Microsoft Announces Major Downsizing - 60,000 Affected

[Mobius]

Soon, robots will make the burgers too!

 

[PK781]

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.

its very unfortunate and can be a stressful and low feeling for those being laid off from their first jobs.
Although these days we don't really have/keep much in our "offices" as there isn't much space....I assume people who work at their desk 8 hours will keep more stuff there.....for us there is just the company laptop and the work cellphone.....which would be left there anyway.
Only thing mine there would be my personal small tools but nothing about my family or pictures etc.
I treat the job as something that pays the bills, no loyalty to anything, if they won't care, neither will I.
This is why i do not go above and beyond in the job bcaz they simply dont give a damn and won't care 1 second the moment we are let go.
Do just enough to get thru the day in peace, that's it. There's no reward for killing yourself for the company.....

 

[PK781]

Soon, robots will make the burgers too!

ironically, that would be better? At least they may get the order right.....

here we have sooo many pissed people daily at coffee shops blaming the worker for not getting the order right.....lots of complaints daily.....yet people keep going there to the same shops (looking at you, singh hortons)

 

[Yasser76]

its very unfortunate and can be a stressful and low feeling for those being laid off from their first jobs.
Although these days we don't really have/keep much in our "offices" as there isn't much space....I assume people who work at their desk 8 hours will keep more stuff there.....for us there is just the company laptop and the work cellphone.....which would be left there anyway.
Only thing mine there would be my personal small tools but nothing about my family or pictures etc.
I treat the job as something that pays the bills, no loyalty to anything, if they won't care, neither will I.
This is why i do not go above and beyond in the job bcaz they simply dont give a damn and won't care 1 second the moment we are let go.
Do just enough to get thru the day in peace, that's it. There's no reward for killing yourself for the company.....

Yeah, the old social contract was you had a job for life and decent pension and the company looked after you. In return you put 100% in.

Now that has gone everyone either has a side gig or is constantly keeping an eye out for the next move

 

[Hamartia Antidote]

I remember one particular layoff. Factory planner. Had been with Motorola literally since the day she graduated from HS. So easily 35+ years maybe closer to 40. Motorola was all she knew in her life.

That one was absolutely painful.

This is a real danger of working for one company all your life. You get let go and you don't even know what the rest of the world looks like.

 

[SolarWarden]

ironically, that would be better? At least they may get the order right.....

here we have sooo many pissed people daily at coffee shops blaming the worker for not getting the order right.....lots of complaints daily.....yet people keep going there to the same shops (looking at you, singh hortons)

Way better. Won't have to worry about a pissed off employee spitting in food.

 

[PK781]

Way better. Won't have to worry about a pissed off employee spitting in food.

it will take out/remove a ton of min. wage fastfood jobs

 

[Meengla]

This is a real danger of working for one company all your life. You get let go and you don't even know what the rest of the world looks like.

My former colleagues from the State job feel too boring to me. All they know is working for the State with job security and no pressure to learn new skills efficiently. They even lack 'situational awareness' in social gatherings. Honestly they feel a bit retarded to me.

I might have lost lifelong earning potentials of hundreds of thousands of $$ by leaving the State job but private jobs sharpened my technical skills, showed me what the 'real world' is about, and while I have been certainly stressed from multiple layoffs from private jobs (mostly offshoring), when I worked, I made very good money.

 

[Yasser76]

it will take out/remove a ton of min. wage fastfood jobs

That is gonna be the dream bro, AI will figure at peaks and lows for demand, best way to cook, ideal temprature of food, no human interaction or shouting into a machine at the drive through, probably link your credit card details via your reg plate so dont even have to worry about paying, just click ahead on some app, drive in get your burger and eat.

This is both incredibly exciting and yet incredibly depressing all at the same time

 

[SolarWarden]

That is gonna be the dream bro, AI will figure at peaks and lows for demand, best way to cook, ideal temprature of food, no human interaction or shouting into a machine at the drive through, probably link your credit card details via your reg plate so dont even have to worry about paying, just click ahead on some app, drive in get your burger and eat.

This is both incredibly exciting and yet incredibly depressing all at the same time

My local Carl's Junior drive through is already AI and very pleasant to deal with and can actually speak english without saying bruh every other word.

 

[PakFactor]

So, I participate in certain disciplines that until recently required a tax stamp. The items needing a stamp at that time; one was approved in 4 days. The 2nd in 48 hours. The third in exactly 24 hours.

There is NO WAY that the particular government agency could have run all the necessary checks that fast without the process having been automated.

The very first time I did that, 40 years ago, it was something like 6 or 7 months before the approval and stamp was received.

So yes, I'd be happy beyond all belief to see government at ALL levels follow suit with the introduction of AI. That is going to be the only way to address the problem of waste and inefficiency under the umbrella of excessive bureaucracy.

I agree with you; the government is one that's been very top-heavy from federal down to county levels. The City of Chicago is notorious for getting permits for renovations to urgent repairs that could pose liability issues. Then you have the high wages and pensions that have been a fiscal drain.

I, too, want to see massive downsizing and restructuring. With AI we might just get our wish.

 

[PakFactor]

So, I looked back at @Feroze post from July regarding Xbox. Between that announcement and this one today, close to 65,000 jobs have been impacted.

At a lot of companies, this would not bode well. I'm still of the opinion that is the case here. @Hamartia Antidote is onto something that M$ is betting the farm on AI and datacenters.

Going the NVIDIA and AMD route, in which they catered to gaming enthusiasts and other segments, while they are still profitable, the big money lies elsewhere now in corporate multi-year billion-dollar deals.

 

[nahtanbob]

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

MS announced a voluntary severance to 60,000 employees. If your job is one 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?

I do not think Microsoft plans to cut 60,000 here. In fact, if 35,000 (I am picking an arbitrary number), they will call it a day and move on

 

[nahtanbob]

I won't disagree with that.

Let's just get some facts to support the allegation. So far, Microsoft has not announced how many are eligible by country.

And, when the separations do begin, I don't expect them to announce by nationality, visa status, etc. of who all was impacted. They will simply report a number and possibly sex and age. Motorola used to do that as part of their RIFs; report the sex and age of each of the workers.

They will announce the cuts by country because Microsoft UK and Microsoft India are different entities

 

[nahtanbob]

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.

Mechanical, Chemical and Civil are less impacted for now