Microsoft has kicked off a large round of layoffs, affecting various departments

Jez Corden
·2 min read
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Microsoft logo
Microsoft logo

What you need to know

  • Microsoft is reportedly making anywhere up to 1,000 redundancies, as part of a previously announced "restructuring."

  • The layoffs affect Microsoft vets like Greg Chapman and KC Lemson, and cut across a broad swath of departments and orgs.

  • A Microsoft spokesperson said, "we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly."

A little while ago, Microsoft signalled its intent to lay off "less than 1%" of its workforce in a filing with shareholders, and now it seems that those layoffs are now officially taking place.

A report from Business Insider corroborated by reports on Twitter suggest that many departments have been affected, which includes the Xbox division alongside Microsoft's Strategic Missions and Technology team. 20-year Microsoft veteran KC Lemson (who also pioneered the much-loved Windows Insider Ninja Cat iconography) tweeted that she was part of the redundancies yesterday. Lemson worked within the office of the Chief Technical Officer incubating projects, with other redundancies hitting the gaming org, as well as the legal department, and the division setting up government bodies with Microsoft tech. Another 15-year vet, Greg Champman, also tweeted that he'd been laid off. Chapman was working in Azure on a team making realistic 3D simulations for government organizations.

Business Insider grabbed a statement from Microsoft, which reads: "Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly. We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead." 

Various tech companies are making or are expected to make layoffs in the face of current macroeconomic headwinds, owing to increased costs from inflation, as well as disrupted supply chains stemming from China's Covid-19 policies and Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine.

Microsoft has experienced some high-profile churn within its organization recently. Bonnie Ross who lead the 343i team developing the Halo franchise famously left the company a few weeks ago following on-going criticism of Halo Infinite.  Microsoft also laid off its entire "modern life" team back in August, dedicated to winning consumers back into the Windows ecosystem from competitors like Apple. Alex Kipman who created Kinect and led development on Windows Mixed Reality also resigned following reports of inappropriate behavior, with a major U.S. military contract for HoloLens reportedly on the rocks.

We'll be sure to update this article with any further developments in the coming days ahead.

If you've been affected by the layoffs and would like to share your story, please contact me jez@windowscentral.com, or @jezcorden on Twitter.