The fallout from yesterday’s announcement that Microsoft would be cutting roughly 10,000 jobs from its workforce continues to happen. This is all happening as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Bloomberg continues to expand its coverage regarding the layoff announcement and has shared a statement from the CEO.
“During the pandemic, there was rapid acceleration. I think we are going to go through a phase today where there is some amount of normalization in demand,” Nadella said at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We will have to do more with less — we will have to show our own productivity gains with our own technology.”
Employees, and other people familiar with the matter, who have asked to remain anonymous due to confidentiality clauses, are reportedly continuing to come forward with more information regarding the layoff notice. The next claim comes, also via Bloomberg, from those in Microsoft’s HoloLens goggles business. This department recently experienced a major setback when congress rejected a $400 million request from the US Army for the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, IVAS, which is being developed by the HoloLens department. The request was denied because of reports about the headset causing eyestrain, headaches, and nausea.
The HoloLens project has already experienced multiple setbacks since its unveiling in 2015 and the rejected funding request comes on the heels of a 2021 agreement with the US Army that was expected to last five years. That deal, which also included a five-year extension option, is valued at nearly $22 billion. If true, the HoloLens team would also join veteran developers from Microsoft’s gaming division who also, anonymously, voiced they too are expecting layoffs. The Microsoft CEO continued to say at the WEF that many companies are somehow experiencing some kind of “productivity paranoia” while taking notice of company-wide employee burnout.
“Every leader thinks that somehow they’re not being productive, but everyone who’s working in the organization feels burned out.”