Microsoft CEO: losing 18,000 jobs makes us “more agile”

[A Guy]

Microsoft CEO: losing 18,000 jobs makes us “more agile”

In what Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says is “the first step to building the right organization for our ambitions”, the company will lay off roughly 18,000 workers in the next year. The move will see the bulk of that come from Nokia, where Microsoft will end competing efforts on the Android platform.

Nadella’s statement to the staff reads as a company bloated by excess. Promising the job cuts will make Microsoft “more agile and move faster”, Nadella also promises the company will make the transition as smooth as possible:

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A Guy

 

[SIW2]

Comments are funny.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

What a joke. And there's nothing like leaving employees hanging for a year wondering if the axe will fall on them. That's really considerate.

 

[Ranger4]

Isn't always amazing how company CEO's & others in authority within a company, come out & say how services & efficiency will dramatically improve with less staff & it NEVER does.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Isn't always amazing how company CEO's & others in authority within a company, come out & say how services & efficiency will dramatically improve with less staff & it NEVER does.

Oh yeah! I got so sick and tired of hearing the buzz words and phrases, such as, "work smarter, not harder." I had a boss come in once when I had been swamped for several weeks and said I needed to prioritize my work (conveniently ignoring the fact it all had to be done on a timeline). I asked him how do I prioritize six gallons of water so it will all fit in a five gallon bucket? He backed off although I suspect that the glare I gave him convinced more than my logic. I'm SO glad I'm retired and no longer have to put up with corporate B.S. and the associated outright stupidity; in other words, working in a Dilbert cartoon.

 

[Ranger4]

Isn't always amazing how company CEO's & others in authority within a company, come out & say how services & efficiency will dramatically improve with less staff & it NEVER does.

Oh yeah! I got so sick and tired of hearing the buzz words and phrases, such as, "work smarter, not harder." I had a boss come in once when I had been swamped for several weeks and said I needed to prioritize my work (conveniently ignoring the fact it all had to be done on a timeline). I asked him how do I prioritize six gallons of water so it will all fit in a five gallon bucket? He backed off although I suspect that the glare I gave him convinced more than my logic. I'm SO glad I'm retired and no longer have to put up with corporate B.S. and the associated outright stupidity; in other words, working in a Dilbert cartoon.

Yes, there are some advantages in old age, one being that you can retire from the rat race with an excuse.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there.

You know if you see ever the words SYNERGY or RE-STRUCTURING in any piece of "Management speak" that jobs are going to be decimated or off shored.

However the hard fact is that these days a lot more can be done with many fewer people -- and that's the way it is going to continue --modern societies will need to find a new way of using the skills of people who no longer are required for even professional / office type jobs. We need also to get away from the concept that work is a full time occupation (typically 37.5 / 40 hrs 5 days a week) and get used to longer periods of leisure -- which in the long run should be more beneficial to us as a species .

But before one asks "Whose going to pay for this" we probably need totally NEW economic systems -- as yet I haven't a clue what they would be but if say Robots are producing goods and services the cost of these would essentially be nothing or very cheap (robots don't get paid, don't go on strike, can work 24 hrs a day etc).

This would mean that to us the consumers we could have these for almost nothing too -- it won't happen in my or probably the next few generations life times but that's the inevitable way it will go and for a while until we reach the end goal there will be horrible transition periods.

I regret I won't be around to enjoy the final stage of that scenario. I'd quite like to have all these things for nothing with almost unlimited leisure time too.

(I suspect that when Humans start colonizing planets such as Mars to get away from an overcrowded and increasingly over populated Earth things like Money will be unknown and people will all have to work together in whatever capacity they can just to survive).

Using the Loss of 18,000 jobs "To make us more agile" - you could use a "Reductio ad absurdum" piece of logic though.

If 18,000 jobs lost makes us more agile then losing 36,000 should make us EVEN more agile -- eventually we would be the most agile if we had only 1 person left -- or become INFINITELY agile if we operated with ZERO people. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

 

[RoasterMen]

Microsoft is getting a bit retarded. Those poor employees that aren't even doing the worse could lose a job.

 

[TVeblen]

The stock market certainly likes it. Big surge in MS stock right after the announcement.

The Ministry of Truth says that layoffs are a good thing.

 

[andrew129260]

The stock market certainly likes it. Big surge in MS stock right after the announcement.

The Ministry of Truth says that layoffs are a good thing.

Who would have thunk it....

 

[4wd]

... working in a Dilbert cartoon.

lol+++

 

[Loki]

Lay off a couple 100 Senior Suits and any Big Corp. would be “more agile and move faster”

 

[matts6887]

That really sucks for those employees; who i am sure were hoping to have a long term career with Microsoft. And who would think the stock market would be up on news of Microsoft laying off all those employees.

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Lay off a couple 100 Senior Suits and any Big Corp. would be “more agile and move faster”

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

... working in a Dilbert cartoon.

lol+++

Don't laugh. When I worked for the company I now get my pension from, I was able to predict the next corporate fad, such as Business Units, naming conference rooms instead of assigning room numbers that would tell you where the stupid room was, etc. by reading Dilbert. The funny part was no one figured out how I was doing it.