Microsoft's voluntary exit offer to 60,000 employees sparks panic among workers, including an Indian techie who fears layoffs after joining just three months ago. The move aims to curb costs and focus on AI infrastructure, with eligible employees required to decide by December 2026.
PANIC AMONG WORKERS after the Tech Giant Microsoft, in a statement on Monday, October 26, 2026, said that it is offering an option of voluntary exit to its 60,000 workers, comprising more than quarter of its overall workforce, in an attempt to curb the skyrocketing cost and steer it towards developing massive AI infrastructure.
Announcing the decision as an aid to an eligible employee who plans to shift to another organization, Chief People Officer Amy Coleman said, “It also gives participating organizations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs.”
Employees on select teams in the United States, Canada, India and Britain at level 70 (vice-president level) and below will be eligible, the Microsoft spokesperson said, while some groups of employees, including some working on data centres, sales and marketing, would be excluded.
This is the second voluntary retirement programme Microsoft has introduced in this year. The company in April, announced the offer to almost 7% of its US employees.
But this retirement programme is not similar to the previous one. Here is no bar on age or tenure cut-off and not based on how one performs. Those who are eligible will get an email with their individual terms within hours. There would be a time limit till December to make a decision and those who will choose the offer have to leave at the end of the year.
Some of the popular divisions of Microsoft— like Xbox, Windows and Copilot— will also participate in the offer, as per Bloomberg.
An environment of fear is hovering around those who are affected. Reactions have been generated online with affected employees taking to social media. One Indian software developer has claimed to be mailed by Microsoft demanding to accept the offer by December 1, 2026. The developer is fearing that he might be laid off, if he does not accept the offer.
The techie, in a post shared on the subreddit DevelopersIndia. “I feel desperate.” “(The) thing is I joined 3 months ago, I have very little knowledge about the codebase.” The post has since been removed.
One more also claimed to have got the similar offer and replied the user in comment, “Relax dude I joined last month and I got the email too, keep a good amount of savings and start prepping, market is not that bad for someone who works at msft.”
Amid the allegations of Microsoft providing a disguised layoff scheme, it would be interesting to see how many of the 60,000 would accept the offer.
The latest trend of mass layoff has persisted across the industry, not just in Microsoft alone. In April 2026, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram announced to cut 10% of its workforce, roughly around 8,000 to boost the efficiency in AI.
In January, in another round of layoffs, Amazon announced it would cut nearly 16,000 of its workforce.
Similar announcements have also come from Uber which announced in the month of September, this year that they would cut 10% of their workforce, around 3000 employees.
Auction site eBay did also show 1,000 employees out earlier this month.
Amid the allegations of Microsoft providing a disguised layoff scheme, it would be interesting to see how many of the 60,000 would accept the offer.
(Edited by Harsh Pandey)
[Rh/GS/HP]
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