Second or Third Wave of Microsoft Mass Layoffs in October 2025, This Time Portugal

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Oct 17, 2025

Those are just the ones we know about, there may be several more

A week ago we said that in less than 10 days in October where were already mass layoffs at Microsoft, with further signs of more to come later in the month.

Hours ago portugalpulse.com published this English language report entitled "Microsoft Portugal proceeds with collective dismissal of 68 workers"; how many were made to leave prior to it?

See below (emphasis ours):

A process of dismissals has been underway for several months at Microsoft Portugal, marking the second time this year the company has laid off a significant number of employees.

A source confirmed that this collective dismissal impacts 68 employees, with positions being cut including customer account managers, cloud solution architects, and FastTrack teams, which help customers maximize the benefits of Microsoft solutions.

Upon inquiry, the Workers’ Committee of Microsoft Portugal, recently established, deferred comments to the company due to a confidentiality agreement.

An official from the multinational stated that Microsoft globally is “implementing necessary organizational changes to better position the company for success in a dynamic market,” reiterating an already public statement.

See also: Microsoft Layoffs in Spain, Portugal Record for GNU/Linux

There is also an exceptional lack of job security in gaming at Microsoft, so this has just been reported:

Over 400 Blizzard employees have voted to unionise under the Communications Workers of America

Organisers cite layoffs, low pay, and return-to-office policies as key reasons for unionising

[...]

The organisers said Blizzard’s return-to-office policy was a major factor in their decision to unionise. They plan to elect a bargaining committee, survey members on priorities, and begin negotiating a contract with Microsoft in the coming weeks.

Well, RTO (return-to-office) is how they shake the tree to see who's falling (leaving) before the layoffs.

There were recently reports of more mass layoffs in games/gaming (soon to come), aside from the Beijing layoffs earlier this month.

Expect more Microsoft layoffs before the fake "results". It has been getting harder for Microsoft to pay salaries. Microsoft loses some of its largest and richest clients. █