So this is how you continue to earn billions and billions of profits. Buy cutting jobs that are worth about a billion. This is reall sad. My best friend as works at Microsoft and he says that people are losing jobs all around him. For example, he said a husband and wife who came to Microsoft from India on work Visas, set up a life here and now can't pay the mortgage for the U.S. house they bought, pay for clothes and food for their 5 year old son. He worries he's next and he's been their 15 years.

Why this hated against Microsoft? Everybody is getting fired left and right these days. If Microsoft is cutting deep in one division it means that this division was not making money and that's how business goes. Most people have been through cycles like these before and it's part of life.

As for your friend with 15 years at Microsoft I have a hard time feeling sorry for him, he has been shielded from the real world with his no-limit-no-copay health insurance and gilded up with options and stock for many years. God forbid he may have to sell a sports car or increase the home equity line on his million dollar house.

NuGoblin, why all the hate against humanity? You know nothing about my friend and his economic experiences. If I wrote down what has gone on in his life it would make a person with a heart (not you of course) cry. If he loses this job it will crush him and his family. Which is exactly what happened to that family from India. There is a tragedy here. This is not just a business as usual cycle. These decisions by companies like Microsoft have real tragic consequences.

I just find it exceedingly sad to see a company as profitable as Microsft having to cut as deep as they are. And the cuts are much deeper than what is being reported.

What's wrong with you?
I happen to believe that the Microsoft cuts are preemptory in nature to preserve massive profitability. This doesn't mean that Microsoft and companies shouldn't make any cuts but I do think that we should be aware that pursing such capital gains has a real human cost.

I can't really speak for NuGoblin, but I think the point he was trying to make is that many, many companies are making huge cuts these days and Microsoft is not any more evil for doing so than any other company. The sad fact of the matter is the economy sucks right now. When you are as huge as MS, you
basically have more areas to look at for cuts.

I am sorry your friend is in fear of losing his job. I am no stranger to getting layed off from an IT job and wondering how you are going to survive. I know it sucks and it's hard not to take it personally. But these are businesses and maintaining profitability could possibly spare others their jobs in the future. Businesses have to trim down in these times.

"Buy cutting jobs that are worth about a billion"

Microsoft is a business, not a charity. If you think laying 5000 people off is saving Microsoft 1 bln, lets do that math in its simplist form. 1000000000 / 5000 = 200,000 a person? ... I'm not sad for your friend *sorry*! If he's a 6 figure+ guy (which he can be making even half that #), he should enjoy his severence package and be able to find another job with ease. He's obviously got skill with a good salary and 15 years of continuous service.

The real sad thing is (and this is something I think we can agree on), a lot of companies are using the excuse of a bad economy to lay people off. I think that's what you're trying to say... MSFT is still making $, so why cut? Well everyone else is doing it, why shouldn't they... helps their stock price if they do.

How can you measure empathy by someone's gross pay? That makes no sense. What a worthless perspective and ironic. On the one hand, you guys (Brent and NuGoblin) purport to support the rights of business to engage in capitalistic pursuits (Microsoft is not a charity and it's business as usual), and on the other you exhibit this socialist/communist tendency to envy anyone who makes more than a living wage.

Brent, if you think that you can just go out and get another job at the drop of a hat, I would like the number of your career counseling service.

Marcus, thanks for your comments, please note that I didn't say that Microsoft was evil or even that I hated them. Nor am I just picking on Microsoft. That would be silly. This is not a console system wars thread. I just believe that businesses should be socially responsible. Plain and simple.

I can't stop anyone for attacking and flaming me because I give a damn. I'm not a communist. I believe in democracy and the right to pursue capitalistic interests. But there is a reasonable limit to what a companies should do in pursuit of the all mighty dollar. Oddly Brent touched on that after telling me he did not care about anybody who earns more than him who loses their job.

Sure! Would love to help you out with that.

Right Management (http://www.right.com/)
205 108th Ave NE # 420
Bellevue, WA 98004
(425) 455-2228

They're in Bellevue, WA about 10mins from MSFT's main campus in Redmond.

You're putting words in my mouth by saying I don't care about anyone who earns more than myself who looses their job, and you're assuming your friend makes more than me as well. I don't think your friend makes 200,000... I was mearly pointing out it's not saving Microsoft a billion dollars to lay people off.

Like your friend, I'm not an American, but I live in the U.S. I was with the same company for 9 years and unlike your friend, I already DID get laid off. I got another job "at the drop of a hat" (in your words), so give 'em a call. Maybe they can help council your friend on his career future, as well as get him in touch with other companies looking for services he can do. In the end I didn't need their help and was only out of work for about a month. There is plenty of opportunity for skilled labor, have faith in your friend's abilities, and be thankful for unemployment.

Please don't assume my empathy is a measurement by gross pay. I'm measuring intelligence by gross pay. If your friend wasn't employable, Microsoft wouldn't have hired him. It maybe that Microsoft has overhired for their current needs, and now can blame a weak economy to downsize. We all know these are tough times, but its not the end of the world...

"I'm not a communist. I believe in democracy and the right to pursue capitalistic interests."

Easy there, guy. You're the only one talking about communism here.

I know a lot of people who work for Microsoft. They love it. My roommate just got a gig working for them after graduation.

"So this is how you continue to earn billions and billions of profits. Buy cutting jobs that are worth about a billion. This is reall sad."

That looks aggressive. It looks like you're blaming the company and saying they're doing something wrong.

Obviously, you said you don't hate them. Well, good; but, your statements previous to that don't really support that.

Look at the Sony layoffs. Or any of the countless others.

It's just a sad fact of the economy.

People will get hurt.

It happens.

And, yes, it is sad.

Sad. Stinkin' recession.

I find it amusing that when things go well, a few people are extravagantly rewarded, and when things go bad (or, when things are perceived as going bad, as Brent said above), hundreds of people get layed off. Of course, I understand the logic behind "a business must be profitable", but it also seems reasonable (to me) that some of that previous success should have been put aside for a situation like this, instead of spending all that success to reward big shots that (probably) got the business in trouble in the first place.

(Before you ask, not related to Microsoft but to businesses in general. :P)

Look, I don't hate Microsoft no matter what anyone thinks. On the whole they are a great company. But these layoffs really hurt. I mentioned Microsoft is because this is the comment section involving a story about Microsoft layoffs.

In response, I get a lot of grief. Just for giving a damn. Some of you guys really know how troll and flame. Get a life.

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