As such, it needs subsidiaries present in whatever national markets it chooses to harvest. An example is Microsoft Canada, which it established in 1985.223 Other countries have similar installations, to funnel profits back up to Redmond and to distribute the dividends to the holders of MSFT stock. In April 2019, Microsoft reached a trillion-dollar market cap, becoming the third public U.S. company to be valued at over $1 trillion. It has been criticized for its monopolistic practices, and the company's software has been criticized for problems with ease of use, robustness, and security. Empower your organization with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat that supercharges productivity, sparks creativity, and keeps your data protected with enterprise data protection. I understand that the data I am submitting will be used to provide me with the above-described products and/or services and communications in connection therewith.

The Microsoft 365 Copilot app brings together your favorite apps in one intuitive platform that keeps your data secure with enterprise data protection. In 2025, both AT&T and Sweetgreen revised their stances on remote work, with AT&T asking U.S. staff to work all five days from the office while Sweetgreen mandated four days. If Microsoft implements a stricter return-to-office policy, it would join a slew of other companies that have tightened the limits on remote work recently — or eliminated it altogether. We have already seen reports of multiple employee protests at the organization over its business practices and political associations, which suggest the presence of considerable unrest among employees.

• In the middle of Microsoft’s waves of layoffs this summer the company reported record quarterly revenue and profits for the final three months of its 2025 fiscal year, which ended June 30.
• Microsoft’s job cuts have been linked to its AI ambitions, with an investment of $80 billion announced for 2025.
• CEO Satya Nadella addressed that in July, after more than 15,000 employees were let go, acknowledging the “uncertainty and seeming incongruence” between historical success and massive job cuts.

Why Are Microsoft’s Ongoing Layoffs So Noteworthy?

Microsoft layoffs, for the fifth month in a row, add to the consistent anxiety that employees are operating under, fearful of what’s to come next. Austin, Texas-based cloud computing giant Oracle, which has an engineering hub in the Seattle area, laid off more than 260 Seattle-area employees this summer as part of companywide cuts. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained the job cuts in a memo to staff released on Microsoft’s corporate blog last month.

Will the company continue to thrive, or will we see cracks appear in the facade as employees grow weary of the conditions of work? Regular updates, town hall meetings, and clear explanations of the company agenda and strategic direction can help maintain trust to some degree, but the impact is considerable nonetheless. Microsoft’s recent three-day RTO policy came with the assurance that the move was not directed at encouraging headcount reductions. But this becomes harder to believe considering the current climate of Microsoft layoffs for the fifth month in a row. Layoff survivors face considerable guilt over the relief they feel at still having their jobs, and they remain under constant anxiety under the threat of additional layoffs.

Microsoft is laying off 42 Redmond-based employees, continuing a months-long effort by the company to trim its workforce amid an artificial intelligence spending boom. At the same time, Microsoft has reported stellar earnings, greater than analyst expectations. Last month, Microsoft announced that for the quarter ending June 30, revenue was up 18% from the previous year, reaching $76.4 billion, while net income was $27.2 billion, a 24% increase. According to a study conducted last year by Bamboo HR, return-to-office mandates were often layoffs in disguise, designed to pare down a workforce without conducting official job cuts.

With $76.4 billion in revenue and $27.2 billion in profit, the company’s financial performance has been nothing short of impressive, making the cuts all the more telling for employees. The number of cuts mentioned in filings for June and August was far smaller, but the impact on employees has been consistently harsh. The Redmond job cuts at Microsoft appear targeted at fields like product management, engineering, and legal teams, so they are sufficiently spread out and indicate a desire for additional efficiency. During the first few waves of layoffs this year, Microsoft’s enormous financial success was the unmentioned elephant in the room.

According to the BI report, Microsoft is considering increasing the requirement for in-person work for employees based in its Redmond, Washington, headquarters to at least three days a week starting in January. The tech industry is highly competitive, and prolonged layoffs can deter top talent from joining or staying with Microsoft, despite the trend of layoffs across top-tier organizations. Layoffs are notorious for disrupting organizational culture, particularly at a company like Microsoft, which has historically prided itself on innovation and collaboration. The company has doubled down on how central AI is to its operations, even asking employees to utilize the tool sufficiently if they hope to get an A-plus on their performance reviews. The company’s investments in AI are unsurprising considering how central this tech has become for the industry, but the scale of Microsoft’s layoffs has been particularly noteworthy. With Monday’s layoffs, disclosed in a state regulatory filing, the number of Washington-based workers affected has passed 3,200.

In most cases, these fears are unfounded, and employees can eventually return to work with a clear head. Microsoft’s AI-motivated layoffs may be beneficial for the company’s expense and profit margins, but it is wearing employees down. All layoffs, big or small, affect employees in innumerable ways, from denting morale to cutting their careers short right when economic uncertainties are on the rise.

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CEO Satya Nadella addressed that in July, after more than 15,000 employees were let go, acknowledging the “uncertainty and seeming incongruence” between historical success and massive job cuts. In the middle of Microsoft’s waves of layoffs this summer the company reported record quarterly revenue and profits for the final three months of its 2025 fiscal year, which ended June 30. The company is on a streak of layoffs right now, continuing one of the largest runs in its history. Some waves have been large, with more than 6,000 employees let go in May and an additional 9,000 cut in July.

January 2025

Criticism of Microsoft has followed various aspects of its products and business practices. Frequently criticized are the ease of use, robustness, and security of the company's software. Microsoft's logo with the tagline "Your potential. Our passion."—below the main corporate name—is based on a slogan Microsoft used in 2008.

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About a quarter of C-Suite executives surveyed wanted to inspire “voluntary turnover” with stricter return-to-office policies. It also bears mentioning that the drive for efficiency and growth does not appear to stem from a place of vegas casino app combating business struggles. Microsoft reported its quarterly revenue results for the last part of its 2025 fiscal year in June, and they were certainly impressive.

Layoffs don’t just affect the employees who are cut, but they have a similar impact on those who are left behind as well. While downsizing announcements are never easy on employees, the prolonged cuts at the company are particularly harsh, leaving workers to stew in their workplace survivor’s guilt and wonder when the company will come for their roles next. Microsoft 365 empowers your organization to organize, and safely store files in OneDrive with intuitive and easy organizational tools. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app empowers your employees to do their best work with Copilot in the apps they use daily. The layoffs are separate from previous announcements, and the companywide impact was small, according to a Microsoft spokesperson. Your files and memories are secure in the cloud with 5GB of storage for free and 1TB with a paid Microsoft 365 subscription.

• The number of cuts mentioned in filings for June and August was far smaller, but the impact on employees has been consistently harsh.
• Will the company continue to thrive, or will we see cracks appear in the facade as employees grow weary of the conditions of work?
• Two months earlier, in May, Microsoft laid off over 6,000 employees, or 3% of its workforce.
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• The Redmond job cuts at Microsoft appear targeted at fields like product management, engineering, and legal teams, so they are sufficiently spread out and indicate a desire for additional efficiency.

New reports from the Seattle Times confirmed that Microsoft was entering its fifth consecutive month of layoffs, albeit on a smaller scale this time around. The Microsoft Redmond job cuts add up to around 42 workers, but this brings the number of cuts among Washington-based employees to over 3,200, and the total number of employees affected by layoffs since May 2025 to over 15,000. Microsoft continues down the warpath, making cuts both big and small across its organization for the fifth month in a row. The Microsoft layoffs this time are minor, with only around 42 jobs being axed in Redmond. The link between the Microsoft job cuts and the company’s AI investments is clear to see, but the evidence doesn’t soften the blow for employees.

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"Embrace, extend, and extinguish" (EEE),338 also known as "embrace, extend, and exterminate,"339 is a phrase that the U.S. Microsoft is frequently accused of using anticompetitive tactics and abusing its monopolistic power. People who use their products and services often end up becoming dependent on them, a process is known as vendor lock-in.

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Microsoft recently conducted mass layoffs, eliminating 9,000 roles in July, or nearly 4% of its workforce. Two months earlier, in May, Microsoft laid off over 6,000 employees, or 3% of its workforce. Since the pandemic, Microsoft has had a flexible work arrangement, allowing remote work as much as half of the time.

Nadella acknowledged the discrepancy between Microsoft’s “thriving” financials and his decision to still lay off staff. From LinkedIn to Xbox, each segment of the company’s business has been affected by layoffs in 2025. Microsoft’s job cuts have been linked to its AI ambitions, with an investment of $80 billion announced for 2025.