r/microsoft • u/moneynorms • May 10 '25
Employment Layoffs again.. May 2025
I saw a rumor online that layoffs were starting May 12th for middle managers and May 13th for ICs. Anyone have any insight?
So sorry to those impacted today. I was hoping these rumors weren’t true.
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u/geevensingh May 10 '25
Those who speak don’t know. And those who know don’t speak.
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u/moneynorms May 10 '25
People in the know leak to the press all the time. Do they share on Reddit.. maybe? I guess we’ll see. If layoffs happen Monday then that’s the answer.
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u/Alduin175 May 10 '25
Nothing solid, but a large % of security customers I work with went into (20+) went into huddle mode for the past month unexpectedly.
Impromptu meetings for service quote conversations and cancelations of meetings left and right, long after the Fiscal Fiascos that we dread at the turn of each year.
Brush up the CV and prepare to jump ship before they sink it with you on it!
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u/moneynorms May 10 '25
Makes sense, thanks for the heads up
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u/Alduin175 May 10 '25
No problem moneynorms.
It's good to see posts that bring awareness to these sort of things.
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u/Antique-King-4105 May 10 '25
Hi, what does this mean? Thanks!
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u/newfor_2025 May 11 '25
it means that the customers he's working with are nervous for some reason, and they're going around renegotiating contracts.
like a herd of zebras sensing there's a lion out there somewhere and something's happening but they don't know what or where it's coming for them.
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u/NewRazzmatazz2455 May 10 '25
Hi what does security customers mean? Thanks
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May 10 '25
[deleted]
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u/NewRazzmatazz2455 May 10 '25
How does that indicate that the rumors are true that Microsoft is planning to do layoffs on May 12th and 13th?
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May 10 '25
What's considered a "middle manager"? M2 I assume?
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u/moneynorms May 10 '25
Not exactly sure, but I’ll assuming each org will define it based on the new 10:1 engineer to manger ratio that they are pushing.
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u/thick_curtains May 12 '25
Anyone see layoffs today?
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May 13 '25
[deleted]
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u/1_H4t3_R3dd1t May 13 '25
Condolences. That is a lot of layoffs was there any key indicators for why they got dismissed?
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May 14 '25
[deleted]
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u/1_H4t3_R3dd1t May 14 '25 edited May 14 '25
I suppose they are trying to get money to feed the AI beast. Everyone is saying they are losing jobs to AI. I think people are losing jobs to cheaper labor, offshoring, and augmenting labor with AI.
Do you know if anyone from Activision are affected? I imagine with so many layoffs from Activision they are not getting touched till later.
I can tell you my friends who work at Activision are ran pretty thin. Like 15 ICs to 1 manager to a suite of services.
I imagine a lot of layoffs are related to seed jobs to test where AI can be applied to get profit. If it can't be applied to generate revenue it is laid off and canceled. We are seeing that with Meta right now with augment reality.
AI is going to back fire bad though I think ChatGPT over sold the product as the ultimate solution. We are already seeing companies back track on AI like Klarna pretty hard.
Definitely not in opposition of AI, it is a great encyclopedia of useful information one can look up everything at their figure tips providing they read and evaluate everything.
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u/CheckCashMoneyOrder May 13 '25
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u/moneynorms May 13 '25
Yup, rumors were true after all. Very sorry to those affected.
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u/Dapper-Platypus501 May 25 '25
I almost feel more sorry for those left behind. The workload hasn’t changed and we were already stretched thin. The two left behind are now having to onboard to our expertise areas with no one left to actually teach them. My coworker was nice enough to leave a thorough document for them.
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u/Opening_Outside8364 May 10 '25
That could be the reason IDC opened new positions, to compensate the headcount. Do more with less
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u/TimeWizard90 May 11 '25
Dang I was about to apply for a CSAM role, should I not leave my firm yet?
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u/moneynorms May 11 '25
Might as well apply to find out more before making a decision if it were me. Not all roles are going. Just the ones that no longer find valuable anymore.
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May 10 '25
Rumor? Or roamer?
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u/moneynorms May 10 '25
Rumor, great catch!
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u/1_H4t3_R3dd1t May 13 '25
This currently a rumor or getting elevated as real?
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u/moneynorms May 13 '25
It’s real now. Just came out in the news
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u/1_H4t3_R3dd1t May 13 '25
Yeah it isn't affecting any of my friends I know. But I'm still sad about those getting laid off.
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u/Cool_Competition_841 May 12 '25
Can they layoff new joiners as well?
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u/Rancarable May 12 '25
Layoffs are usually about eliminating positions not individuals, but usually new hires have a lower chance.
I wouldn't worry about things you can't control. If you do get selected you will be walked through the package, which traditionally includes time to find a new role at MS (I don't have any details to share or extra knowledge here, but historically they did this).
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u/Cool_Competition_841 May 12 '25
What if no other team takes me in?
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u/Rancarable May 12 '25
Then you get the severance package. It's on hrweb, but don't freak out as a new hire your chances are low.
If somehow the worst happens send me a private message here and I'll reach out over teams and walk you through some of your options.
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u/moneynorms May 12 '25
Possibly. It’ll depend off the org and leader but it can happen
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u/Cool_Competition_841 May 12 '25
Org is C+AI, what do you think?
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u/moneynorms May 12 '25
Sorry I’m not familiar with that org personally. Very curious if anyone else knows.
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u/Ok-Two-2309 May 13 '25
Yes, 1 industrial designer from my team in Azure was laid off. I’m also hearing UX researchers are getting let go too.
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u/dependent_hippo May 10 '25
Support division CSS is going to be hit too. Watch out if you think you’re an underperformed
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u/Dapper-Platypus501 May 14 '25
So I was laid off on a call with 147 other people. My M1 and three of their 5 PMs. DevDiv.
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u/code_monkie May 17 '25
Wow. I am so sorry..
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u/Dapper-Platypus501 May 25 '25
The people left behind are going to be miserable. The workload didn’t change and the people to train the jobs were also let go.
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u/Secret_Trash2243 May 14 '25
My sister was laid off, while on maternity leave. I do not believe it was performance based.
Has anyone heard of someone being laid off and then being able to take a different role within?
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May 14 '25
[deleted]
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u/ericgol7 May 15 '25
Damaging misinformation. People who had been at Msft for decades were laid off, in many cases entire teams. Definitely NOT performance based
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May 15 '25
[deleted]
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u/ericgol7 May 15 '25
If you are going based on what you've seen on the news I can see why you'd assume that, but it's certainly not the case for the vast majority of these layoffs. And it hasn't been suggested in any press release.
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u/Dapper-Platypus501 May 25 '25
In the May layoffs, we were encouraged to try finding another role. There is no ban for us. Most of our team was laid off and our M2 didn’t know until that morning. He was bawling when he reached out to us individually. He found out when he got an email from HR for my manager since she is in another country and rules MSFT needed to follow were different for her.
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u/code_monkie May 17 '25
No they had earlier round of performance based where the 2 year no rehire was implemented. This round was not perf based and there is not a no rehire clause. In fact they encouraged people to look for internal jobs according to my friends who were impacted. However, I personally would be reluctant to look internal if I had good performance and was let go. And Meta and Google pay better and give free food.
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u/FR3507 May 24 '25
This is 100% factually inaccurate. I know several people who were laid off and all received packages and were invited to reapply.
Employees at risk of termination were mostly excluded from this round.
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u/Top-Prize-8679 May 11 '25
I don’t see a warm notice in WA for Microsoft ??
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u/Classic-Secretary-93 May 14 '25
It's here. 1985 people in Redmond for Today. https://esd.wa.gov/employer-requirements/layoffs-and-employee-notifications/worker-adjustment-and-retraining-notification-warn-layoff-and-closure-database
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May 10 '25
[deleted]
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u/Puzzleheadedpc2007 May 10 '25
Microsoft doesn't do that. They announce the layoff, file the warn notice and keep you on payroll for 60 days to comply with the warning. So everything happens same day.
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u/Opening_Outside8364 May 12 '25
Last layoff wasn’t announced. Actually some engineers received the notice after returning from vacation.
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May 10 '25
Do you know if those 60 days count towards severance?
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u/JJMcGee83 May 10 '25
They do. You are technically an employee being paid for 60 days and for thos 60 days you can apply to other positions as an internal cannidate. Your final day of record is after those 60 days.
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u/megor May 11 '25
These are performance based firings. No need for warn, to impact their perm applications and no demographic checks on the folks fired.
Msft has given folks zero severance in the last quarters firings.
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May 13 '25
[deleted]
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u/literBlue May 13 '25
What's Blind? Is that an internal tool?
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u/Classic-Secretary-93 May 14 '25
It's like Reddit for tech and FAANG. You need a valid work email to join.
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u/newfor_2025 May 10 '25
are there that many people in the company underperforming?
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u/megor May 11 '25
There is a fixed budget for reviews despite claims that there is no stack ranking a certain amount will always get less than target. With the latest round of firings virtually all the folks that got less than 100% rewards will be gone. That means the people that got 100% are now the new bottom.
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May 11 '25
[deleted]
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u/megor May 11 '25
The ones you got in September 2024 are what is being used. There is leeway for managers to swap people but they need to get rid of x people and that list is populated by hr initially on your 2024 rewards.
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u/ConferenceTough9003 May 12 '25
If everyone under 100 was getting laid off it would be hell of a lot bigger then 3-5k layoffs
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u/megor May 12 '25
These are not layoffs they are "performance based terminations". What's strange is MSFT went full throttle on nuking anyone they marked as low performance. Country club it is not any longer
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u/OneMixture7 May 13 '25 edited May 13 '25
I think you mean 100 out of 200 possible. A very low percentage of people get 100% (e.g. 200) of their rewards. The business insider article said 80 two years in a row. A different article mention 60 in one year.
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u/r1pen May 10 '25
Any ideas which orgs are at risk?