https://techcrunch.com/2025/07/02/microsoft-will-lay-off-9000-employees-or-less-than-4-of-the-company/
Videos
By Jason Schreier
Microsoft Corp. will conduct another round of major layoffs in its Xbox division next week as part of a company-wide reorganization.
Managers within Xbox are expecting substantial cuts across the entire group, according to people familiar with the plans who asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information. The company declined to comment.
This will be the fourth big layoff at Xbox in the past 18 months, following three major cuts last year and the closure of several subsidiaries. Xbox, which produces video-game hardware and software, has been under pressure from Microsoft executives to boost profit margins since purchasing Activision Blizzard Inc. for $69 billion in a deal that closed in 2023.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-24/microsoft-plans-major-job-cuts-at-xbox-gaming-division
... Don't know how they thought it was good to remove all those staff.
Email outage for the last 2 weeks (still counting) and sitting waiting for the Premiere support for a Sev B seems like a joke.
All the support staff so far, they've got localised numbers, using a different check, all the staff are from India and Africa... communication has been a headache, both lack of comms and comprehension of basic English and literature. Never had I had to explain to support in three different ways, correct them and highlight all my emails and create lists for them.
Also, after digging around, anyone questioned why they removed app password access and forced people to use Azure email communication services.
Azure email communication services seems like yet another big money grab.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/13/microsoft-is-cutting-3percent-of-workers-across-the-software-company.html
9000 employees have been laid off across Microsoft
4th major mass lay offs at Xbox in 18 months
The Initiative closed, Perfect Dark cancelled
Rare hit with layoffs, Everwild cancelled, Banjo Kazooie and Sea of Thieves Director leaves Rare
50% of Turn 10 laid off
King and Zenimax hit with lay offs, new Zenmiax online IP cancelled
Multiple call of Duty Studios hit with lay offs
50% of Xbox user research team laid off, head of child and family saftey laid off
In the wake of another round of layoffs at Microsoft, it’s time to talk about something deeper than numbers: the human cost of toxic management.
Employees aren’t just being let go — many are being driven out by a culture of psychological pressure, unrealistic expectations, and emotionally manipulative leadership.
“Growth mindset” vs. Gaslighting
What’s often sold as high-performance culture masks deeply unhealthy management practices. Deadlines are weaponized. Feedback becomes intimidation. “Accountability” means blaming the most vulnerable.
Psychological Pressure is Not Leadership
Many managers are pushing their teams to burnout under the guise of “excellence.” This isn't just poor leadership — it's emotionally abusive. Employees report sleepless nights, anxiety, and a constant fear of retaliation for speaking up.
Layoffs as a Management Tool
Layoffs are no longer a last resort. They’ve become a tool to trim “low performers” and employees targeted, envied, or resented by management.
Mental Health Matters
We must stop normalizing environments that erode psychological safety. No paycheck is worth chronic stress and emotional manipulation.
#Microsoft #Layoffs #ToxicLeadership #MentalHealth #CorporateCulture #Burnout #TechIndustry
I saw a rumor online that layoffs were starting May 12th for middle managers and May 13th for ICs. Anyone have any insight?
Update: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/13/microsoft-is-cutting-3percent-of-workers-across-the-software-company.html
So sorry to those impacted today. I was hoping these rumors weren’t true.
I was in M365 Core working on the Copilot Data Platform team which basically is the infrastructure that Copilot runs and gets its data trained from.
I started in 2022 before Copilot or even ChatGPT were even a thing really and the company I started at vs the one that I ended with is like two completely different entities.
Before 2024, the growth chart for a SWE at the company was a lot more holisitic, focusing on growing through people skills, technical understanding and having my manager help me get to the next level. I managed to get to an L60 which is one off from SWE II, but right after I promoted the company shifted into this AI-driven mindset where the growth chart changed to start emphasizing performance metrics and throughput. The problem for me was that it was hard for me to find ways to actually improve these metrics because of our team was heavily DevOps focused with only a few people on my team working on features that could actually generate meaningful performance metrics.
Every single 1:1 my manager was asking me how much I was using the AI tools we have at our disposal, how many PRs I was completing a week, how many PR reviews I was doing a week, and pushing me to do talks on my experiences using AI as a developer. My manager even acknowledged that a recurring complaint from our team was the amount that we don’t get to code stuff compared to DevOps related work which cannot be factored into PR metrics.
Looking back, it is crazy that once Copilot surfaced as a CLEAR cash cow for the company, they went into overdrive into this performance-based mindset.
I’m not writing this to bash on anyone or anything because I genuinely did enjoy my time there, but I’m not gonna act like Copilot/AI hasn’t shifted the company into a less holistic version of itself. The main thing I’m sad about is that I lost like $30k of stock that was part of my signing agreement and with how these financial reports are coming out that would have been so much damn money to sit on for the next 3-5 years since Microsoft is doing incredibly well from a business standpoint with no signs of slowing down.
Microsoft has announced another round of layoffs that will affect 42 employees at its Redmond campus, as reported in a state filing with the Employment Security Department. The total number of Microsoft layoffs in Washington is now more than 3,200 since May. The latest round of layoffs will take effect on November 7, 2025.
https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/02/microsoft-laying-off-about-9000-employees-in-latest-round-of-cuts.html
👀
I was laid off from Microsoft in May 2025 with my employment officially ending in July 2025. My severance clearly stated that I’m eligible for rehire.
However, it seems the FY’25 Rewards were published recently (managers finalize them by June 30), and my entry shows 0 rewards, likely because I was no longer part of the rewards cycle after being laid off. Now, a recruiter told me that because of this “0 Rewards” entry, I’m showing up as not eligible for rehire, and they had to revoke my verbal offer.
I’m trying to understand if this is a system or HR error, since:
I had 100% rewards in FY’24,
My severance letter explicitly says I’m eligible for rehire, and
My termination was due to RIF, not performance.
EDIT: I’ve already opened a ticket with HR Assist and reached out to my former manager (no response yet).Any advice on what else I can do to escalate or fix this?
UPDATE: HR Assist confirmed that I’m eligible for rehire and for FY’25 rewards. They also corrected the eligibility status on my profile (I received a screenshot). The recruiter verified that they can now see my eligibility but said the offer had already expired.
However, they still haven’t provided any details on how my status was changed or who updated it, despite my repeated requests and citing my right to full disclosure of all records related to my employment.
Does anyone has any recommendations for employment lawyers?
Too much hiring during Covid
overspending on purchasing game studios
investing into AI infrastructure with nothing in return
reducing American workers, hiring offshore workers
moving from personal growth model to make profit fast model
Microsoft leadership has lost focus
https://www.financialexpress.com/life/technology-tech-layoffs-microsoft-cuts-15000-jobs-in-2025-pushes-remaining-staff-to-embrace-ai-3911172/
I need help understanding this article on Inc.
https://www.inc.com/jason-aten/microsofts-xbox-ceo-just-explained-why-the-company-is-laying-off-9000-people-its-not-great/91209841
Between May and now Microsoft laid off 15,000 employees, stating, mainly, that the focus now is on AI. Some skeptics I’ve been talking to are telling me that this is just an excuse, that the layoffs are simply Microsoft hiding other reasons behind “AI First”. Can this be true? Can Microsoft be, say, having revenue/financial problems and is trying to disguise those behind the “AI First” discourse?
Are they outsourcing heavily? Or is it true that AI is taking over those 15,000 jobs? The Xbox business must demand a lot and a lot of programming (as must also be the case with most of Microsoft businesses. Are those programming and software design/engineering jobs being taken over by AI?
What I can’t fathom is the possibility that there were 15,000 redundant jobs at the company and that they are now directing the money for those paychecks to pay for AI infrastructure and won’t feel the loss of thee productivity those 15,00 jobs brought to the table unless someone (or something) else is doing it.
Any Microsoft people here can explain, please?
When Satya Nadella became the CEO of microsoft, it was believed he will be different. He himself told in interviews about the importance of empathy. Where has the empathy suddenly disappeared?
https://deepseeks.medium.com/how-are-microsofts-january-2025-layoffs-different-for-the-worst-aa454f061315
Why is Microsoft behaving like service based companies who do not value their employees. It has labelled many good employees as low performers and then fired. How will this affect their careers?
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/microsoft-layoffs-9000-workers/