Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees

#21

Post by rhyperior » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:08 PM UTC

OsrsNeedsf2P wrote: post #3

darth_avocado wrote: post #2

> employees will be eligible if their years of work at Microsoft plus their age totals 70 or more, with some exceptions. Seems like a voluntarily retirement offer for older employees

I bet they spent a long time figuring out if it was age discrimination or not

They did not. They had already done this thinking with the 55/15 retirement option, where if you’re aged 55 or older and 15 years continuous service you could leave and keep most of your equity. And you signed a suite of “non” agreements including non-litigation.

Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees

#22

Post by not_doctorq » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:08 PM UTC

ChrisLTD wrote: post #15

HNisCIS wrote: post #6

So the goal is to get rid of the people who have all the internal knowledge?

all the people that knew how to keep Github running and make a clean version of Windows are already gone, I suppose

Absolutely true for GitHub; there was an exodus a few years after the acquisition presumably once some key vesting dates hit…

Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees

#23

Post by post-it » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:09 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #20

> years of work at Microsoft plus their age totals 70 Is that ageism? How is that different than saying if their gender is Y, their race is X or their religious belief is Z?

Because "number of expected working years left" is a factor in evaluating common law severance.

Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees

#24

Post by barelysapient » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:10 PM UTC

Microsoft isn’t known for great judgement.

Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees

#25

Post by avaer » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:10 PM UTC

Can't help but notice the trend of tech companies shaving employees at an accelerating pace.

Nobody wants to admit this (and there's a lot of reasons it could be temporary factors like "overhiring"), but to me this seems primarily if not exclusively driven by AI. You just can't say that to HR.

The bigger question is if this keeps accelerating, can the industry and broader economy handle so many jobs disappearing, so fast?

Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees

#26

Post by IncreasePosts » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:10 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #20

> years of work at Microsoft plus their age totals 70 Is that ageism? How is that different than saying if their gender is Y, their race is X or their religious belief is Z?

In the US, ageism is allowed as long it doesn't discriminate against older people(45 years old or older I think?). You're allowed to discriminate against youth all you want.

Offering a buyout is in no way discriminatory since it is voluntary. If it was forced buyout, then yes it would be discriminatory

Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees

#27

Post by cromka » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

I think they're removing old rust that would crate friction in moving towards AI assisted development. Old rust which is used to higher quality of code...

Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees

#28

Post by rdtsc » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

post-it wrote: post #23

rdtsc wrote: post #20

> years of work at Microsoft plus their age totals 70 Is that ageism? How is that different than saying if their gender is Y, their race is X or their religious belief is Z?

Because "number of expected working years left" is a factor in evaluating common law severance.

I can see if it would be exact years working at the place not years left.

Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees

#29

Post by zamadatix » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

colechristensen wrote: post #13

ecshafer wrote: post #5

Isn't this one of the things IBM did multiple times through the late 90s and early 2000s? Is Microsoft the new IBM?

>Is Microsoft the new IBM? Lots of us thought they peaked during the Windows XP, now it looks like the Windows 10 era will be their peak beginning a long decline. There have been major missteps trying to turn Windows into a subscription/surveillance product, combined with Azure being a mess, Europe running away from American locked in products, OpenAI losing the lead and the space becomming crowded and expensive, and…

When XP was new people said 2000 looked like the peak. When Vista/7 was new people said XP looked like the peak. When 10 was new people said 7 looked like the peak. Now that 11 is still the latest, guess what the prediction is?

At some point one group will be right and feel extremely justified in achieving broken clock status of telling the future. Well, the folks who still argue ~2000 was peak and it has been a decline since are at least consistent... even if I agree in some ways and disagree in more in the other ways.

Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees

#30

Post by lateforwork » Thu, Apr 23, 2026, 9:11 PM UTC

If you quit at age 55 or later and you have been with Microsoft for 15 years your stock continues to vest. That has always been the case.

This "buyout" appears to extend that benefit to employees who are >= 50 and have been with the company for 20 years. (Or any other combination that adds up to 70, for example you are 46 and have been with the company for 24 years).