy
    This was announced back in April. Lot better than doing layoffs imo. If someone is already checked out then giving them an incentive to leave works out for both sides.
  • runjake
    It's mentioned elsewhere in the comments, but is buried: level 70 is "Distinguished Engineer" and below, so effectively, it's available to all normies.https://www.levels.fyi/companies/microsoft/salaries/software...
  • dude250711
    Effectively that means that getting blocked from H1B is a non-issue for Microsoft, since they already have way too many workers.
  • 2OEH8eoCRo0
    They only had $281bn in revenue last year.
  • VCFundedGenYer
    Microsoft laying off (and yes, this is a layoff, no matter how it's spun) 25% of the entire freaking company is not a sign of a healthy organization.You can't and won't tell me with a straight face that AI will replace them.
  • dyauspitr
    This is the biggest recent tech news over even maybe the last five years. This isn’t like Twitter, where the layoffs were arbitrary
  • 123-18hv
    Remember, people, that Microsoft is a reformed company that supports open source and DEI Anything else was flagged up to 2025. Now that they have stolen all open source they fire people.But some people here have a short memory and already support the new thieves on the block Anthropic and OpenAI.
  • nemo44x
    > At the same time, we'll keep helping people focus on the work that matters most, build new skills, and, where it makes sense, find new opportunities across Microsoft.Anthropic is already doing this - some software engineers have redeployed into research roles, for example. “Redeploying” is going to be the latest HR trend I think.
  • r0m4n0
    Paywalled so I can’t see the details but was it offered to 25% assuming much less would actually accept? I have to assume a minority take the deal
  • hereme888
    Look at this corporate-slop-speak for how they say "we're firing people":"more ways for employees to shape their next chapter".
  • nisegami
    Is there any reason not to take the buyout?
  • tinyhouse
    The writing was on the wall for a long time. All of big tech (and many midsize tech too) have way too many employees. In the AI era is just more absurd than it was before. I always appreciate companies that take care of their employees this way so kudos to Microsoft. We haven't seen the package they are offering yet but I'm assuming it'd going to be very good, esp for those who have been there for a while.
  • drusepth
    How does the job role break down for these 60k workers? Are they mostly devs? Other roles?Can't read the article because of the paywall.
  • rvz
    Maybe Microsoft achieved AGI internally.
  • rayiner
    How can Microsoft justify making thousands of H1B filings when obviously there's no shortage, and in fact there is a glut, of software engineers? https://www.levels.fyi/h1b/?q=Microsoft&employer=Microsoft
  • etchalon
    Jesus. 25% is ... a lot.
  • newbie578
    You are all getting a first row seat to watching the death of an industry.I wonder where are all those AI apologists who have been touting here for years that jobs will not go away?
  • apercu
    Wow, while I think that large headcount often leads to terrible products (looks at Apple for the last 5 years), MS platforms and software are SO BAD and more un-supervised AI slop code isn't going to fix it. I never want anyone to lose their job but this seems like a massive reduction.
  • yxhuvud
    Paywall.
  • mschuster91
    Yeah, there is no way this will not make the horrible issues at Microsoft even a tiny bit better.Azure is an epic shitshow (to be fair, GCP is even worse, but eh). Github is seriously struggling staying up and alive. Windows updates are posing more of a danger for business continuity than the security issues they fix, which is a challenge in itself. Windows itself is being made irrelevant as more and more software moves for SaaS web models and the gaming flank is being eaten left and right by SteamOS/Proton/WINE, what's left of Windows Embedded after CE got terminated looong ago (that was the foundation for a lot of HMI stuff) is being replaced by Android or straight Linux on Raspberry Pi style devices. Office 365 is buggy as hell (and in the case of Outlook, a horribly bloated Electron mess). Wide masses resent Windows itself for the bloatware, espionage and advertising that's forced down your throat.And to make the already bad situation even worse, the Trump government made American Big Tech their bitch and everyone but the US is now looking to divest from them as fast as possible.
  • likelybot
    [dead]
  • lelandbatey
    Text of the memo driving this, from an article posted by Business Insider [0]: Introducing a Voluntary Exit Offer Today, we're introducing a new Voluntary Exit Offer (VEO) to eligible employees within participating organizations. This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support. It also gives participating orgs another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs. The Voluntary Exit Offer reflects an important part of how we're evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter. This builds on what we learned earlier this year through the Voluntary Retirement Program. What employees should know This offer will be available to eligible employees in participating teams in Canada, India, United Kingdom and United States at level 70 and below. This is a time-limited, voluntary program that gives those who are eligible the opportunity to leave Microsoft with financial support and career planning resources. Some organizations are providing the Voluntary Exit Offer, and some are not. Participation varies based on each business's priorities, customer commitments, and workforce needs. Eligible employees will receive an email with a link to their Voluntary Exit Offer details within the next few hours. Looking ahead The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us. We'll learn from it. At the same time, we'll keep helping people focus on the work that matters most, build new skills, and, where it makes sense, find new opportunities across Microsoft. There is no one-size-fits-all approach for every team or every employee. These are a few of the ways we're trying to meet different business needs while continuing to create opportunities for our own people to grow and contribute. My promise is to continue to provide clarity, listen and learn, and keep improving. Thank you for everything you continue to do for our customers, Microsoft, and for one another. Amy [0] - https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-is-offering-buyout...
  • sick_of_slop
    [dead]
  • ls-a
    [dead]
  • anon
    undefined