Comments on: Microsoft expected to announce layoffs

The Wall Street Journal is the latest to report the company is considering job cuts, a rare move at the software giant.

[Mr. Dee]

2009 - The year of doom and gloom. Lets hope 2010 will be a year of recovery.

[robvme]

Lots of deadwood at Microsoft. Will be good for the company to trim down and look inward at how they can take advantage of this downturn.

[Penguinisto]

...maybe they can start with the idiots who insisted that Vista was good enough to be released to manufacturing?

/P

[Penguinisto]

Just a sec' - where's all the MSFT apologists?

Heh - prolly polishing their resumes....

[Vegaman_Dan]

Wow, for a person with an 'open mind' you sure stuff it full of garbage, Penguinisto.

Seriously, you need to get a life.

[Penguinisto]

Why, there's one!

Sorry if I struck a nerve, Dan... just that you don't see too awful many MSFT cheerleaders hanging around this story (unless they're called out), now do you?

As for the original comment, I defy you to show me who (or which group) would be more deserving of a layoff at Microsoft. You know the joint... c'mon, speak up. Who should get the axe in Redmond if the axe must fall?

[Sumatra-Bosch]

Face it - Microsoft could lay off 99% of its workforce and no one would notice, although quality might improve if they outsourced development of the OS like they did with NT.

[Draq Wraith]

funny thats what they said in the automotive world look where they are now.

[globalist_agenda]

Assymetrical. It will be interesting to see if this is a stalking horse for MS to move more work offshore to cheaper wage countries. Once that happens it aint' ever commin back. BTW, where's their big talk of lack of H1-Bs these days? Are they going to advocate reducing the quota in light of the downturn? Don't bet on it.

[MacUser-4-ever]

A lot of these companies, especially Microsoft, should take the hit to their bottom line during this time period and just blame it on the economy. As long as they're still profitable, or at least not running in risk of going into debt, they can get away with this, instead of massive layoffs which will force them to cut back on research, development, marketing, and other things their competitors will out do them on.

[dennisl59]

Microsoft is a bunch of f-ing liars...Does ANYONE remember a story a week or two ago where they said this wasn't going to be happening?....ANYONE? Either tell the truth or don't say anything. And where's their advertising campaign?...FAILED. MORONS. Thank You.

[nathan909b]

Dude, it's ok. Calm down.

[Vegaman_Dan]

Let's see now...

Apple laid off staff.
Cisco laid off staff.
Red Hat laid off staff.
CNET laid off staff.
Microsoft laid off staff.


Yeah, perhaps there is a trend here that some people here haven't spotted yet like... oh, I don't know... perhaps the economy is taking a downturn? Nah, that can't be it- it's much more fun to blame Microsoft than to actually be current in events worldwide.

Sheesh, people. Get a clue.

[ddpinkard]

"Get a life." "Get a clue." Why not get some snappier retorts?

[Penguinisto]

Apple expects to lay off (est.) 400-500 employees out of their headcount of ~12,000. Makes for a layoff of 3-4%. Otherwise no layoffs have been accomplished or announced.

RedHat laid off 20 (yes, twenty) employees, seven of which were not redhat employees in the first place (they were merger victims when RH bought Atomic Vision). So, even assuming 20, out of RH's 550 employees? 3% of the workforce.

Cisco... about 129 (confirmed - Austin office) people out of 65,000... no other confirmed numbers or anything beyond rumor. This means that Cisco laid off 0.1% of its workforce.

Dunno about CNET, don;t care... they're not in the tech industry per se.

So - this leaves us Microsoft.

MSFT expects to lay off 10-17% (est.) of its workforce - basically, MSFT is dumping (at the high point of 16,000) more employees than Apple and RedHat have in total headcount... combined.

Everyone else you mentioned in the tech industry are laying off, at most, less than 5% of their respective staffings. Combined, the layoffs come to 649 victims, vs. Microsoft's est layoff victim range of 9,500-16,000.

Long story short? Dan... the attempt of relativism on your part, once investigated, turns into a rather huge shipload of FAIL (yes, in all caps...)

[WebBuddha]

Oh I know, let's take the prospect of thousands of more people in the U.S. losing their jobs and use it as an opportunity to kick them while they're down, and voice an already biased opinion (that doesn't mean anything to anyone) about how much we hate Microsoft. What the hell is wrong with you people.

How's this for a witty retort? "Ef off" all of you and find something else to do with your life other than ***** about a software manufacturer. Maybe you could redirect those energies with doing something that would benefit our society. Do something nice for someone today. Start there. Just do something useful for Ef's sake!

[Penguinisto]

Has nothing to do with love or hate towards MSFT, really... the time has come for them to cut loose some deadwood.

It is painfully obvious now, even to MSFT, that with their failing marketshare (yes, it's dropped over the past few years) and failed Vista launch (count XP installs as Vista licenses all you want - they're not Vista installs), and an even lousier round of marketing, leads to the fact that maybe a few heads should roll.

Now seriously? The laid-off folks are not going to die. They're instead going to be doing something else... something that will likely contribute to growth, instead of sitting around in MSFT's offices and (for lack of a kinder way to put it) feeding idly at the largess of a large corporation.

Overall, assuming MSFT is smart about this, it's a good move for them (motivates those remaining to be more sensitive to the market, leans things up a bit which allows more money for R&D, etc...), and it's actually (believe it or not) good for those who get the axe (by pushing them into other industries, into working for competitors, etc...)

"Do something nice for someone today."

Do something nice for someone every day. Makes gestures into habit, and makes the world a kinder place overall.

[Mikal2004]

I just hope that Microsoft lays off their HB1 Visa holders first before laying off American Citizens. They are one of the largest employers of HB1 Visa holders and have lobbied congress to increase the limits of importing tech labor for years.