Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has informed on the massive cut-offs it is planning, which was very much anticipated and in news from quite some time. While it might be in the company’s benefit, but the outer world has a mixed opinion on this decision by Microsoft. Investors and the broader market are delighted with this news, but the government authorities and leaders are dismayed by this.
Political leaders feel dejected
While the company stands to benefit from this cut-off, but there are few negatives as well of this decision taken by Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT). According to Senator Jeff Sessions the local public is bound to suffer from this with the natives getting fired and more foreigners getting hired by the company as they could possibly be more skilled and qualified.
Microsoft’s decision of laying-off employees has, also, disturbed Finnish authorities and the European Commission as it would affect their countries and union respectively. The EU Commissioner László Andor feels apologetic for the firing undertaken by Microsoft, and says “I deeply regret the significant job losses announced by Microsoft today because of the impact these will have on so many individuals, their families and the local communities they live and work in.”
Andor added that the technological advancement helps evolve consumer demand and this brings about a trend of changes in all the major sectors of the economy. He believes that restructuring is an important part of a company’s life-cycle, but while doing this the interest of the nation and the people should be kept in consideration. The company should initiate a social dialogue and should give the due respect to legislation concerning the welfare of the workers.
Shedding excess manpower to reduce costs
On 25th April, the company acquired Nokia’s handsets and services business on which it incurred a huge cost and also got 20,000 employees added to its payroll. With this the company’s expenses went up and it is seeking ways to reduce the expenses substantially. The company has now announced its plans of laying off 18000 employees of which 12,500 belong to the company’s hardware division.
For the purpose of explaining the staffing changes to its employees, the company circulated few memos, which lacked any kind of sympathy for the ones losing jobs. The company has its main campus located at the Redmond and from this campus only the majority of employees will be laid-off and few more than 1000 employees will be laid off from Washington based office of Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT).
