Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft uses React Native in their Start menu because the kids don't know Windows programming anymore.
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The start menu just.... doesn't open sometimes these days.
Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees
31–40 of 110 posts
Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees
#32"Who is going to provide critical updates for my Win11 workstation?! Hey
, Microsoft, I'd like that old guys, who built 3.11 to do that, please"
Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees
#33> 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?
Not all ageism is illegal.
Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees
#34I feel like paying your most experienced employees to quit is exactly the opposite of what Microsoft needs right now. Paying to get rid of your institutional knowledge and experience is an insane move, especially as everything is on fire.
It depends. Sometimes these buyouts are targeted towards groups that are toxic to the growth of the organization as a whole, like folks who have been around for a hot minute and have built up a cache of power but fail to use it other than for self-preservation or glory. I've worked in places where a handful of higher-ups nearing retirement block all progress because they refuse to learn anything new and are months or years away from retirement; in those cases, these buyouts can be quite good at eliminating bad actors and freeing up roles for those you want to keep around, but can't due to headcount limits or politics.
Do I think that's what Microsoft is doing here? No, not really. I think they're pulling an IBM - axing older workers generally in favor of younger ones, but done so in a way that won't result in a sueball. I agree with you that right now they need folks with institutional knowledge and experience to gradually hand over the helm to the next set of folks, and this isn't the way to go about it (that would've been all the previous rounds of wholly unnecessary layoffs).
It's just a way to juice the share price through performative restructuring, in my opinion.
Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees
#35So the goal is to get rid of the people who have all the internal knowledge?
There might be these wizards, but probably most of them are dudes who were attached to something successful 15 years ago and have been riding out their time at an inflated level.
Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees
#36> 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
By that logic a job offer is in no way discriminatory since it is voluntary?
Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees
#37Can'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…
It's driven by attempting to outinvest eachother in AI, which is very different. They're not replacing job functions by AI. They're dropping more and more stuff on the floor, abandoning it and using the money to invest in datacenters (ie. paying NVDA and a few others).
But they're not replacing these employees. That may come, in the future, but it's not what's happening. This is freeing up money at any cost to products.
Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees
#38Isn'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?
Microsoft is the new IBM.
Google is the new Oracle.
Apple is the new Sony.
Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
Microsoft uses React Native in their Start menu because the kids don't know Windows programming anymore.
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The more sensible take is “don’t use new technology where it doesn’t make sense.” The start menu should need a web browser engine and a heavy JS framework because…?
Re: Microsoft offers buyouts up to 7% of US employees
#40Satya is 58, plus his years at ms totals over 70, maybe he takes the buyout : )