Microsoft Rumored To Lay Off Thousands Worldwide

nandemoari writes "It seems not even Microsoft is impervious to the effects of this increasingly painful recession. According to reports, the Redmond-based company is preparing to lay off about 17 per cent of its entire workforce in the coming months. Despite its portfolio diversity — including operating systems, antivirus software, and video game consoles — Microsoft is clearly feeling the pressure applied by a tightening global economy. In fact, there seems to be a sense of emergency to the massive cuts (about 15,000 workers out of 90,000), which rumors suggest should be made official by January 15."

Comments

That's because

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft saw that 10% of their employees were hanging around on /. all day hoping for a first post.

Re:That's because

[Anonymous Coward]

Anonymous Coward doesn't save you this time, John. I was in the cubicle behind you and expect you in my office in 5 minutes.

Re:That's because

[JoJo's883]

Ummm... Moderating on /. ??

a shame

[Anonymous Coward]

What's a shame? 15,000 Microsoft employees losing their jobs.

What's a crying shame? 75,000 continuing to work for Microsoft.

Re:a shame

[Fluffeh]

While I tend to agree with the main ideals of your post, I do feel the need to point out a few small errors in the hope that they won't be brought up again here:

Ridiculous MS Bashing: This is slashdot. No MS bashing shall be referred to as ridiculous.
During a depression: You folks are in a recession at the moment. The common consensus is that a depression only occurs when real GDP growth declines by 10% or more in a year. America isn't near those numbers yet.
grudge with MS: Again, here most people have one of those. Please find a better argument.
fact that you have some imaginary grudge: Look, either it's real and he has one, or it is imaginary and therefore he cannot have it. Your statement contradicts itself and confuses the reader.
that's 15000 people with families: Now, the real point of this whole post was to argue this point. These poor sods getting laid off, working for a software developer, these software developers, these NERDS. They don't have families, they are considered almost iconic if they have gotten to second base! Microsoft isn't laying off 15,000 family members, they are shit-canning 15,000 geeks who live in their parents basement, play Warhammer 40K on weekends while eating pizza and come home after work to play World of Warcraft!

Now back off Anonymous Coward! Back away with these dangerous ideals of yours!

Cuts are to Trim the Fat

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry! the cuts are just "trimming the fat" on Microsoft, to make it a more "lean" company.

Cuts are expected to be in the following "unncecessary" departments:

- VISTA Marketing
- Quality Assurance
- Software Testing
- Maintenance Programming

Re:It's about time.

[Farmer Tim]

There are lots of smart people who deserve jobs at Microsoft.

Why, what did they do wrong?

Re:Last Week's "News" and Most Probably Inaccurate

[value_added]

Neither blogger quoted inside sources and both later backtracked on their reports.

Couldn't you have prefaced that with a "Spoiler Alert" warning? Or waited for a few hundred more posts?

You've ruined all the fun. If Slashdot is ever forced to lay people off, it'll be because of people like you interfering with everyone's God-given right to enjoy or otherwise take part in idle speculation, rumour-mongering, Microsoft-bashing, car analogies, or invoking the meme of the day.

Re:Why?

[ArhcAngel]

"layoffs are being used as a way of culling the bottom 10 or 20% of performers"

Ballmer should be nervous.

Re:Profitability Has Nothing to Do With It

[Foolicious]

a guy had to practically set fire to his cubicle with two secretaries tied to chairs inside it before he could be let go.

Sheesh. Why do people keep bringing this up? I'd like to put it behind me.

Read the report. It was all just a big misunderstanding. I did the counseling and volunteered in the burn unit, and as a result I was cleared of all charges and got to keep my job.

And it's "Administrative Assistant" (admin for short), not "Secretary". I learned that in the counseling.

Re:Interesting Logic

[Just Some Guy]

I hope this guy doesn't write code.

He's on the Zune team. Why do you ask?