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• Microsoft is frequently accused of using anticompetitive tactics and abusing its monopolistic power.
• Microsoft’s logo with the tagline “Your potential. Our passion.”—below the main corporate name—is based on a slogan Microsoft used in 2008.
• Empower your organization with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat that supercharges productivity, sparks creativity, and keeps your data protected with enterprise data protection.
• More than half of Microsoft’s layoffs in Washington this year came in a single filing on May 13, when 1,985 employees were laid off at the company’s Redmond campus.

2007: Foray into the Web, Windows 95, Windows XP, and Xbox

• “Embrace, extend, and extinguish” (EEE),338 also known as “embrace, extend, and exterminate,”339 is a phrase that the U.S.
• Microsoft’s recent three-day RTO policy came with the assurance that the move was not directed at encouraging headcount reductions.
• At the same time, Microsoft has reported stellar earnings, greater than analyst expectations.
• As such, it needs subsidiaries present in whatever national markets it chooses to harvest.

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. Will the company continue to thrive, or will we see cracks appear in the facade as employees grow weary of the conditions of work? Microsoft’s AI-motivated layoffs may be beneficial for the company’s expense and profit margins, but it is wearing employees down.

Microsoft has announced another round of layoffs that will affect 42 employees at its Redmond campus, as reported in a state filing with the Employment Security Department. 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.

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. 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. In mid-August, Oracle announced the first of its two rounds of layoffs this year, which affected 161 employees at its Seattle campus. On Sept. 9, Oracle confirmed that an additional 101 Seattle employees would be affected in its second layoff announcement in two months.

Microsoft Is Reportedly About to Crack Down on Remote Work

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.

The total number of Microsoft layoffs in Washington is now more than 3,200 since May. Microsoft will soon announce timelines for back-to-work orders at other U.S. locations soon, with more planning for global locations happening next year. Employees living within 50 miles of a Microsoft office in the Puget Sound area will be expected to work onsite by February 2026 for three days out of the week. In a statement released on Tuesday, Sept. 9, an executive lays out a couple of reasons for the upcoming chicken road changes to hybrid schedules.

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. In most cases, these fears are unfounded, and employees can eventually return to work with a clear head. 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.

Why Are Microsoft’s Ongoing Layoffs So Noteworthy?

In August, 40 Microsoft jobs were cut, representing the smallest layoff filing since June 5, 2023, which affected 22 employees. Additionally, Microsoft laid off 305 employees in June, and another 830 jobs were cut in July. Solely in Washington, Microsoft has confirmed that more than 3,100 employees will be let go from both its Redmond and Bellevue campuses.

Microsoft Layoffs Announced for the Fifth Month in a Row as Employee Woes Mount

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 Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood was defaced after it shuttered its doors following a nationwide series of store closures and layoffs. Download the free FOX LOCAL app for mobile in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store for live Seattle news, top stories, weather updates and more local and national news. First, Microsoft’s Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer Amy Coleman says the AI era is making the company move faster than ever, and with that comes changes to how the tech giant hopes to capitalize on said momentum. REDMOND, Wash. – Microsoft is changing their hybrid work schedule expectations beginning early next year. Your files and memories are secure in the cloud with 5GB of storage for free and 1TB with a paid Microsoft 365 subscription. Quickly design anything for you and your family—birthday cards, school flyers, budgets, social posts, videos, and more—no graphic design experience needed.

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. Layoffs don’t just affect the employees who are cut, but they have a similar impact on those who are left behind as well. 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.

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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. 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.

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. About a quarter of C-Suite executives surveyed wanted to inspire “voluntary turnover” with stricter return-to-office policies. Since the pandemic, Microsoft has had a flexible work arrangement, allowing remote work as much as half of the time. 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 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. “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. 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.

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. More than half of Microsoft’s layoffs in Washington this year came in a single filing on May 13, when 1,985 employees were laid off at the company’s Redmond campus. The early September filing marks the fifth consecutive month that Microsoft has submitted a notice for upcoming layoffs in Washington. Workers in the Puget Sound region will be required to work in the office three days a week by the end of February 2026. The company will later roll out the expectations to other offices in the United States before fully transitioning workers at their other global offices. 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 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. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained the job cuts in a memo to staff released on Microsoft’s corporate blog last month. Nadella acknowledged the discrepancy between Microsoft’s “thriving” financials and his decision to still lay off staff.

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. It also bears mentioning that the drive for efficiency and growth does not appear to stem from a place of 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. 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 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.