Microsoft to Cut 9k Workers in Second Wave of Major Layoffs

Re:Microsoft to Cut 9k Workers in Second Wave of Major Layoffs by 0cf8612b2e1e on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @12:15PM (#44445521)

Eh, it can take a lot of political willpower to actually get rid of a low performer. We had an infamous case where it took two years to finally kick some deadweight to the curb. Wanted multiple years of underperforming performance reviews, I guess. This is a public, wildly profitable company, not government, despite what some may claim about market efficiency.

Unfortunately, I have never seen a layoff only remove weak people. Plenty of good gets thrown out with the bad every single time.

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Re:Microsoft to Cut 9k Workers in Second Wave of Major Layoffs by butlike on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @01:11PM (#44446235)

Think of it more as a "controlled burn wildfire," you want to clear land to let new foliage grow. Same with companies; you clear out some space and see what ideas flourish with the new crop

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Re:Microsoft to Cut 9k Workers in Second Wave of Major Layoffs by const_cast on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @04:24PM (#44448416)

Or, more likely, leadership is sloppy and lazy. They make mistakes and color outside the lines, and they pay for it. The hope is that they don't hurt themselves too bad.

Luckily for leadership, opportunity cost is completely invisible. They can't travel to alternate realities so they can just pretend they made a good decision and go with that. This is what causes the fun phenomena of "failing upwards" we see in modern American corporate leadership.

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Re:Microsoft to Cut 9k Workers in Second Wave of Major Layoffs by runjake on Wednesday July 02, 2025 @01:58PM (#44446831)

We had a case where it took 10 years to cut 3 FTE deadweights and it only happened because of the 2008 Crash and consequential tightening of money flow.

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