Microsoft Has Spent Months Preparing Lists of People to Cull in Massive Wave of Layoffs (Allegedly Start of July)
There is apparently some cautious consensus that we're weeks away from mega-layoffs at Microsoft [1, 2] (same as last summer; almost 20,000 workers impacted) and hence the above "Internal Memo" - a belated and face-saving response to internal panic... basically. Sometimes it is called "damage control".
Some people expect the day of the announcement to be in the first week of July - same week the "buyout" offer is "in effect" (people depart 'voluntarily', knowing that if they don't they'll get the boot and get even less money upon departure).
The preparations for this July cull go months back. As somebody put it some weeks ago, "Do NOT join Microsoft Right Now - Mass cuts inbound...!" and "Don’t join Microsoft. CPO is setting us up for cuts" (April). To quote: "Amy [Coleman, not Hood] just rolled out a new performance system. We're cutting ratings from 9 levels to 5. Fewer levels mean managers have less room to differentiate people ie easier to decide who stays and who goes during layoffs. It's also a way to reduce compensation without saying it directly. If you’re interviewing at Microsoft, just know what system you’re walking into. The likelihood the very first performance review you do extremely well is probably slim. I can just smell mass layoffs already...ugh."
This comes from insiders. This is the atmosphere inside the company and just because the CFO is now female (cooking the books; the media portrays her as unqualified underdog who got lucky [1, 2] and can plead naivety) doesn't mean it'll work out any better than years ago (accounting fraud).
![[blah blah blah AI something something] Microsoft CFO’s AI Spending Runs Up Against Tech Bubble Fears](/i/2026/06/cfo-ai.png)
As usual, the explanation (and/or excuse) for everything will be "AI" something something. Too high a debt? "AI". Layoffs? "AI". What next? "AI".
The media has fallen for, gets paid for, or willingly participates in infantile storytelling. This behaviour in which the media too is a culprit will crash the economy. The longer they inflate the bubble, the worse it'll be. █