Microsoft is planning layoffs this year. Pretty much all the major media are saying that. How big? I cannot confirm.
Exactly ONE dignified source is reporting the 11,000 number
Microsoft, which employs more than 220,000 people, including 6,000 in the UK, is said to be contemplating cutting roughly 5% of its workforce, which if accurate would equate to approximately 11,000 jobs.
That figure could not be verified on Tuesday evening, and one analyst suggested that Wall Street would be surprised if the figure was not higher than that.
One of the things that happens with these large tech companies, as they buy out small companies with technology property they need, is that along with the tech employees come HR and Legal and Finance and all sorts of other overhead positions. From time to time they have to unload bunches of these positions.
Each company needs a payroll department, but one company doesn’t need multiple payroll departments.
My guess is that Microsoft will be keeping the activision engineers, and linkedin and skype techies, for example, but will be letting go of some of the project managers and purchasers and operations positions, etc.
I am not familiar with what product launches Microsoft has in the works but conventional wisdom says if you launch a product and the economy is so bad that no one buys it “you lose money.”
If they really are laying off 11,000 that is 5% of workforce and probably means they are going to lay off engineers, launch less stuff and/or launch it later.
UPDATE:
It appears the layoffs at microsoft will go deeper and include engineering jobs. See link below
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A lot of products we call technology are really luxuries. From an economic standpoint need to be treated as such The latest Windows update or whatever serves as a good template but could just as easily be a phone update, a car update or any tech advance.
DAY1: Millions of Americans use “the current Windows.” Their computers work fine.
DAY 2: Microsoft offers a new version of Windows. It costs 2-3 days wages for the average burger flipper. (56% of Americans have less than $1,000 in cash savings.)
DAY3: If the economy is doing well millions of Americans buy it even though their computers worked well without it. (It is a luxury.)
Economically technology is not at all like food or clothings or housing or transportation. It is more like diamond bracelets or Miami vacations and will probably respond to inflation/recession the same way. Engineering jobs might become like diamond-cutting jobs.
I agree all the updates are not necessary, but because of obsolescence they are ultimately forced onto us. Equipment, third party software, etc eventually dictates that we get the upgrades. Maybe this round of layoffs can slow down that aspect of it for a while.
Microsoft has come under fire after details of a get together it held in Davos, Switzerland, left the company’s workers more than a little stung.
The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Microsoft hosted an exclusive event for around 50 people at the Swiss ski resort on Tuesday evening, with sources telling the publication that attendees had been treated to a live performance from iconic musician Sting. The party’s theme was sustainability, . . .
That’s because their lives and lifestyle will not change no matter what happens. They will continue their elitist lives while we peasants scrounge for survival…and they will continue to bitch how it’s all our fault, not theirs as they hop on their private jets.
