Seattle and Silicon Valley have had another sleepless night.
Not only Amazon, which has been wielding the big knife of layoffs before, finally dropped the big knife today, even the rich and powerful Microsoft, overnight, also issued a notice of layoffs – 10,000 people will leave within the next two months.
The chill of 2023 seems to have come too early.
Microsoft: Big Brother can’t hold it anymore
Let’s first look at Microsoft, which has recently revealed that it will lay off 10,000 people.
On January 18, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told employees in a memo that in order to “align our cost structure with revenue and the demand we see from customers,” the At the end of March, the company will lay off 10,000 people, which accounts for about 5% of Microsoft’s more than 220,000 employees. Affected employees will be notified starting Wednesday and the layoffs will end at the end of March.
This is the second largest layoff in Microsoft’s history and the second since Nadella took over Microsoft. In 2014 , just months after Nadella became CEO , Microsoft cut 18,000 jobs Most of the cuts involved Nokia’s devices and services business . The layoffs, although the memo did not mention the specific areas and positions affected, but according to a government notice, as of today, Microsoft is located in Redmond, Washington (Redmond), Bellevu (Bellevu) and Isa The Issaquah office cut 878 jobs .
Nadella also wrote in the memo to employees that Microsoft is “ allocating capital and talent to areas of the company’s long-term growth and long-term competitiveness,” so it will continue to recruit in “ strategic areas . “ As Silicon Star wrote yesterday, Microsoft’s imagination for the next decade is hidden in ChatGPT . The recent explosion in the field of artificial intelligence has brought new hope to Microsoft’s business, and it will be where Microsoft will bet heavily next .
Like many Internet companies, during the epidemic, Microsoft also hired a large number of employees as many corporate customers increased technology spending. In fiscal 2022, which ended in June, Microsoft added 40,000 employees, a 22% increase from the previous year. That brings its total headcount to more than 221,000, with about 45% of the growth (nearly 18,000 jobs) coming from operations jobs, making it Microsoft’s largest employment category, overtaking product research and development.
In addition, a large part of the employee growth has come from acquisitions, including the 6,500 employees added by the $19.7 billion acquisition of Nuance, and the 1,500 employees added through the acquisition of the former AT&T ad technology unit Xandr .
With this layoff, Microsoft has also become the latest technology company in Seattle to undergo large-scale layoffs. In addition to Amazon, which we’ll mention next, Salesforce, which has thousands of employees in the Seattle area, recently laid off 10% of its workforce, and some tech startups are also laying off workers.
Microsoft also announced the layoff package given: In addition to severance pay, Microsoft will notify employees of their layoffs 60 days in advance, which means that they will pay 60 days of salary and 6 months of medical insurance. Continuing to pay out, in addition to career transition services and more.
Amazon: Boots finally landed
Amazon, which announced layoffs early, started a new round of implementation on January 18. Amazon has laid off 2,300 workers in Seattle and Bellevue, according to information filed Jan. 18 with the Washington Department of Employment Security.
Earlier this month, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said he would lay off 18,000 employees, which is expected to be the largest layoff in its 28-year history. The layoffs mainly occurred in its human resources and store (Store) department. The store segment refers to Amazon’s retail segment, which includes Amazon’s online and brick-and-mortar stores, third-party seller marketplaces, and Amazon’s Prime membership service.
Amazon’s layoffs began to spread in November. The first wave mainly affected employees in the company’s devices division, which includes Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa, as well as Kindles, smart home products, Echo speakers, health device Halo and home robot Astro, among others.
Amazon also carried out large-scale recruitment during the epidemic. The company’s global headcount ballooned from nearly 800,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019 to more than 1.6 million by the end of 2021 . The company also faces slower sales growth, higher expenses and a worsening economic outlook. In addition to layoffs, Amazon has frozen its corporate hiring, slowed warehouse expansion and shuttered some of its experimental projects.
Those who work in the U.S., Canada and Costa Rica should be notified of the round of layoffs by the end of Wednesday, according to a memo sent to employees by Amazon’s global retail chief Doug Herrington and human resources chief Beth Galetti. Chinese employees will be notified after Chinese New Year, possibly in late January or early February. Amazon’s Chinese employees may have to spend the Spring Festival in apprehension.
Similar to Microsoft, Amazon’s U.S. employees will receive 60 days of full salary and benefits, plus several weeks of severance pay, calculated based on seniority, two weeks per year.
The following is the full text of Satya Nadella’s memo to Microsoft employees:
Theme: Focus on our short-term and long-term opportunities
We are living through a time of significant change, and when I meet with clients and partners, a few things are clear. First, during the pandemic, we saw customers accelerate their digital spend, and now, we see them optimize their digital spend to do more with less. We’re also seeing caution in organizations across every industry and region, as some parts of the world are in recession and others are forecasting a recession. At the same time, with advances in artificial intelligence, the next major wave of computing is being born as we transform the world’s most advanced models into a new computing platform.
Against this backdrop, we as a company must strive to deliver results on a sustained basis while investing in our long-term opportunities. I believe Microsoft will emerge from this stronger and more competitive, but it will require us to act according to three priorities.
First, we will align our cost structure with our revenue and the customer demand we see. Today, we are making changes that will reduce our total headcount by 10,000 by the end of Q3 FY23. This represents less than 5% of our workforce, some of which were announced today. It is important to note that while we are reducing positions in certain areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas. We know this is a challenging time for everyone affected. The leadership team and I commit that as we go through this process, we will do so in the most thoughtful and transparent manner possible.
Second, we will continue to invest in our future strategic areas, which means we are allocating our capital and talent to areas of the company’s long-term growth and long-term competitiveness, while divesting other areas. These are some of the tough choices we’ve made in our 47-year history to keep our company alive in an industry that’s ruthless to any company that doesn’t adapt to platform shifts. So we had $1.2 billion of charges in the second quarter related to severance, hardware mix changes and our creation of higher density workspaces to consolidate lease costs.
Third, we will treat our employees with decency and dignity and act in a transparent manner. These decisions are difficult, but necessary. They are especially difficult because they affect people and their lives, and these people are our colleagues and friends. We are committed to ensuring that all those eliminated have our full support during these transitions. Employees eligible for U.S. benefits will receive a variety of benefits, including above-market severance pay, six months of continuous health coverage, six months of continuous stock award vesting, career transition services, and 60 days’ notice prior to termination, regardless of Whether such notification is required by law. Benefits for employees outside the United States will be consistent with the employment laws of each country.
When I think about this moment, the start of 2023, it’s the beginning of a good show for our industry and for Microsoft. Our success as a company must align with the world’s success. That means each of us and every team across the company must raise the bar and outperform the competition to deliver meaningful innovation that truly benefits customers, communities and the country. If we do this, we will emerge stronger and thrive long into the future; simple as that.
I want to express my deepest thanks and appreciation to everyone who has contributed to Microsoft thus far and to all who will continue to contribute as we map out our future path. Thank you for the focus, dedication and resilience you show every day for Microsoft and our customers and partners.
Satya
January 18
Note: The copyright belongs to the original author. If you do not agree to use, please contact us as soon as possible, we will delete it immediately.
media reports
Netease technology products to play Sina technology
related events
- Sleepless in Seattle: Microsoft and Amazon collective layoffs2023-01-23
- Microsoft announced the layoff of 10,000 people, the human resources department may become the hardest hit area, and China will be affected2023-01-19
- It is rumored that Amazon will launch a new round of layoffs as early as Wednesday 2023-01-18
- It is rumored that Microsoft plans to lay off 11,000 employees, but it is denied2023-01-17
- Amazon laid off more than 18,000 people2023-01-04
This article is transferred from: https://readhub.cn/topic/8mNVfhh6mvF
This site is only for collection, and the copyright belongs to the original author.