Microsoft Offers Voluntary Buyouts to About 60,000 Employees, Roughly a Quarter of Its Workforce
Microsoft on Monday, Oct. 26, offered voluntary buyout packages to about 60,000 employees, after Chief People Officer Amy Coleman sent staff a memo that was also published on the company's official blog; Microsoft confirmed the program to reporters. The roughly 60,000 eligible employees amount to about a quarter of Microsoft's workforce, which stood at 223,000 at the end of June.
According to the memo, employees at the vice president level and below on select teams in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India are eligible. Eligible employees were to receive an email on Monday with a link to their individual offer details, and the terms are similar to Microsoft's standard severance. Bloomberg reported that divisions including Xbox, Windows, Copilot and Finance are participating, while employees in data centers, sales and marketing are excluded. Employees reportedly have until Dec. 31 to decide, and U.S. employees who accept will receive at least eight weeks of pay.
"The Voluntary Exit Offer reflects an important part of how we're evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter," Coleman wrote. "The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us. We'll learn from it. At the same time, we'll keep helping people focus on the work that matters most, build new skills and, where it makes sense, find new opportunities across Microsoft."
It is not Microsoft's first voluntary workforce reduction this year: in the spring the company offered a voluntary retirement program to about 8,750 retirement-age employees, and more than 30 percent accepted. The buyout offer comes as Microsoft spends heavily on super intelligence infrastructure and data centers; voluntary exits are seen as a way to cut costs without another disruptive round of involuntary layoffs. The news was first reported by Business Insider.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：微软公司标志。公共领域，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / The Microsoft logo. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
