RSSMicrosoft joins the layoff club
This morning reveals that the rumored and expected layoffs at Microsoft have in fact materialized. In the wake of disappointing 2Q revenue results which missed company estimates by $900 million, the company announced this morning that it will begin with immediate layoffs of 1400 staff, a number to increase to 5000 over the next 18 months.
The layoffs are expected to hit the traditional soft targets of R&D, marketing, sales, HR, finance, and IT. Also unsurprising (although un-mentioned in most press accounts) is a statement that the company will "continue to change in direct response to customer needs…" the headcount in support, manufacturing, consulting, and other direct client-facing functions. With clients falling by the way due to their own issues, that could translate to considerably more than the stated 5000 FTE.
It's unclear to what extent these layoffs may effect company initiatives surrounding Windows 7, Azure, and other forward-looking development. I suppose some degree of cruft is inevitable in any corporation of that size, but as with others which are able to cut vast swaths of employees while claiming to be moving forward through the recession, I have to wonder how efficient the operations were in the first place. If the company can really continue to progress despite the layoffs, it certainly reinforces Mini-Microsoft's arguments that it has been bloated and over-staffed for quite some time now.
CEO Steve Ballmer's memo to staff on the subject (the expected optimistic pablum) can be found here.
Bill Gates is a lowlife , months ago he went to congress asking for more H-1 visas for foreign workers saying there where not enough US workers here for the jobs available, but now firing Americans while keeping the low wage immigrant H-1 visa workers and expanding more outsourced jobs overseas, Bill Gates should be ashamed of him self, a man that has made his wealth off Americans and now fighting against American workers and their families, I can’t think of a more lowlife example of a person than him right now.
Well, to be fair to Bill, he’s not exactly pulling the strings over there anymore on a day to day basis, nor did he materially contribute to the current financial crisis so far as I can tell, and he has dumped considerable portions of the wealth he has created into worthy and selfless causes both at home and abroad.
It’s hard to generalize from such a short post, but I am always fascinated that so many pro-American, anti-outsourcing/migrant posters can on the one hand celebrate the American worker and on the other disparage one (Gates) for doing what he will with his success. This is freedom and the capitalist system at work; surely two of the precepts on which the country was founded?
With ALL the layoffs that are going on and the US Dept of labor coming out and saying that by the year 2010 = next year,,The Largest Employer Will be SELF..with that being said..WE ALL should plan accordingly…Your future is in Your Hands.