Earlier this week, Microsoft laid-off an unknown number of employees. While these may be part of the cuts announced earlier this year, the details I am hearing are a bit different than what was previously announced.
Back in July, Microsoft said that they would be cutting roughly 3,000 employees and that most of the cuts would be from outside the US. On Tuesday of this week, the company informed an unknown number of employees that their jobs are being terminated.
I have heard from at least four people at the company who have confirmed that individuals on product teams, including engineers, as well as sales teams, were impacted. Further, there were quite a few layoffs in the US whereas it was previously believed that most of the cuts would come from overseas.
Microsoft’s ranks have swelled over the years with acquisitions and slimming up the org chart is a natural part of a mature company. That being said, the company has been making cuts consistently the past few years and anyone who has worked in an environment where this occurs knows that it can seriously impact morale.
With another round of cuts happening this week, the question becomes if they are going to inform any more employees this calendar year if their jobs have been terminated. While I don’t know the answer to that question, anything seems possible as these cuts were kept under the radar unlike the last round of layoffs.