Microsoft employee fired after more than 25 years of service, calls layoffs an emotional rollercoaster

By Divyanshi SharmaThe year 2023 began on a grim note for many techies as companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Salesforce, among others, announced mass layoffs in order to cut costs. As a result, thousands of techies across the world lost their jobs and social media is full of people’s layoff stories. It has been over three months since this year began and the situation is far from being improved. Microsoft, after letting go of 10,000 employees in January, conducted yet another round of layoffs last month. This time, the company reportedly fired over 500 people in the US.

Woman fired by Microsoft after 25 years of service

Among the employees who lost their jobs as part of March layoffs is a woman named Ann Pfeiffer. She had been working with Microsoft for more than 25 years and wrote that employees aren’t always in charge of time or how they choose to say gooodbye to an organisation.

“25+years with Microsoft have come to a close for me and I am #opentowork due to the March #layoffs . We are not always in charge of the time or how we choose to say goodbye to the amazing company that is Microsoft. The last weeks have a rollercoaster of emotions reflecting and past months have had an impact on everyone in one way or another,” the ex-Microsoft employee wrote in a LinkedIn post.

She then thanked her former colleagues and added that she will continue to cherish all the ‘adventures, challenges, partnership, coaching, and learning’ that they all embarked upon together.

“My reason to sign-in every day was the culture, energy and excitement and the people I have had the privilege to work with and for,” she wrote.

Concluding the post on a rather positive note, the woman wrote, “Where one door closes, a window opens, and hopefully one day I will find myself working with some of you back at Microsoft or another company.”

Layoffs at Microsoft

In his email to employees announcing the first round of layoffs in January this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella wrote that the company is letting go of employees because of “macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.”

The CEO wrote, “While we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas.” He also elaborated upon the importance of building a ‘new computer platform’ with the use of artificial intelligence. He wrote, “We’re also seeing organizations in every industry and geography exercise caution as some parts of the world are in a recession and other parts are anticipating one.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s current focus seems to be its new AI chatbot, the new Bing that offers a search as well as chat option. The new AI chatbot has come a long way from its initial launch, when it was accused of displaying obnoxious behaviour in front of users.The new Bing launched earlier this year in February.