Following mass layoffs at Microsoft earlier this year which also hit the Xbox team, it's been confirmed another round of job cuts has taken place.
In a report by GeekWire, a new filing shows 276 layoffs — and 210 of these jobs have been at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The layoffs cover fields such as customer service, support and the sales team, with the remaining cuts being remote jobs. The Xbox division does not appear to have been affected this time around.
These are tied to organisational restructures - here's the official statement from Microsoft (via GeekWire):
“Organizational and workforce adjustments are a necessary and regular part of managing our business. We will continue to prioritize and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in support of our customers and partners.”
This latest round of layoffs follows mass cuts in January, which saw 10,000 jobs axed company-wide. This also impacted companies such as the Halo team 343 Industries, with the developer "hit hard" by the cuts.
It's not exactly the news we were expecting ahead of the Microsoft v. FTC hearing outcome, but if there are any developments tied to the Xbox team, we'll let you know.
[source geekwire.com]
Comments 10
Preparing for the Activision acquisition by learning from their business strategy of liquidating customer support perhaps?
Good luck to all the laid off MS employees. Crazy to see another relatively large layoff of people in the industry.
It sucks, but it is what it is. There are layoffs all over creation right now, especially in tech. My wife was laid off from her role with an e-commerce company just out of the wild blue. One day she was building websites, then randomly got a call and they told her she was gone. Total pain in the arse this stuff is.
Removed - inappropriate
@somnambulance I know quite a few people in tech who are out of work rn. It's had a big impact on a lot of folks.
@Cashews It’s not just big tech. It feels like things are slowing down across the board in all industries. I suspect companies are doing this to force more productivity out of their employees more than anything else. The harshest part of these continuous layoffs is the lack of new opportunities being presented to these workers, who are oftentimes educated and skilled employees. And by plucking these people from their desired fields and into others, this is affecting the economy in a snowball effect. I know too many college graduate level baristas, unfortunately.
@somnambulance if my child (now 8) comes to me and tells me she wants to forego college to follow a passion in her life - it will be the happiest day of my own life.
@somnambulance Everything is slowing down. The proposed remedy for inflation is basically to slow the economy down. That's been the point of jacking up the interest rates, is to basically encourage banks to stop lending and consumers to stop spending, which is a Sisyphean task. This of course has its own repercussions, but the inflation problem has to be addressed one way or another, and the options are pretty limited.
As I mentioned above, my wife was laid off from her job doing website design for a marketing company, and two months later she's found a solid job working for a non-profit organization. She's seriously sent out something like 300 resumes looking for a job in her field and it was mostly crickets. I work in an accounting firm, and flat out, it is no exaggeration, times are currently tough. Most of the small businesses I do financial work for are just absolutely swimming or sinking, depending on what type of service/product they offer. We've had several close down permanently, or just struggle to even pay the owner. Interest rates are high, labor is high, goods and materials are high. Basically, everything sucks right now.
2.6 Trillion company laying people off...
@Cashews I agree with you on that. I look forward to finding out what passions my children will have for their future. Curious if my son will follow my youth and attempt to go into an artistic field. If so, I wish him more success than I (because I work in claims management and quality assurance for the moving industry).
@SplooshDmg Yes, I totally see what you’re talking about. Because of my industry, I’m also seeing things slow down rapidly for customer acquisition while the cost for everything has skyrocketed. It feels like the economy is hurdling to a full stop in some regards to combat the inflation and increasing interest rates. This is the worst I’ve personally seen things. Even 2008 looked sunnier.
"Xbox parent company Microsoft"? Glad we cleared that up 🤣
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