Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Lays Off Many More Workers in the Advertising Division/s and Terminates Products While the Press is Distracted by TikTok Rumours



WARN Act
"Might be an idea to look at WARN Act [1, 2] stuff," Ryan noted today (in #techrights IRC). "Of course, Microsoft can just keep it coming in small chunks to get around the WARN Act."



Summary: Microsoft is laying off a huge number of workers without properly reporting these and whilst exploring ways to divert attention away from those layoffs

Cortana's many deaths were hardly covered in the media over this past week, maybe half a week or so (we saw some Microsoft-connected sites issuing face-saving spin about that, e.g. The Verge and GeekWire). There's something potentially big going on there, but nobody is researching and properly reporting on it, as it is instead derived from Microsoft's own statements. Don't they have time to actually study what is really going on? An associate of ours blames the TikTok media storm (about 2 days old now), which grooms Microsoft while ignoring the severe issues it has been having. So we've examined what Microsoft insiders are writing anonymously in thelayoff.com. The findings are very telling.



Ryan and I have been looking closely, equipped with knowledge about prior layoffs, at anonymous posts. We examined things mostly so as to investigate whether layoffs are involved (or, in other words, whether Cortana workers were reassigned to another project/department). Since Microsoft propaganda sites belittle the whole thing (Microsoft has apparently killed it off completely, across everything, just like its stores) and there's no indication that these developers will stay onboard, are we looking at yet another wave of layoffs? We lack contacts with people in these divisions so we can't think of a way to find out if they're sacked. But earlier today we heard about other units and it doesn't look/sound too good. Microsoft sounds like a company that's collapsing while lying to shareholders.

"There's no way they'll make any large layoffs abruptly as they've done in the past and they've already been cutting folks ~slowly~ since May," says this message. "According to this guy," Ryan noted, "Microsoft rarely, if ever, allows anyone working there to reach 55 and have their pension become vested."

"Trickling layoffs out over time allows them to remain free of any potential bad press from contributing to the unemployment problem in the middle of the COVID-19 crisis," says another message. Those are insiders from Microsoft, some of whom saw or suffered layoffs.

"I'm a PM [Program Manager] in windows COSINE D&I," says this message, and "my job got eliminated yesterday. This was business driven and is not performance related. So, yes, layoffs are happening..."

"According to this," Ryan noted, "Microsoft was twice as likely to lay you off if you were over 40."

This is typical across many companies other than Microsoft. But it now seems like there's another layoffs round at Microsoft (sixth this summer!), though we need to know the numbers. We have a associate who thinks they use TikTok to just (or mostly) bury this news even if the TikTok thing is made-up or superficial nonsense... just to provide ‘cover’ through it'll never materialise.

"Layoffs in the Windows division according to this guy," Ryan has found (Azure also, definitely!). "Didn't say how many, but he was a Program Manager (their title for a supervisor that directly oversees an entire project, usually with 50-100 people reporting to them)." Ryan used to be a Microsoft MVP, so he knows a thing or two about the company.

"D&I is Data and Intelligence," Ryan said. "That would be the people doing the data collection that Windows 10 performs on the user in the background in order to "optimize" advertising. Across Windows Store, Bing, Edge, and Skype. It's interesting that they're firing firing their adtech people, if true. Are they trying to pivot away from advertising?"

The real news at Microsoft right now is nothing related to TikTok (not anything related to mergers and/or acquisitions) but covert layoffs of large magnitude/scale. Ryan continued: "He describes working there as a descent into "paranoia" about quarterly performance reviews and if you'll even have a job soon."

"Another [Microsoft] poster said when he was close to becoming vested (2 years short), he started getting negative performance reviews out of nowhere and they eventually showed him the door."

Earlier today I learned (on the phone) about people there being being denied "senior" roles for ages. This is unconventional by GAFAM standards.

Only about a month after Bill Gates had more or less "officially" left Microsoft (except as shareholder) they may have tested the response to Microsoft layoffs with that bogus spin about replacing "a few" workers with "AI"; since then about 5,000 layoffs have gone under the radar.

"Cortana is an analytics and telemetry app that data mines people while pretending to be a digital assistant," Ryan remarked. "They built it directly into the Windows shell and turned it on by default (wasting a lot of panel space) to lure people into using it. I just don't think they got the return on investment they were hoping for as an adtech."

The more we learn about Microsoft layoffs, the more likely it seems that the TikTok rumours serve to distract from the layoffs, and likely by design/intention. If that was the plan, it worked!

"Cortana would likely be in COSINE D&I," Ryan said. They've fired even the managers there. Microsoft is in a bad state if not a state of collapse, but it'll do anything to distract from that. It even lies to its own shareholders, as Microsoft insiders have told us repeatedly. If that's not sinister enough (that insiders know Microsoft fakes its performance), we don't know what is...

Recent Techrights' Posts

Loss of Technical Merit(ocracy)
"buzzword diplomas"
World Wide Web: Only Criminals Would Want Real Security and Vouch for Themselves When They Use Encryption
In "modern" browsers, the podlock icon probably does not mean what users might think it means
[Meme] OSI Digging Its Very Own Grave (With Microsoft)
The very latest blog post from OSI is a hoot
Geminispace is More Trustworthy (and Private) Than the World Wide Web
Unlike the Web, Geminispace does not route the lion's share of traffic through a collective of spying companies
 
[Meme] Chin-dropping and Jaw-dropping (Considerable Drop in Patent Validity and Quality)
This drop is very much intentional
Gemini Links 10/10/2024: Untruth, SSH, Gopher, and More
Links for the day
Geminispace Beyond 4,100 Capsules
4,000 was less than 8 weeks ago
Links 10/10/2024: TikTok's Legal Problems, WeblogPoMo Challenges
Links for the day
[Meme] European Patent Convention and Vienna Convention Became Only Fictions (Laws and Constitutions Are Now Works of Fiction in Europe)
A political crisis and blunder
Almost a Thousand EPO Staff Protesting to EPO Member States That the Office Illegally Grants Software Patents and Other Invalid European Patents
"The outcome confirms that the concerns about the EPO’s ability to grant legally sound patents remain"
Junk Science
science is being compromised for business purposes
[Meme] Dismantling .io (Stick a Fork, the Hype is Done)
NVIDIA is an excellent new example of hype driving up fictional "value"
UNIX is 55 This Year, It is 6 Years Older Than Microsoft
It should be noted that the surviving co-creator of UNIX, Ken Thompson, 'moved' to GNU/Linux (Debian) in recent years
This Year, for the First Time Since August 2019 (Bill Gates MIT Scandal, Jeffrey Epstein Bribes), libreplanet-discuss Was Inactive an Entire Month
The MIT injustice remains and recent "libreplanet" events were held in a venue that's not MIT and far less prestigious than MIT (the "Wentworth" imitation)
[Meme] Different Ending for Jurassic Park
UNIX in old movies
Evolution of Hype
Passing fads and rebranding
Groklaw Will Hopefully Come Back
Sites should be able to run for decades with hardly any human role/interaction, but that's not where we are...
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 09, 2024
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 09, 2024
Gemini Links 09/10/2024: YouTube Woes, Post-Truth Slop
Links for the day
Nothing Will Be Secure and Robust to Failure Until Microsoft Windows is Eradicated and/or Disconnected From the Internet
Every system has limited capacity, Windows botnets push things to their limits
GNU/Linux Took Off at the BSDs' Expense (Amid Telecom Lawsuit) and the Rivalry Persists Because Microsoft is Negligible in the Server Space
UNIX or POSIX is the future
Links 09/10/2024: Samsung's Fall, Tensions Growing Near China
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2024: Retroware and gmlgcd 2.0
Links for the day
Links 09/10/2024: Microsoft's Surface Duo 2 Officially Dead, X/Twitter Shutdown in Brazil, and "OpenAI Is A Bad Business"
Links for the day
Technology: rights or responsibilities? - Part III
By Dr. Andy Farnell
[Meme] Bill Gates With a Side of "Linux"
Linux Foundation is trolling us with Bill Gates
Once Again Linux Foundation Makes It Clear It's Being 'Absorbed' by Bill Gates
Linux Foundation devotes about 2% of its budget to Linux
Links 08/10/2024: Australian Fines for Twitter (X), Fake Patent Courts Still Not Scuttled
Links for the day
World Wide Slop
If it quacks like a duck...
IBM is a Boys' Club
If IBM collapsed, the Red Hat engineers who work on GNU and Linux would simply work elsewhere (on the same projects)
The Miserable State of GAFAM
Looking for government handouts
Microsoft is Acting Like a Company That's Running Out of Money (But Still Pretends to be Wealthy in Order to Attract or Retain Shareholders)
Azure has had mass layoffs every year since 2020, yet Microsoft keeps telling shareholders that "clown computing" is growing
Dr. Andy Farnell's Article on Societal Disorganised Attachment and the Role of Social Control Media
The article is quite long and typos were still being fixed as recently as last night
Smear Alert: Linus Torvalds Asking for Better Commit Messages Makes Linus a (Grammar) Nazi
Maybe the "mainstream media" is looking for clickbait or maybe it's actively looking to make a scandal - a phony controversy with which to make the job of coordinating Linux unpleasant
Gemini Links 09/10/2024: Climate Doom and Clagrange
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 08, 2024
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 08, 2024
Dr. Andy Farnell's Article on Why Passwords Still Rock
"Seven for a secret never to be told"
[Meme] Driver Issues
Where do you want to drive today?
The Problem Isn't That New Cars Use Electricity But That They Use Too Many Bits of Electronics
"...and proprietary software wrapped in proprietary APIs and protocols all without a modicum of compartmentalisation," an associate adds
We're Turning 18 in 30 Days
30 days from now the site turns 18
GNOME Foundation Says It's Nearly Broke (Again), It's Getting Rid of More People (Only Women Get the Boot), and It Will Improve Communications and Transparency Even Though It Secretly Ousts People From the GNOME Foundation Board (for Secret Reasons)
It only talks about this months later (under strict gag orders, only public shaming of a person)
Gemini Links 08/10/2024: Guilt by Association, Workers vs Owners
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2024: War Updates, Samsung's Layoffs, and Gemini
Links for the day
Another Dose of Fake 'Articles' About Linux
Don't give visibility to the nonsense of Microsoft
Links 08/10/2024: Microsoft Deleting Office Documents Instead of Saving Them, "Threads Still Sucks"
Links for the day
gemini.techrights.org and techrights.org (Same Server, Not the Same Protocol)
We're reminding readers that everything in this site is fully accessible via gemini.techrights.org in Gemini Protocol
X Has Axed Itself. This is Great News and Further Affirmation of Everything We've Said About Social Control Media.
Don't waste any more time on social control media
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, October 07, 2024
IRC logs for Monday, October 07, 2024
Gemini Links 08/10/2024: Contingency Begets Complexity, Playing With Bezier Curves
Links for the day