Mass layoffs at Microsoft?
p2pnet news view | Off Topic:- p2pnet news view | Mobiles:- Microsoft is getting ready to lay off as many as 17,000 workers, a scale never before seen in its 32 year history.
And that’s a fact, said Fudzilla on December 30, stating the layoffs will take place a week before Microsoft’s Q2 earnings report, slated for January 22, “and it doesn’t seem like the date set for the layoffs is coincidental”.
The news follows the huge Microsoft screw-up with its Zune 30 music players, every one of which crashed on the same day, leaving angry users wondering what was going on.
Apparently, the unit’s software became confused over whether or not 2008 was a leap year.
Then today, on the layoffs, “there seems to be a lot of concerns about the number, as many people are saying it’s too high,” Fudzilla says, going on »»»
We’ve been told that some division of Microsoft has cut their expected sales for 2009 by as much as 90 percent and this is a huge number. This in turn means that there’s less work for the supporting departments and as such Microsoft has a lot of redundant staff. Then take into consideration that Microsoft hires a lot of employees via agencies and that this number of employees aren’t included in the total head count at Microsoft.
There’s a big chance that a large chunk of the 17 percent figure could come out of the agency staff. Being a full time employee (FTE) at Microsoft brings higher pay and more benefits than being hired as a contractor. There are also different types of contracts and some are likely to be more affected than others. Microsoft is also spending a lot of money on various R&D projects and these aren’t exactly making money, so we have a feeling that some of the more exotic projects might be put on ice for the future.
We’re also hearing that some staff might be given the chance to find another job within Microsoft, but will be given a deadline to do so and if they can’t find a job within Microsoft before that deadline expires, then they’ll be laid off under a slightly different terminology.
But, “It’s all going to be a matter of semantics, as although Microsoft might not announce the exact figure, there will be major cuts in a lot of departments, or at least changes which will lead to people having to leave Microsoft one way or another, it might just be a bit more subtle than issuing redundancies to 15,000 people all at once,” says Fudzilla, adding:
“We’re sure that Microsoft will get its PR department to work on a nice spin on this story comes next week, so hopefully we’ll be able to offer a company statement by then.”
Says the Seattle Times »»»
Microsoft is making no official comment on any of this — as is its practice — and I doubt they will until they’re ready to make a formal announcement.
I can report that I’ve heard from a handful of contractors whose contracts at Microsoft were abruptly cut short.
These people have all asked not to be named, for fear of jeopardizing their chances for future employment with Microsoft and the vendors that provide the company with contract workers.
One man provided an e-mail from earlier in December in which managers at the MSN Homepages Team were informed that all of their contract personnel were being terminated today. The decision is “due to budget cuts,” the e-mail reads.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is expected to officially release a new version of Windows 7, a beta of which has been available on the P2P networks for some time.
Fudzilla – Microsoft getting ready to lay off 17% of staff, December 30, 2008
screw-up with its Zune 30 – Microsoft blames Zune crashes on Leap Year glitz, December 31, 2008
Fudzilla – More on Microsoft layoffs, January 2, 2009
Seattle Times – More speculation on Microsoft layoffs, contractor cuts, December 31, 2008
P2P networks – Windows 7 beta online, December 30, 2008
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January 2nd, 2009 at 10:49 am
Microsoft is replacing their human employees with sentient artificial intelligence. Finally. It comes standard in Windows 7.
January 2nd, 2009 at 11:45 am
No, it won’t be AI, it will be the overseas hirees. You know, the ones M$ says it has to hire because they can’t find them at home. (read that as American workers want to be paid where foreign workers will accept lower wages to get here or contracting companies will bring them in at lower wages)
M$ screwed up big time with Vista and the public never really accepted the plague ridden OS. Since Windows 7 has all the same running requirements, the most of it will probably be cosmetic with the exception of some window dressing. Businesses never took off on it because of the high hardware requirements as well as their inhouse custom software would not run on Vista. Don’t look for any major changes in that department.
Putting lipstick on a pig, doesn’t change it is still a pig.
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:13 pm
Leave pigs out of it….OK
January 2nd, 2009 at 2:30 pm
“Putting lipstick on a pig, doesn’t change it is still a pig.”
No. It is Sarra Palin.
Could not resist. Sorry!
January 2nd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
This Fudzilla story is completely unsubstantiated. Maybe theyve got something. Maybe not. Why are you reipublishing their story as if it were fact?
January 2nd, 2009 at 5:45 pm
It’s never stated as fact. ” … says Fudzilla,” and so on.
Cheers!