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- MarkusX, on 01/22/2009, -32/+150In Short:
blah blah blah...
(10 more paragrphs)...
blah blah...
Sorry that you got fired.
Best wishes,
Steve - seltaeb4, on 01/23/2009, -8/+121"Dear Microsoft employees,
In light of the current economic climate, we find that DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS!
[signed]
S. Ballmer - inactive, on 01/22/2009, -13/+103Sucks, but good on MS for providing outplacement services as well as internal job posting. They are not the big devil people make them out to be.
- sodade, on 01/23/2009, -6/+90What he really meant:
This recession gives us a free pass on culling the herd. Some of you employees are worse workers than a bag of rocks. See ya. - doctechnical, on 01/23/2009, -31/+113I think he could have summed it up:
"Maybe Vista wasn't such a hot idea after all. Sorry about that." - Thulium, on 01/23/2009, -2/+73Rather in line with the IT marketplace right now, maybe even less impacting. I'm not sure what other costs were cut there though. Where I work (another Fortune 500 IT company), we have already had two layoffs, our 401K matching cut, our yearly perfomance increases cut, our customer service department and some of the sales force shifted to another country and a hiring freeze on much needed open positions.
All the while, these companies are not seeing losses. They are simply falling short of imaginary projected numbers. Stock holders are forcing these decisions as a means to offset their bank accounts for the hits they took in their other investments. - trpnblies7, on 01/23/2009, -15/+71You know, I bet they could save a lot in operating expenses if they switched over to Linux.
- dirtymerkin, on 01/23/2009, -5/+53When do we get to eat the rich? Corporate jagoff. "We grew 2% but I projected more, so in order to get my bonus I gotta ruin your life. Sorry, I gotta boat payment."
- inactive, on 01/23/2009, -8/+39I wish they'd lay him off.
- carbonfilament, on 01/23/2009, -2/+30There was a time when people were loyal to their workplace, and their workplace was loyal to them. Meaning the workplace would keep the good people that they had spent much time and effort hiring and training on, even during times of recession, and even during times when the company is losing money. In turn the employees would stay at the company and work harder because they knew that someone was looking after them and helping them in a time of need, and would not be as likely to jump ship for another job.
It's pretty bad to see this letter start with a revenue statement, and praise the employees and their hard work that made it possible, and then finish the letter with see ya later. I mean great that they are helping them find other unemployment, but will all of those people be able to find a job in a recession? It's not like MS is going to let their top people go.
While MS is the example in this case, I think that this may be a problem with the US economy as a whole. Its become a modus operandi to respond to loss or, in this case, not as much growth as you wanted, by cutting overhead - namely employees. (Unless I'm mistaken, that article stated that MS was in the black, having 16 billion dollars revenue in the last quarter alone.) I wonder if there are any business majors that peruse this site that can tell us why layoffs are the first response. As an employee, it's important to feel valued, and I believe that people are capable of contributing more when they are not under fear that a market shift will cost them their employment. Just the fear of this response is enough to stop many people from spending, and on a large scale that can turn a recession into a depression, which leads to more layoffs etc.
I'm not saying that poor workers should have their jobs protected, but mass layoffs like this have little to do with an employee's performance. - certifiablygeek, on 01/23/2009, -1/+27$16.6 billion revenue, not profit...big difference.
- SailRacer, on 01/23/2009, -0/+26Wouldn't it have been nice to see the following sentences in that letter?
"As part of this cost reducing plan, top level executives (C level, presidents, and vice presidents) will be taking a 7% salary roll back. We are also cutting out a number of benefits for these staff members that we have all agreed may be extraneous in the current economic climate." - zizzybaloobah, on 01/22/2009, -11/+37You left out
... blah blah blah
profit dropped 3 cents a share so somebody has to go
blah blah blah ... - DrWu, on 01/23/2009, -2/+24My response if I was a MS employee...
Dear Steve,
tl:dr - gcnaddict, on 01/23/2009, -3/+23Revenue != profit.
- loconet, on 01/23/2009, -1/+20Fixed it for you:
"Dear Microsoft employees,
In light of the current economic climate, we find that DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! DEVELOPERS! .... are getting fired.
[signed]
S. Ballmer - theaceoffire, on 01/23/2009, -7/+26For one, they don't work for Microsoft anymore.
- Macgyrl64, on 01/23/2009, -13/+32So they ax employees because they might not make a couple Billion this year? Am I the only one that is disgusted by this? Only proves the rich are getting richer and we, the workers are getting poorer. Cut jobs and you think people are going to be able to buy that nice shiney computer in the next quarter? I don't think so.
- bcassner, on 01/22/2009, -1/+18At least they are providing severance and benefits. I am curious though as to what the benefits and severance they will be getting.
- fitqueenb, on 01/22/2009, -3/+20quite the numbers that they are cutting loose
- physco827, on 01/23/2009, -1/+18Microsoft cut operating expenses by 600 million in one quarter. I don't know what there number is for expenses but that is a huge chunk of change. Just thought that was interesting.
- Wolfcaster, on 01/23/2009, -2/+15if they are losing business, why wouldn't they cut jobs? No reason to hire people to do unnecessary work. It sucks, but the purpose of a company is to make money. People don't start companies to make sure more people can have jobs.
- MrBabyManSTFU, on 01/23/2009, -0/+13Wow, layoffs in IT. I can honestly say I'm shocked considering all the lobbying for additional H1B visas they have done in the past. Now the counter argument can be made that if you are laying people off in the dept certainly you won't need to hire any people from another country if don't need your existing headcount. Just a thought.
- squaz, on 01/23/2009, -1/+14Great post. It's important to emphasize that these companies are not losing money. They are still earning billions of dollars a year and continuing to grow in this bad economy. The reason for the job cuts rests solely on the shoulders of arbitrarily picking a growth percentage to top the previous year, then upon falling short (yet still growing an incredible amount per the size of their business) letting staff go. Good luck rebounding sooner rather than later by cutting R&D and marketing, Microsoft. That was perhaps the most boneheaded move you could have made during this round of cuts. Who is going to create those products your "customers value" with reduced staff dreaming up ideas, implementing them and marketers encouraging people to buy the product (or pre-bundle it on every computer that rolls off a line)?
- Mohonri, on 01/23/2009, -0/+13I think part of the problem comes when companies grow beyond a certain size. When a company gets too big, individual employees feel like they have zero impact on the company's success or failure.
In the good ol' days, employees of small businesses could easily see their impact on the company's success. And so could the management. So during hard times, employees worked harder to ensure their company's survival, and management saw that value.
This is why small businesses, when they are successful, grow much more quickly than large businesses. - SouthsideIrish, on 01/23/2009, -1/+14Which they made mostly in new PC sales, which they will always get. How many companies are switching from W2000/XP to Vista?
- Gizza, on 01/23/2009, -0/+12Better than what BHP just did here in Australia. Told all the nickel mining operation workers to attend a safety meeting and then fired them all on the spot.
- subliminalurge, on 01/23/2009, -1/+13Why do people still think revenue means anything? It's a completely useless number unless you have the rest of the story to put it into context.
Let's say I go out to my workshop and build a coffee table, then sell it for $300, I have $300 in revenue. Sounds good, right? But wait... I built it from an exotic hardwood, and the materials cost me $600. Also, because of this cool new design, I had to drop 2 grand on new tools that I didn't have. And I built it in the winter, so I had to turn on the furnace in my garage, which raised my utility bill by $50. (***** insulation out there) And I only seem to be able to sell about one of these things a year.
Doesn't sound like a business that I'd want to be in, yet, the only thing most douchebags will focus on is that I had $300 in revenue.
Revenue is a meaningless figure without the rest of the numbers. - doctechnical, on 01/23/2009, -3/+15So, this is your first spin on the Capitalism Ride?
- certifiablygeek, on 01/23/2009, -5/+17lol vista sucks
- mrmod, on 01/23/2009, -0/+12I agree; loyalty begets loyalty. Look at CostCo as an example. You can't wonder why people aren't loyal when you aren't taking care of them and putting them before shareholders. The order of things should be: customer, employee, self. This naturally makes the shareholder a beneficiary.
- blackmesa, on 01/23/2009, -1/+12WOOOOO.... GIVE IT UP FOR MEEEEEEEE!!!
- JackSchittt, on 01/23/2009, -3/+14This has nothing to do with the state of the economy. Microsoft is taking the opportunity to further increase profits at the expense of the little guy. They just see everybody else laying off workers and figure -- "Hey, why don't we do the same thing? We'll make a few million dollars more this year, and we can just say it's because of the economy."
If they were serious about saving money, they'd shave off some of the upper management and their 6- and 7-figure salaries, rather than the rank-and-file employees making a tenth of what they make. But like I said, this is all about padding the wallets of the upper management at the expense of the little guy, and has nothing to do with jobs or the state of the economy. Their excuse is nothing but a ruse that they know the average nobody won't be able to see through. - NJank, on 01/23/2009, -0/+11Blame it on stockholders. They demand continually increasing profit. "Oh, no, profit was only 6% of revenue instead of 13%. Start the layoffs! (but not me)"
There are small companies that accept reduced profits during an economic downturn, trim expenses while keeping the skilled workforce, use built up capital as a bridge to future good times, etc. But these are counter intuitive to maximum short term profit.
The corporate machine is a profit maximizing beast. That's what it does, that's what it will do. No sense trying to make it be otherwise.
On the other hand, MS was at an employee count peak. It probably used those 'flimsy' profit estimates to justify a lot of those hires. Kind of like the phantom equity of the housing bubble, when the phantom profit goes away, extra positions that were going to be paid for with those profits would have to go. - andersleet, on 01/23/2009, -0/+11very big
- eatporktoo, on 01/23/2009, -1/+11LOL, I have a small "hunch" that they somehow get Windows and Office for free....
- Albumen, on 01/23/2009, -1/+11Holy *****! That is just cruel.
- eatporktoo, on 01/23/2009, -3/+12You've never tried the office suite, windows 7, or Visual Studio have you? (obviously not)
- Gizza, on 01/23/2009, -2/+11I have a feeling Microsoft probably don't pay for Windows.
- Hartrain, on 01/23/2009, -1/+10"second quarter revenue of $16.6 billion"
"Our financial position is solid"
"The fact that we are growing [...] is a testament to your hard work"
"...we will eliminate up to 5,000 positions"
Must be their new incentive plan. - argusbargus, on 01/23/2009, -0/+9At least he didn't throw chairs at them ;-P
- mrmod, on 01/23/2009, -3/+12Workers:
We made $16.6 bn this year, but that's not enough. We're going to fire a lot of you, but we'll help you out to keep animosity to a minimum. Sure, we may be making decisions purely based on our shareholders and not our customers or employees, but that's how we are able to employ great people like you... that we're now letting go.
Best wishes, and Suck It!
Balm-man - damark, on 01/23/2009, -2/+10Its not a "magical number" - its a projection on which these companies rely heavily on. If future projected earnings are higher, then a company will hire more people to fill that future increase in demand.That's what happened with Microsoft; the company believed that it would see larger growth in the future so it hired more people. Obviously that didn't happen so they are forced to cut some of those jobs.
- TodoInTX, on 01/23/2009, -4/+12Ok then, anyone who lays off 5000 people after they book only 4.17bn in PROFIT because the previous year they had made 4.71bn is NOT a good corporate citizen.
- GiggleStick, on 01/23/2009, -2/+10I LOVE THIS COMPANY! WHO TOLD YOU TO SIT DOWN?
- frequentFlyer, on 01/23/2009, -2/+10A free copy of Vista.
- mrdanner, on 01/23/2009, -0/+8"Hey everyone, thanks for contributing to our record profits! Oh, by the way, you're fired."
This cycle has to end somewhere. People get scared because of the bad economy and stop spending, then companies lay off employees. Since those unemployed are not spending now, more companies lay off employees. It's just a cycle that will continue to get much worse before better. - inactive, on 01/23/2009, -1/+9Don't let the door hit you on the way out. I'm rich, bitch.
- Thumper13, on 01/23/2009, -2/+10Someone needs to take Business 101 again, if that isn't too fast for you.
- Tehrab, on 01/23/2009, -6/+14And this part:
blah blah blah...
Sorry I'm running the company into the ground. I am glad I still have billions because you are all fired, LOL.
blah blah... -
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