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Thursday, January 22, 2009

Economy The Microsoft Layoffs Cometh

Posted by Eli Sanders on Thu, Jan 22, 2009 at 7:12 AM

We've all been reading the rumors. Dominic and Golob have been digging into them here on Slog. Now comes the announcement:

Microsoft stunned its investors on Thursday, announcing the first broad layoffs in its history and offering a pessimistic forecast for the second half of its fiscal year.

Rather than issuing its second-quarter results in the customary fashion after the market closed, Microsoft rushed out the news Thursday morning that it will lay off up to 5,000 of its 94,000 employees over the next 18 months, including 1,400 people Thursday. The layoffs span across research, sales, finance and technology roles, the company said.

No immediate word, as far as I can see, on how many of those layoffs will occur at the Redmond headquarters. But I think it's safe to assume it will be a large percentage.

Comments (32) RSS

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anyone who ever worked at Microsoft (even janitors!) should spend 3,000 years in HELL for the abomination that is Windows.

Posted by Apple rules, Windows drools on January 22, 2009 at 7:18 AM

get on the bus, who can you trust?

Posted by Matt on January 22, 2009 at 7:50 AM

I've been dumped, pretty harshly as a matter of fact, by two guys/assholes who work at Microsoft. Not to be mean, but I hope they are amongst the canned and now jobless.

Let's just say their egos could use some deflating, maybe it will make other things on them..how shall we say..larger?

Posted by Cato the Younger Younger on January 22, 2009 at 7:52 AM

Dang. There's some amazing consumer and housing debt load among Microsofties, if those I know are any measure. This unwinding may ripple out quite a bit.

Posted by tomasyalba on January 22, 2009 at 7:56 AM

I doubt most of these will be from Redmond. It's also important to note that these layoffs are over the next year and a half, not immediately.

Posted by sdf on January 22, 2009 at 7:57 AM

1,400 immediately. that's a big number.

Posted by happy renter on January 22, 2009 at 8:03 AM

it looks bigger if you go
One Thousand Four Hundred.
now that's a BIG number.

Posted by now I've scared myself on January 22, 2009 at 8:14 AM

That's a lot of fucking Lexuses.

And ditto to @1.

Product quality is Job Zero at Microsoft.
It's not even fertilizer-grade.

Posted by Karlheinz Arschbomber on January 22, 2009 at 8:18 AM

I think it is safe to assume a large percentage will also come from Redmond.

Well duh... 75% of their workforce is here, it stands to reason that 75% of the cuts are likely here to.. Heck if even 60% of the cuts happen here, that woud be statistically likely, as the highest percentage of the workforce can be found here.

Posted by Reality Check on January 22, 2009 at 8:47 AM

The word within MSFT is that 700 of the immediate cuts are happening locally, 300 scattered around the rest of the US and 400 internationally. And a dash of perspective for the chicken-littles @ 4, 6, etc - 700 jobs equates to the number of employees that the company was adding every THREE WEEKS or so prior to October of last year. The impact on our local economy will be less than negligible.

Posted by Happy Apple Gal on January 22, 2009 at 9:00 AM

Good corrective, @10. Stay classy.

Posted by tomasyalba on January 22, 2009 at 9:03 AM

MSFT could lay off 99% of its workforce five minutes from now and it would have no effect on its product line. The place is one big jobs program for social incompetents and the unskilled.

Posted by just sayin' on January 22, 2009 at 9:06 AM

I find that sloggers that broadly trash Microsoft citing no specifics are typically losers in life who never really held a steady job or are motivated to do so. In addition, they have lousy sex lives because anyone that's fucked anyone in Seattle and Capitol Hill and really enjoyed it was most likely with a Microsoft employee.

Posted by raindrop on January 22, 2009 at 9:10 AM

As long as Apple is around Microsoft will not totally go away because there will always be a stream of great products and ideas to copy.

Posted by zune, anyone? on January 22, 2009 at 9:17 AM

Frankly hte company is bloated. This is a good time to shed some unneeded extra pounds. I feel bad for those whose lives will be impacted, but these cuts (the first round at least) will happen to those who are underperforming. There are some amazingly talented and creative people here, but there is also a good amount of dead weight that drags on the company. I think that if the cuts are made in the proper places and the true talent is spared, they may be very good for the health of the comapany and will encourage creativity and innovation to flourish.

Posted by Just My 2 Cents on January 22, 2009 at 9:20 AM

Not too hard to guess where raindrop works.

@12,

No way. Boeing is far, far worse. Have you met any of their engineers? *Shudder*

Posted by keshmeshi on January 22, 2009 at 9:22 AM

The stock is overvalued in advance of Windows 7 and WinMo 6.5, the staff is a little bloaty and they could stand to advance back into the press before their new big releases.

The narrative they're writing is "MS comes back from the (not-so-)dead, releases great new OS and mobile OS, wins Yiddish Cup."

Posted by AJ on January 22, 2009 at 9:24 AM

Lexuses? Looks funny. Maybe it should be "Lexi."

Posted by Fifty-Two-Eighty on January 22, 2009 at 9:24 AM

Biting the hand that feeds the metro area...not surprised at all

Posted by 21st Century Plutocrat on January 22, 2009 at 9:24 AM

16: I contracted there once.

Posted by raindrop on January 22, 2009 at 9:29 AM

You iditos who gloat over the layoffs should know this will impact everyone in the region. Real estate values will fall, which means less tax revenue, which means less services, which means more crime and deterioration. Also, with less people pulling in an MSFT income, businesses around the area will suffer because of the consumer fall-off. Think before you gloat idiots

Posted by blah on January 22, 2009 at 9:41 AM

I agree that this is more about streamlining than cutting staff because of poor business performance. MS quarterly earnings are actually up vs the same quarter last year. And MS is massively diversified across many categories of the tech industry. While the cash cow remains the OS and Office, MS makes money is many, many different ways--much more so than many of it's competitors, including Apple.

Posted by Westside forever on January 22, 2009 at 9:48 AM

21 the end is near

Posted by near on January 22, 2009 at 9:50 AM

@7 - It looks even bigger when you do it like this. This is 1400 O's, and each one represents another resume in the applicant pool for the limited number of available jobs.

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More...

Posted by Mahtli69 on January 22, 2009 at 10:10 AM

24
I'm terrified

Posted by O's scare me on January 22, 2009 at 10:20 AM

When I heard about this, I immediately felt the threat of those 1400 people going into the job pool. I hope I don't lose my job now more than ever. I work in IT too.

Posted by Sir Learnsalot on January 22, 2009 at 10:35 AM

As others have mentioned this will have a major effect on the economy in the Seattle area, couple these lay-offs with the ones at Starbucks, WaMu, Boeing, and Google and that becomes a lot of people looking for new work.

Also, I believe this announcement counts lay-offs to permanent staff at Microsoft and doesn't take into account that over the last few months they've eliminated jobs on duplicate teams and started cleaning house on contract work as well.

Bottom line, a lot of people are out of work in our area now. Not just icky Microsoft people. Multiply the number out to include people who work providing goods and services to the now unemployed who will no longer want those goods and services and watch the ripple effect coming over the next few months.

Posted by PopTart on January 22, 2009 at 10:38 AM

so far none of my friends are affected, but nobody's happy about this.

i hope my ex-wife makes it, cause I really don't want to offer her my attic if I can avoid it.

Posted by Will in Seattle on January 22, 2009 at 11:10 AM

Microsoft has done layoffs before -- it just hasn't hit the news. They laid off a big chunk of their MSN business last September, they just warned everyone, and gave them an opportunity to find new jobs within the company. (I think it was around 30-50 people.) They also use the ubiquitous "re-org" as a way of weeding out people they'd like to fire/layoff (good attrition vs. bad attrition), and have done this for years. They're only hiring people from outside the company if they can't shift people around inside -- and are drawing people from Europe if they can.

The only difference between Microsoft today and Microsoft of five years ago is that they're less quick to hire you and even less sanguine about getting rid of you...even if you've been there 15 years.

I also think that MS is behind the curve -- they always have been. If they had held onto these workers, not only can they afford to pay them (hello! the company has no debt!) it would make the job panic less bad here in Seattle, but it would free up other jobs for people who've been searching for six months already. Microsoft *will* recover, and they will do so in less than six months. Those tiny startups? Not so much.

Recovery will happen, and Microsoft could be a part of that recovery by helping to stabilize the economy. Instead, they're just adding to the panic and instability. Idiots.

Posted by arts&letters on January 22, 2009 at 11:12 AM

Folks its the contractor numbers you need to be worried about. Could be around 6,000 permatemps

Posted by adf on January 22, 2009 at 11:14 AM

@30 yes, and that's why the MSN thing went so quietly. 1400 "jobs" only represents the actual core of their workforce that has never been affected before. They have a revolving door of temps working years and years without ever getting status as real employees.
Scary.

Posted by Scary on January 22, 2009 at 1:44 PM

Here's hoping some of the vultures who call themselves "recruiters" who contract with Microsoft lose their jobs, too. Especially that fat bitch at Aquent, formerly Sakson and Taylor.

Posted by Holly on January 22, 2009 at 3:34 PM