Microsoft to lay off 18,000 people over the next year

[SteveRiley]

The news is all over the web today. Google (or Bing, if you're feeling ironic) for the news.

Satya Nadella explains:

The first step to building the right organization for our ambitions is to realign our workforce. With this in mind, we will begin to reduce the size of our overall workforce by up to 18,000 jobs in the next year. Of that total, our work toward synergies and strategic alignment on Nokia Devices and Services is expected to account for about 12,500 jobs, comprising both professional and factory workers. We are moving now to start reducing the first 13,000 positions, and the vast majority of employees whose jobs will be eliminated will be notified over the next six months.

Also, WTF -- their flirtation with Android is apparently over already. Steven Elop writes:

We will be particularly focused on making the market for Windows Phone. In the near term, we plan to drive Windows Phone volume by targeting the more affordable smartphone segments, which are the fastest growing segments of the market, with Lumia. In addition to the portfolio already planned, we plan to deliver additional lower-cost Lumia devices by shifting select future Nokia X designs and products to Windows Phone devices.

Microsoft is overburdened with too many management layers. After the Nokia cuts, if the remaining 5,500 layoffs come from the bloated management ranks, then nobody should complain because (a) those people weren't adding value anyway and (2) they're just left-over turf protectors from the old days. But if they instead cut important groups and individuals, then I predict we're witnessing an act of sheer desperation from an organization that can't figure out how to get its shopt together anymore.

[Feathers McGraw]

Or even more ironically, you could use Yahoo to search, because then you get to increase Microsoft's inefficiency by using a middle-man.

Also, how annoying is management language!

"realign our workforce"

"work toward synergies and strategic alignment"

Maybe if they get rid of the committe in charge of wording these statements they'll save a few quid.

[ronw]

@SteveRiley - where are you placing your bet between laying off bloated management versus people doing actual work?

I'm off to synthesize my strategic direction now. I'll pivot my focus back to this forum once the synergies are aligned for optimum uptake.

[Qqmike]

Feathers: "Maybe if they get rid of the committe in charge of wording these statements they'll save a few quid"

First, of course, form a committee charged with the task of deciding which committees to terminate. If they do this right, they can ensure their plush management jobs for years.

[SteveRiley]

@SteveRiley - where are you placing your bet between laying off bloated management versus people doing actual work?

I don't know Natella very well, but from what I've heard, he's made it pretty clear on the inside that the company is bloated, lazy, and slow. I plan to check in with a few folks over the next several months to find out who's getting axed.

I'm off to synthesize my strategic direction now. I'll pivot my focus back to this forum once the synergies are aligned for optimum uptake.

Clean up after yourself first.

[SteveRiley]

First, of course, form a committee charged with the task of deciding which committees to terminate. If they do this right, they can ensure their plush management jobs for years.

I didn't know you worked at Microsoft!

[GreyGeek]

I find it astounding that Steven Elop, who wrote the "burning platform" email claiming that Nokia was dying, and then promptly destroyed Nokia's 35% smartphone marketshare in less than a year, is saying in effect that the Windows Phone platform is burning. If he is true to form he will kill off what remains of the Windows Phone marketshare. He's going to start by dumping the low-end Nokia devices and focus Microsoft on the high end smartphone market, which he claims is the fastest growing. TheStreet reports that in the US

Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS is declining, coming in at 3.8% for the latest survey, down from 4.7% last year, a decline of more than 20%.

In Brazil Windows Phone is stagnate at 5.5%. In China it nearly dropped off the chart, falling from 3% to 0.6%.

I also wonder if Steven Elop really quit working for Microsoft during that time he was destroying Nokia. If it wasn't a deliberate act then his leadership in that Microsoft division is an ill wind for Microsoft's smartphone market share, which is dredging the bottom now.

As far as employment goes, Elop states:

Our phone engineering efforts are expected to be concentrated in Salo, Finland (for future, high-end Lumia products) and Tampere, Finland (for more affordable devices). We plan to develop the supporting technologies in both locations. We plan to ramp down engineering work in Oulu (Finland). While we plan to reduce the engineering in Beijing (China) and San Diego (US), both sites will continue to have supporting roles, including affordable devices in Beijing and supporting specific US requirements in San Diego. Espoo and Lund (Finland) are planned to continue to be focused on application software development.

We plan to right-size our manufacturing operations to align to the new strategy and take advantage of integration opportunities. We expect to focus phone production mainly in Hanoi (Vietnam), with some production to continue in Beijing and Dongguan (China). We plan to shift other Microsoft manufacturing and repair operations to Manaus (Brazil) and Reynosa (Mexico, across from McAllen, TX) respectively, and start a phased exit from Komaron, Hungary.

I suspect that Redmond will be entering a financial down turn as all those middle level managers and such get laid off. It is something that neither Redmond nor the US can absorb right now.

[MoonRise]

........
Also, how annoying is management language!

"realign our workforce"

"work toward synergies and strategic alignment"

......

Actually reminds me of a Dilbert comic!

[SteveRiley]

I find it astounding that Steven Elop, who wrote the "burning platform" email claiming that Nokia was dying, and then promptly destroyed Nokia's 35% smartphone marketshare in less than a year, is saying in effect that the Windows Phone platform is burning.

Elop is a teflon-coated charlatan. I can't believe that Microsoft actually brought him back. Prime example of C-suite execs looking out for their own, fsck the world.

I suspect that Redmond will be entering a financial down turn as all those middle level managers and such get laid off. It is something that neither Redmond nor the US can absorb right now.

Many of them will probably end up at Amazon, which seems to be busily duplicating Microsoft's management model. When I worked there, I was four levels away from Bezos. Now, the same group I was in is ten levels away. Pathetic.

[Qqmike]

"I didn't know you worked at Microsoft" May as well have, as I was a tenured Prof at a state Univ once. Talk about a bunch of losers, and, really, idiots. Fact is, they probably could not do much else but sit around a conference table in committee following Robert's Rules.

[GreyGeek]

.... Many of them will probably end up at Amazon, which seems to be busily duplicating Microsoft's management model. When I worked there, I was four levels away from Bezos. Now, the same group I was in is ten levels away. Pathetic.

And it shows in their marketing, and increasingly clumsy business acumen. Too many know- nothing middle level paper shufflers working on becoming a lord in their own fiefdom, and protecting their territory.

I saw the same tendencies in government as well. About 50% of the people do 95% of the real work and the rest do make-work, and get paid more to do it. One brilliant manager above my boss, who was pretty level headed, decided that employees had to keep a log of what they were doing every 15 minutes of the work day and turn it in each Friday. After about a month of that nonsense me and other programmers began putting nonsense in the reports. Things like stating we took a break for two hours and went shopping. My favorite one was "went swimming at the pool on the sixth floor". There were only five floors in our building and no pool was on any of them. We never got a rise out of who ever was supposed to read those "reports" so we stopped filling them in and just handed in blank pages behind our title page. That didn't get a rise out of anyone either. So we stopped submitting them and never heard another word about it. Another, the assistant to the personnel director, began scheduling shoulder messages "to relieve tension". That didn't last long.

[SteveRiley]

Another, the assistant to the personnel director, began scheduling shoulder messages "to relieve tension". That didn't last long.

That's creepy. "Get your government hands off my shoulders!" BWAHAHAHAHA

(Link to meme for the non-US folk.)

[HalationEffect]

Also, how annoying is management language!

"realign our workforce"

"work toward synergies and strategic alignment"

Did you see the recent article(*) at Ars Technica on that subject? http://arstechnica.com/staff/2014/07...insensitivity/

* For values of 'article' equal to 'rant'.

[Feathers McGraw]

Did you see the recent article(*) at Ars Technica on that subject? http://arstechnica.com/staff/2014/07...insensitivity/

* For values of 'article' equal to 'rant'.

Very nicely put.

[SteveRiley]

* For values of 'article' equal to 'rant'.

But it's an entirely true and accurate rant, so I'm not finding any fault with it.