Microsoft says it’s giving people a choice in their inevitable next round of layoffs at the company, which has already seen a bunch of turnover at Xbox as part of new CEO Asha Sharma’s “reset.”
A message from EVP and CPO Amy Colemon, reportedly sent to a whopping 60,000 employees (about a third of the company’s workforce), detailed a “Voluntary Exit Offer” for buyouts to eligible employees in the US, UK, Canada, and India.
“This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support,” the memo said. “It also gives participating organizations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs. 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. This builds on what we learned earlier this year through the Voluntary Retirement Program.”
Basically, it sounds like people can choose to leave the company now with severance, or run the likely risk of being axed at a later date as the company continues to cut costs, trim jobs, and lean more heavily into AI workflow.
Coleman’s memo said that “this is a time-limited, voluntary program that gives those who are eligible the opportunity to leave Microsoft with financial support and career planning resources,” but “some organizations are providing the Voluntary Exit Offer, and some are not,” and “participation varies based on each business’s priorities, customer commitments and workforce needs.” Yikes.
“The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us,” the memo said. “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. There is no one-size-fits-all approach for every team or every employee. These are a few of the ways we’re trying to meet different business needs while continuing to create opportunities for our own people to grow and contribute. My promise is to continue to provide clarity, listen and learn and keep improving.”
It’s unclear how many of these people affected work for Xbox, but more layoffs are expected in Microsoft’s gaming division at least until the next fiscal year as the company looks to rebound from an abysmal console generation.
This news comes amid other layoffs in the industry today already, including at Ghost of Yotei studio Sucker Punch and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 dev Auroch Digital.
