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Microsoft is reducing its workforce leaving more than 10,000 without jobs

Microsoft is reducing its workforce leaving more than 10,000 without jobs
Leri Koen

Leri Koen

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Tech companies are struggling to maintain their workforces after all the changes made during the pandemic. It seems tech giants are laying off staff everywhere you turn. Microsoft is one of the most recent companies to fall victim to the turbulent economy and is planning job cuts to save revenue.

Microsoft is getting ready to announce these cuts formally, and it could happen as early as Wednesday morning. According to Sky News, the tech giant is aiming to reduce its workforce by at least 5%. This effectively means that in a company with 220 000 employees, we’re looking at more than 10 000 people losing their jobs. This number rivals the Meta layoffs from last year which were at around 11 000 employees.

Microsoft plans to reduce workforce by laying off 5%

According to Bloomberg, a number of these layoffs will be from the Microsoft Engineering department. This is in contrast to last year’s layoffs from the tech giant where most employees affected were in consulting and customer and partner solutions. The 5% layoffs are also a vast increase on the 1% that occurred last year. 

The announcement comes just days after Microsoft started implementing an unlimited time off policy. This new policy was adapted to be more flexible and provide permanent monthly employees in the US to have an unlimited number of days off. This new policy is being called ‘Discretionary Time Off’ and managers at Microsoft will be able to approve these requests as of January 16th, 2023.

Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, also warned a few weeks ago that the company expects the next two years to be particularly challenging for the technology industry. She went on to admit that Microsoft, as big as the company is, isn’t immune to global changes. She also urged the importance of tech companies being efficient.

Microsoft saw a lot of acceleration during the pandemic and now they’re experiencing normalization after these investments. Not only that but there are already recessions in some parts of the world and serious concerns over the economy in others. This combination of factors, along with others not yet disclosed, are the reasons for these layoffs.

Microsoft plans to reduce workforce by laying off 5%

This isn’t a new or shocking occurrence, as we’ve seen many tech companies laying off staff in the last few months. Aside from Meta, Twitter also experienced significant layoffs after Elon Musk took over the company. 

Aside from these notorious tech giants, others have also needed to downsize their workforces. Snapchat laid off about 20% of its employees and had to pause some of its projects. 

It seems that while these companies managed to adapt to the epidemic, with some even excelling, they are starting to feel the aftermath now. We’ll be keeping an eye on things as the story develops and hope there are ways to mitigate revenue losses in a way that doesn’t affect employees as much.

Leri Koen

Leri Koen

Born and raised in South Africa I am the mother of two busy kids and one loving husband. Since leaving school I immediately started working and have been involved in many different industries where I learned a wide range of skills. Some of my skills range from marketing to management and even teaching special needs children, particularly those with severe developmental delays. I am a self-proclaimed holiday nut, taking any chance I can get to decorate and celebrate major holidays such as Easter, Halloween and Christmas, often planning these months in advance! I have a wide range of passions that I persue (as often as I can) such as reading, writing, bonsai, crafting, creating natural beauty products, listening to music and playing games (prefered platforms being PC and Xbox).

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