Microsoft to layoff 18,000 employees

[Scallica]

"Microsoft shuts down Xbox Entertainment Studios video team as part of layoffs.

One of the first casualties of Microsoft’s massive layoffs will be the company’s Xbox Entertainment Studios, the company said, although some of its flagship entertainment offerings will remain."

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2455355/ ... yoffs.html

[barnabas1969]

Holy ****, Batman, that's a lot of people losing their jobs!

But, wait a minute... what's "Xbox Entertainment Studios"? I never heard of them. Hmmmm... I think that XES is a very small part of the 18,000 employee layoff... and the PCWorld writer chose to focus on the few rather than the many. Spock would be very disappointed.

"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few, or the one."

[adam1991]

Eh, glass half full here. I'm guessing that was a lot of people who were overemployed.

18,000 sounds like a lot--but what percentage of the MS workforce is that?

[barnabas1969]

Eh, glass half full here. I'm guessing that was a lot of people who were overemployed.

18,000 sounds like a lot--but what percentage of the MS workforce is that?

Are you kidding me???? Have you EVER worked for a company with massive layoffs? I have. It literally KILLS morale. I once worked for a company with nearly 50,000 employees. About 25,000 of them worked within a 5 mile radius of where I live. Just at the campus where I worked, there were more than 5,000 employees. And, there was another "campus" directly across the street with another 5,000.

We had layoffs every quarter. Each layoff was 300-500 employees. It was devastating to morale. I quit 6 months before 50% of the people in my department were laid off. I quit because I just couldn't stand the morale there. I saw the writing on the wall, even though most of my co-workers had worked there for 20+ years and said, "We've never had a layoff in our department, and they can't get rid of us!" Several of those people came to my new place of employment to ask if we had any openings. Sadly, we didn't.

Back then, the place was a beehive of activity 24x7. The parking lot was full of cars every day, all day. Now, that same place is a ghost town at night, and very few cars during the day. It's sad to drive by there.

What happened, you ask? Well... the military/aerospace business stayed here (because "secret" and "top secret" products must be produced in America by American citizens). But, the commercial part of the business was sent to Malaysia due to the cheap cost of labor there. I had an opportunity to go work in Malaysia, and could have made a bunch of tax-free money, but I chose not to go because I wanted to stay near my elderly parents (and I regret that now).

[oakley516]

Eh, glass half full here. I'm guessing that was a lot of people who were overemployed.

18,000 sounds like a lot--but what percentage of the MS workforce is that?

As of last month, MSFT states that they have 127,000 employees.

75% are males, 61% are white and 45% are older than 40.

As to your question, this layoff is about 13-14% of their workforce.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/ins ... oymentInfo

[Ed]

It's mostly Nokia employees. 12k being laid off IIRC are from the Nokia acquisition.

[RyC]

Sounds just like HP, "buy a company, lay off all the employees"!

[barnabas1969]

Sounds just like HP, "buy a company, lay off all the employees"!

Yeah, Carly Fiorina isn't one of my favorite people. She's had a big influence on me even in my career in banking software.

[STC]

They are to try play catch up with all the other big boys. Mr. Nadella CEO has re branded MS as "the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world".

Put simply they are way behind Google and Apple so time to start with scraping away all the unneeded crud if they are even going to attempt to get close. Severance pay out of $1.1-$1.6bn.

[barnabas1969]

They are to try play catch up with all the other big boys. Mr. Nadella CEO has re branded MS as "the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world".

Put simply they are way behind Google and Apple so time to start with scraping away all the unneeded crud if they are even going to attempt to get close. Severance pay out of $1.1-$1.6bn.

Whatever. Microsoft has been talking about the end of physical media for nearly 20 years now, and it hasn't happened. It's called "the fat pipe dream" and it still hasn't come to fruition. I don't think it will happen in the next 10 years either. Microsoft's obsession with the end of physical media and broadcast TV is the reason why Media Center has been ignored/neglected. Microsoft "has a dream" and they refuse to accept that their dream won't happen any time soon.

[Ed]

They are to try play catch up with all the other big boys. Mr. Nadella CEO has re branded MS as "the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world".

Put simply they are way behind Google and Apple so time to start with scraping away all the unneeded crud if they are even going to attempt to get close. Severance pay out of $1.1-$1.6bn.

It's a good thing though. All these big tech companies need to keep leap frogging each other/getting knocked down the totem pole of 'who is the leader/big company this decade' or whatever. It's good for innovation IMO, and those who can't innovate, will die. But if they couldn't innovate, why would we, the consumers, want them around anyway? I thought about this the other day when I realized, even though prefer Windows for desktops/desktop OS, I'm glad they're not the head of the pack right now like they were for so damn long. They got complacent, and it shows. Now, they need to play catch-up, big time, which means more goodies/services/products for me

And those companies that are in the lead currently (Google/Apple), need to keep innovating to stay in the lead. Again, means more stuff for me

[barnabas1969]

They are to try play catch up with all the other big boys. Mr. Nadella CEO has re branded MS as "the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world".

Put simply they are way behind Google and Apple so time to start with scraping away all the unneeded crud if they are even going to attempt to get close. Severance pay out of $1.1-$1.6bn.

It's a good thing though. All these big tech companies need to keep leap frogging each other/getting knocked down the totem pole of 'who is the leader/big company this decade' or whatever. It's good for innovation IMO, and those who can't innovate, will die. But if they couldn't innovate, why would we, the consumers, want them around anyway? I thought about this the other day when I realized, even though prefer Windows for desktops/desktop OS, I'm glad they're not the head of the pack right now like they were for so damn long. They got complacent, and it shows. Now, they need to play catch-up, big time, which means more goodies/services/products for me

And those companies that are in the lead currently (Google/Apple), need to keep innovating to stay in the lead. Again, means more stuff for me

No, that has nothing to do with it. The guy at the top figured out that he could get an extra million or two (or ten) in his annual bonus if he laid-off 18,000 employees. It's a short-term move to boost the stock price so he can cash-out. Today's incentives for the top-brass encourages short-sighted moves that pay big bonuses to the decision-makers with no long-term benefit to the company and huge short-term and long-term losses to the employees, the company, and the US economy at large.

[Ed]

They are to try play catch up with all the other big boys. Mr. Nadella CEO has re branded MS as "the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world".

Put simply they are way behind Google and Apple so time to start with scraping away all the unneeded crud if they are even going to attempt to get close. Severance pay out of $1.1-$1.6bn.

It's a good thing though. All these big tech companies need to keep leap frogging each other/getting knocked down the totem pole of 'who is the leader/big company this decade' or whatever. It's good for innovation IMO, and those who can't innovate, will die. But if they couldn't innovate, why would we, the consumers, want them around anyway? I thought about this the other day when I realized, even though prefer Windows for desktops/desktop OS, I'm glad they're not the head of the pack right now like they were for so damn long. They got complacent, and it shows. Now, they need to play catch-up, big time, which means more goodies/services/products for me

And those companies that are in the lead currently (Google/Apple), need to keep innovating to stay in the lead. Again, means more stuff for me

No, that has nothing to do with it. The guy at the top figured out that he could get an extra million or two (or ten) in his annual bonus if he laid-off 18,000 employees. It's a short-term move to boost the stock price so he can cash-out. Today's incentives for the top-brass encourages short-sighted moves that pay big bonuses to the decision-makers with no long-term benefit to the company and huge short-term and long-term losses to the employees, the company, and the US economy at large.

Eh, while that could be the case (and I know anyone can point to a billion examples if it occurring before), I don't believe that's Nadella's goal here. I'm taking it at face value here; the company felt it needed a devices division, and purchasing Nokia was the easiest way to obtain that goal (versus developing your own devices line and waiting for it to become as popular/have the name recognition Nokia does *cough* surface *cough*). Now that they have it, they don't need all the employees that came along with said purchase; so, time to go.

[barnabas1969]

Well, I'm coming from the point of view of an employee of a very large company that was run by the founder until he retired about 7 years ago. It was his baby, and he treated it as such. Even though we had more than 15K employees at the time, everyone actually liked the guy... and he actually made an effort to go to every location and meet everyone. We had big parties several times a year, great raises, profit sharing, and sometimes even a keg of beer at work! We got a whole week every year just to have fun at work, with crazy contests like sidewalk chalk art and crazy costumes. It was a fun place to work! We literally crushed the competition every single year.

When he retired, instead of handing the helm to #2, the board of directors gave it to an outsider who came from a large national accounting firm. The company used to value the employees greatly, and it showed. Now that the proverbial "bean counter" has taken over, employees mean nothing and the Titanic is being run into the proverbial iceberg. People hate it here now, and profits are tanking.

The company used to turn 15+ percent profit every year, but since the bean counter has taken over, that's not happening anymore. My division has never turned less than 40% profit... even after he came on board... but our profit has definitely suffered since he took the helm.

The company worked very well and we were the dominant force in the industry year after year, but Mr. Bean Counter decided that everything needed to change! Basically, he took a formula that worked well for 25+ years and F'd it all up. Our stock has suffered, our profit sharing has gone to literally zero when it used to be 6% every year, the company's profit is wayyyy down, and average employee raises are between zero and 2%, compared to the average of 5% before he came on board. Morale is in the toilet, and we are going nowhere fast.

But!!!! He gets a bigger bonus every freaking year! His total compensation this year is 12% more than he got last year. And last year's compensation was 12% more than he got the year before!

Yeah. I'm angry, and so are a lot of other people.

[Ed]

Right, but that's like saying because someone told a lie once, everyone who ever speaks ever again is only telling a lie.

I mean, the goal of a company is simply to make money - so anything they ever do, ever, you could say is technically a money grab/to line pockets. But in the sense of the topic at hand, I don't believe the intentions are malicious/just to turn a quick buck/line pockets, like you said. Now, again, being cautious and suspicious helps; especially based on one's previous experiences. But, in this case, with the recent history of Microsoft and they're lack of, well, being 'relevant' in this day and age (can't think of a better term, but you know what I mean); and in spite all of these (horrible mis-) steps they've been taking, unless confronted with proof of Nadella's 'maliciousness' (as you're implying), I see no reason not to take it at face value for the time being.

[barnabas1969]

My point is that the new guy in my company has obviously been steering us in the wrong direction for 7 years, and he's still employed. Not only that, but he's still getting double-digit raises every year!

If the president of Microsoft is as big a screw-up as our president, I wouldn't expect him to be ousted anytime soon and the employees are going to get the short end of the stick.

From what I've seen, new exec's are only in it for themselves. They have no investment in the company, and they have no long-term (20+ years) goals. It's all about how much money I can make fast.

[Ed]

Right, but your assuming because the guy running your company is a screw-up from your own experiences, Nadella is/must be a screw-up too (or presuming him to be without any proof first). He might very well be; he also might not be in the least bit.

Just don't need to be so pessimistic is all I'm saying man; not all the time (or this topic at hand in particular - the MS layoffs). While it pays to be cautious/doubtful at times, sometimes you gotta open the blinds and let some sunshine in

[barnabas1969]

It isn't only my company. I've seen this happen again and again and again in the last 10-20 years. Executive compensation needs to change. I'm not saying that the CEO needs to have an income limit... I'm just saying that their incentives need to be changed so that long-term profitability/growth is the focus instead of short-term monetary gains.

[Ed]

It isn't only my company. I've seen this happen again and again and again in the last 10-20 years. Executive compensation needs to change. I'm not saying that the CEO needs to have an income limit... I'm just saying that their incentives need to be changed so that long-term profitability/growth is the focus instead of short-term monetary gains.

Right, and I agree with that; but there's no proof that this move is anything but what they're saying - these employees are simply redundant/unneeded after the Nokia acquisition and there is simply no need for them - it would be a literal waste of money for the company to keep them on. You would need to show me proof that Nadella, in particular, is one of these 'money grubbing CEOs' first, before I have and valid reason to disbelieve what he says at face value. That doesn't mean I blindly believe it. It's completely within the realm of possibility he is one of those rats, and this is a scumbag move. I can recognize and acknowledge that. But, I have no reason to disbelieve him until he is exposed as one of these fat cat screw-ups we are talking about.

It goes back to just because someone tells a lie, doesn't mean everyone lies. Even if 99 out of 100 people lie, you can't just tell the 100th person is lying without proof simply because the first 99 lied. Be cautious though, sure. But to make a declarative statement the 100th person is lying simply because those who came before him did is shortsighted and foolish.

So I'm back to until Nadella is exposed as a 'fat cat screw-up', I'm taking what he says at face value.

Like I said though, If we wanted to get really technical - every move a CEO/a company makes, down to what brand paper gets used at the Xerox machine, can be boiled down to making money for the company (and thus, themselves). That's what they're there for. So in that case, yes, this was simply just a play to boost money for Microsoft, and Nadella stands to profit from a profitable Microsoft, so let's burn him at the stake then

[barnabas1969]

Well, I don't know anything about Nadella. I just feel sorry for 18K people who are losing their jobs. The corporations in America are becoming a big problem. I disagree with the SCOTUS. Corporations are not people and money is not speech. If that's the case, then "We, the people" has been hijacked by "We, the people with the most money" and I'm going to live somewhere else.