Jobs
Microsoft offers a voluntary exit to about 60,000 employees, a quarter of its workforce
By the newsroom · · 1 min read · ▶ 0:48
The essentials
- Microsoft announced a new Voluntary Exit Offer on Monday in a memo to employees.[1]
- The offer is open to about 60,000 people in participating teams in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and India.[1]
- That is about a quarter of a workforce that numbered 223,000 people at last count.[1]
- The package is equivalent to Microsoft's standard severance, and employees have until the first week of December to decide.[1]
What happened
Microsoft said Monday that it's offering buyouts to a wide swath of employees as it strives to balance a costly AI infrastructure buildout with capital efficiency.[2] The Voluntary Exit Offer is open to about 60,000 people in participating teams in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and India, the company told GeekWire.[1] The new initiative goes higher than the spring program, to the vice president level.[2] It goes up to level 70 on Microsoft's internal scale, which includes general managers and some employees with vice president titles, but not corporate vice presidents.[1] The package includes base pay based on tenure and level, continued stock vesting, healthcare coverage for a fixed period and career transition services.[1]
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What the video doesn't say
When Microsoft offered the retirement program this spring, about 30% of the roughly 8,750 eligible U.S. employees took the deal.[1] The company disclosed a $900 million charge for the retirement program in its April earnings report.[1] In the second quarter, Alphabet and Amazon both reported negative free cash flow, while Microsoft showed $19.64 billion in positive free cash flow, down 23% year over year.[2] The company's sales organization is not participating, nor are some engineering groups and corporate functions.[1]
What's next?
Microsoft reports quarterly earnings Wednesday afternoon, which could include projections for the cost of the new buyout offer.[1]
Sources
- 1Microsoft makes new ‘voluntary exit’ offer to about a quarter of its workforce, including some execsGeekWire · October 26, 2026
- 2Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees as AI leads to efficiency pushCNBC · October 26, 2026
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