American multinational technology company Microsoft has been garnering quite some attention in the last few days, thanks to the massive layoffs that it has reportedly been gearing up for. While the job cuts have been predicted for quite some time, it is now being said that Microsoft's corporate rejig is likely to begin on Thursday, July 6.
Conference rooms have reportedly been booked and numerous employees have been asked to meet their managers for about 15-minute discussions, according to details on anonymous chat app Blind, which was shared with Business Insider. While the exact number of job cuts is not known yet, many employees believe that they will not be laid off but will instead be asked to move to another department.
"Microsoft is implementing changes to better serve our customers and partners," a Microsoft spokesperson had earlier told AFP without commenting on the reported rejig. But the much-talked-about job cut is likely to affect the sales and marketing staff the most.
The exact intention behind the rejig is yet to be known, but GeekWire is said to have got hold of a document, which it indicated were excerpts from the Microsoft memo, and it says that this is a part of the company's plans to help its customers with "digital transformations."
As the market is witnessing various changes at a rapid pace, Microsoft plans to increase its focus on cloud computing and business services instead of just software. "From large multinationals to small and medium businesses to non-profits all over the world, organizations are using Microsoft's cloud platforms to power their digital transformation," Chief Executive Satya Nadella had earlier said.
Judson Althoff, Microsoft's executive vice president of worldwide commercial business, has said that the reorganisation is designed to "align the right resources for the right customer at the right time," reported the Verge.
However, Microsoft is yet to make an official comment on the reported layoffs.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time that the company is making such massive changes to its strategy. It has announced quite a few job cuts in the last few years, the most talked about being 18,000 positions removed in 2014. The tech giant laid off 7,800 employees in 2015, and 4,700 in 2016.
