Microsoft's "Microsoft Public Relations Contacts" page as of today ("WE" is Waggener Edstrom):

Notice that Waggener Edstrom is everywhere (and has been for well over a decade)

Summary: Waggener Edstrom now faces a new problem; not only layoffs of its own but resentful Microsoft employees, who keep leaking information about Microsoft layoffs to the media and to blogs

THIS morning we wrote a lot about Microsoft layoffs and the last of the batch concerned Waggener Edstrom layoffs. Almost nobody has heard of Waggener Edstrom and Microsoft prefers to keep it that way. That cryptic name (or two names) hides what Waggener Edstrom really is; it's a Microsoft apparatus and also a peripheral propaganda tool of Bill Gates, which he leverages when he gets rightly nervous (criminals like him sometimes even faint upon getting caught, based on press reports).

"The general sentiment right now at Microsoft is that the CEO ("Satya") replaces the established workers with "cheaper" workers from India, who can be deported if they don't obey unreasonable demands or if they join/form a union."A a matter of fact, Microsoft layoffs this year are vastly bigger than the corporate media cares to admit. With Microsoft offloading to contractors, subsidiaries, partners, proxies, and temps it's hard to keep track of the full numbers. In addition, there's a hiring freeze (people who retire and resign do not get replaced), so the headcount went down by a lot. Waggener Edstrom prefers to ensure the public never finds out, but inevitably people talk to other people. Posted a couple of hours ago by "Anonymous" was this comment showing strong resentment against the CEO [1, 2]. Although some comments get deleted there (as recently as this past weekend), this one too might get tagged as "racist" and removed. It says: "GO!!!!! SATYA!!!!! Run off those MS old timers and crank up that offshoring. Its the way to go."

The general sentiment right now at Microsoft is that the CEO ("Satya") replaces the established workers with "cheaper" workers from India, who can be deported if they don't obey unreasonable demands or if they join/form a union. There's also this new thread which says:

More layoffs in the US

This will not stop in Australia. Be prepared for more layoffs here.

This was posted only a few hours ago. Many reports this morning spoke of fresh Microsoft layoffs in Australia. With days ahead of the fake "results" Microsoft might want to signal to investors that it is cutting costs.

"Worth noting that Microsoft and Walmart share some of the same PR firms," Ryan noted in IRC (he used to work at Walmart and was a Microsoft MVP at one point). "So some of the layoffs might be that Walmart is cutting expenses and has less budget for the "bullshit canon" these days. They close lots of stores and list them as "MASS LAYOFF". There's a disturbing amount of cross-pollination between Walmart and Microsoft. Microsoft execs leave and join Walmart and then they "contract" with Microsoft. I don't even think this new policy of like 50 self-checkouts and two human cashiers makes sense, but they pushed it because each one of those machines runs Windows. It's an excuse to spend a lot of money with Microsoft for a thing that hurts Walmart's bottom line. They can justify it as "reduces labor" while they lose several times that in stolen merchandise." Ryan's spouse works at Walmart, where many layoffs are silently happening right now with HR tricks to keep quiet about that, not just PR tricks. Ryan explains that "they cut hours and then say there's no layoffs at that store. They reduced the open positions listed down to just 5 at the entire store, so it's obvious what's happening. Not quite a hiring freeze, but just about one. They hire as few people as they can run the store with and "hours" for those that didn't quit when it got really bad slowly go back up as staffing levels off. They freeze, they make people panic and go find another job, and then it lets up a bit for those that had enough money to get through a really bad month. A month or two is all it takes when you're living on the edge of the knife anyway, with inflation and a job that doesn't pay a lot. After the inflation battering ram and greedy landlords over the past few years, $18 may look like "Oh wow!" but like, you're thinking in 2019 dollars."

But back to Microsoft, many workers there are beginning to feel similarly and the CEO is loathed. He's viewed as a symbol of the problem.

Will Waggener Edstrom start another campaign of reputation laundering for the overtly misogynistic "Satya"? Like it did for Bill Gates?

"Now that Waggener Edstrom itself is having layoffs (it blames that on Microsoft layoffs) one wonders how workers at Waggener Edstrom try to spin not only Microsoft layoffs but their own, too."A reader reminded us that there's a long history there. "Maybe there can be an article reminding people how heavily intertwined the propaganda firm Waggener Edstrom and Microsoft are. The summary in the last article missed a lot of context. Some background on Waggener Edstrom and its parasitic relationship with Microsoft might be worth covering as a topic, [as] it might be new to a lot of people. Especially the fact that Gates was documented as having spent (IIRC) around $300 million per year for a while on personal reputation laundering."

Now that Waggener Edstrom itself is having layoffs (it blames that on Microsoft layoffs) one wonders how workers at Waggener Edstrom try to spin not only Microsoft layoffs but their own, too. Either way, their total capacity has been reduced, and that's a good thing for society... ⬆

“In the United States, for example, about one sixth of the gross national product, over a trillion dollars per year, is devoted to marketing. Marketing is manipulation and deceit. It tries to turn people into something they aren't -- individuals focused solely on themselves, maximising their consumption of goods that they don't need.”

--Noam Chomsky (decades ago, these figures are way higher by now)