Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) offered about 60,000 employees a chance to leave voluntarily Monday, roughly a quarter of its workforce, in a program it calls new for the company.
Chief People Officer Amy Coleman announced the Voluntary Exit Offer in a memo to staff. It covers employees at level 70 and below on participating teams in the US, Canada, India and the United Kingdom. Its annual filing counted 223,000 full-time staff at midyear, five thousand fewer than the 228,000 it reported twelve months before.
Each business decides whether its teams take part, and Microsoft has confirmed that sales and some engineering groups are sitting out. Eligible employees get an email with their details. The package is standard severance, with base pay set by tenure and level. The decision window closes in early December, and those who accept depart by year-end.
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Coleman said the offer gives staff who are weighing a future elsewhere a way to leave now with support. “The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us,” she wrote, adding that Microsoft will learn from it. Layoffs remain possible, the company says, and this offer is no substitute for them.
Read: Microsoft Offers Voluntary Retirement to 7% of US Workforce in First-Ever Buyout Program
Microsoft has shrunk its workforce in several ways this year. A voluntary retirement program in the spring, its first, covered about 8,750 US employees, and about 30% of them accepted. In July, the company cut about 4,800 jobs, roughly 2% of its global workforce, mostly in its Xbox gaming business. It laid off about 15,000 people last year.
Read: Xbox Cuts 3,200 Jobs and Sells Off Four Studios in Its ‘Most Significant Restructure’ Ever
The offer follows a public clash with the Trump administration. On October 8, the Labor Department suspended Microsoft, Adobe, and six IT outsourcers from the PERM program, which employers use to sponsor foreign workers for green cards. Vice President JD Vance said no US company has “abused the system more than Microsoft”, and he said Microsoft cut about 6,000 US jobs last year while bringing in about 6,300 H-1B workers. Microsoft pushes back, saying roughly four in five of its 6,000 or so H-1B filings last year covered workers already on its payroll. Brad Smith called the claims “completely off base”. There is no reported link between the exit offer and the suspension.
Related: Labor Department Halts PERM Green Card Filings for Microsoft, Adobe and Six IT Outsourcers
The offer arrives as Microsoft spends heavily on artificial intelligence and tries to hold down costs. The company reports quarterly earnings Wednesday after the market closes.
