Microsoft Announces Major Downsizing - 60,000 Affected

[Yasser76]

That's not how it's going to work.

MS announced a voluntary severance to 60,000 employees. If your job is none of those they flagged as eligible, you will be notified. If you don't take the offer, and probably get a decent package as well, you will be separated involuntarily.

That was how Motorola did it for years. One good friend of mine received almost 3 full years of pay as part of his package. Another, who would have received the same, held out. He did not receive the same package. Incentives are a big thing.

60,000 cuts are going to occur.

The question is; who will take the package and who is going to hold out and receive less?

Yup, and even if you dont take it and try and hold on your mental health will take a hot knowing the final email could come at any time

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

These Indian Companies are actually hiring entry level at peanuts. Overal workforce for the industry is modest increase as per latest data and this will hold. US companies , using AI as pretext are offloading more ( AI has not yet reached singularity) than warranted and hiring in India by increasing GCC. Vultures that they are . But the real shock to India is going to come with the crash of real estate. They are crazy , crazy high and unsustainable. Real Estate crash will set the fire in all sectors and segments. This middle East war and Ukrain War is screwing every country but India is getting squeezed much more due to dependency on petroleum products at almost 90%. You may finally expect Modi to be in Pakistan ( it's economics stupid , as they say) and maybe ...maybe... neighbours will learn to co-exist ...and India should ...as the choices are bleak..

Try and remain on topic.

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

Yup, and even if you dont take it and try and hold on your mental health will take a hot knowing the final email could come at any time

Or your manager and an HR rep shows up at your desk with two boxes.

I remember a massive layoff in 2000 or 2001 at Motorola. We would typically go to lunch over in the main building by walking out the back door of ours and coming in from the side by the cafeteria.

As we walked by, I spotted oh, maybe 10 pallets. Of folded boxes. The kind that were provided to those who were being laid off. Everyone received two boxes.

I did the math and told the rest of the guys how many were going to be laid off. A few days later, the announcement came out. The number I stated.

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

Meta has also bet big on Ai and datacentres with its layoff that did a few months back. I suspect Meta may have another round of reductions esp with all its fines.

Yes.

And, this morning it was announced that Nvidia is making a USD$3B investment in Meta to expand its AI capabilities and offerings.

 

[Ali_Baba]

That's not how it's going to work.

MS announced a voluntary severance to 60,000 employees. If your job is none of those they flagged as eligible, you will be notified. If you don't take the offer, and probably get a decent package as well, you will be separated involuntarily.

That was how Motorola did it for years. One good friend of mine received almost 3 full years of pay as part of his package. Another, who would have received the same, held out. He did not receive the same package. Incentives are a big thing.

60,000 cuts are going to occur.

The question is; who will take the package and who is going to hold out and receive less?

3 years of pay is very very generous - your friend overall was lucky( appreciate he may have been there for decades to get that level ).

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

Ai changes the game where low cost of people is not the value add as it once was, as all of sudden you can automate the low paying jobs with Ai. The value is in the high end with product and business knowledge, innovation being the key factors, and those have always remained in the west.

Ai will hit the back off the hardest, and the back office of the world is India right now with business process services outsourcing being its bread and butter.

I know of teams that have hired more Product owners, and business analysts and massively reduced their engineering staff, who these days just sit on top of Claude Code... How long before Product owners, and business analysts don't even need the engineering staff ?

Depending on the type of engineering, it could be minimal.

Even BAs are going to be hit.

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

3 years of pay is very very generous - your friend overall was lucky( appreciate he may have been there for decades to get that level ).

Back in those days yes. Motorola actually cared about the people then. Toward the end, as when they eventually separated my group, 1200 that day, the packages were not like they were a few years before.

 

[BHAN85]

Actually robots are now doing much of that work, even in developing world, and will do more so as time moves on

it's not what I see, check out youtube videos about factories of appliances in developing countries, or street food, best example of informal economy.

all is easily automatable with old cheap machines.

nothing happens, they are invisible for these economic trends, they arent even part of official stats.

and all developing world seems to be frozen in a eternal developing state, except China, who is too big to be mocked.

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

MOD NOTE:

Stop with the goyim and related comments. This is a hot topic and can be discussed appropriately without resorting to those type of references.

Thanks.

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

All of the engineering disciplines are starting to incorporate AI.

At the end of the day though, a human will still have to sign off on it that the work meets design standards and applicable jurisdictional codes.

What's now currently happening is nobody is signing off because they are hiring people who don't even understand the code being written.

That's the main problem with AI. It quickly writes stuff that works and nobody wants to walk it to see if the logic is sound.

That's why they are still looking at senior engineers..not newbies.

 

[Yasser76]

Or your manager and an HR rep shows up at your desk with two boxes.

I remember a massive layoff in 2000 or 2001 at Motorola. We would typically go to lunch over in the main building by walking out the back door of ours and coming in from the side by the cafeteria.

As we walked by, I spotted oh, maybe 10 pallets. Of folded boxes. The kind that were provided to those who were being laid off. Everyone received two boxes.

I did the math and told the rest of the guys how many were going to be laid off. A few days later, the announcement came out. The number I stated.

Yeah, its just as brutal these days, email, cut off from your access. Post your laptop (dont even bother to come in), email sending you the offer. Hard to even counter it, many do not realise tech pay offs are very generous, so they try and fight it and lose at court/tribunal. Standard terms in UK is just one week for every year served.

 

[AZ_HighCountry]

What's now currently happening is nobody is signing off because they are hiring people who don't even understand the code being written.

I may not have been clear; apologies.

In the engineering disciplines, let's take for example structural engineering. An AI program can design the structure and do all the necessary calculations. What it can't do is stamp the work. A licensed engineer is still going to have to review the work and verify it. This is no different than what occurs today where an EIT does a lot of the design and calculations and the PE reviews, corrects or modifies if necessary, and then seals with his or her stamp.

 

[Meengla]

As we walked by, I spotted oh, maybe 10 pallets. Of folded boxes. The kind that were provided to those who were being laid off. Everyone received two boxes.
I did the math and told the rest of the guys how many were going to be laid off. A few days later, the announcement came out. The number I stated.

I have been unemployed for 18+ months and mostly because I refuse to ever go back to in-office work. Money is not bad because I made good money and am frugal. Plus wife earns.
I can't imagine the indignity of hauling my stuff out of an office after getting fired.

 

[Yasser76]

I have been unemployed for 18+ months and mostly because I refuse to ever go back to in-office work. Money is not bad because I made good money and am frugal. Plus wife earns.
I can't imagine the indignity of hauling my stuff out of an office after getting fired.

You are in a lucky position, blessed

 

[PK781]

We had a senior manager let go with shocker last yr, he came in for a regular day, held his meetings with finance in the morning as usual and then afternoon bam!
All of a sudden we got some mailer-daemon emails about his email inbox, thats how we found. But heard they made it good pkg for him to coast him over to his retirement.

These days its by email and its ruthless. They don't waste time as they usually have a long list to do the layoffs, not 1 or 2. All of a sudden emaill, phone everything is locked out.