Not Only Microsoft and IBM Hide Layoffs (Secret Layoffs) and Fail to Follow the Law (or Bypass It)
Microsoft's tactics are not so unique; they skirt the WARN Act by paying people to leave, harassing workers 'til they leave, or simply don't report layoffs as "layoffs" (spoon-feeding false data to the media)
Yesterday: Layoff Trackers Are a Sham, They're Like US 'Unemployment Data'
Transparency is vanishing in "the industry" in the same way it vanishes in administrations, especially in the United States. Basically the richest people do pretty much everything they want, in secret, while bullying people who challenge this secrecy.
There are definitely layoffs at Microsoft in India this month, they just don't call them "layoffs", and last week a Microsoft insider correctly pointed out that some countries that don't report layoffs actually have plenty of layoffs (e.g. Apple).
From the Microsoft insider:
Things I learned from two weeks of reading my own layoff tracker– Adobe hasn't announced a single layoff since 2022 and is somehow the 10th riskiest company on the board — purely because 13 employees reported one themselves.
– Dell cut 11,000 people. Dell's vibe votes: 3 stable, 0 nervous, 0 panic. Incredible composure amidst chaos ;)
- Sharpest gain: Apple gained +16 pts in one week over 200 people. Roughly 0.1% of headcount.
– Microsoft is 38 of the 96 total user reported layoffs on the site. Leading there atleast.
– ServiceNow: 6 nervous, 6 panic, 0 stable. Not one person picked "fine." Seems the scariest place to be right now.
– 50 of 78 companies had zero confirmed layoffs in six months. But the office vibes are much worse than that.
– Microsoft --> Google is the most compared to identify risk before a switch! (As if thats the only thing holding you back)
[...] If your company's number looks wrong, that's on you. Fix it by reporting a layoff or your company vibe.
Speaking of "vibe", many companies blame the layoffs on slop when the reality is, they're in a financial catastrophe. █