4 ms·

> The article says they can apply for other positions within Microsoft I don't know how I would handle that mentally, to have to re-apply to the company that j

> The article says they can apply for other positions within Microsoft I don't know how I would handle that mentally, to have to re-apply to the company that just laid me off. The message is weird. "We're letting you go, but if you REALLY want to stay, find a team that wants you. Here, we'll put a 2 month timer on it." Sorry if that sounds like rambling, but I simply don't understand.

erinnh 10y ago
Its more like: "Your team is going to be no more or is being downsized because its not as important anymore, we really want to keep you though, so we are going to give you 2 months to find another place inside the company where you would like to work at."
- sharps_xp 10y ago
  Maybe, but they're weighing another place inside the company against another place in some other company PLUS severance.
- DaiPlusPlus 10y ago
  I was at Microsoft during the "great" mid-2014 layoffs when they eliminated 4/5ths of all SDETs in OSG (the Windows org). My division was one of the least affected, but not everyone was given the "musical chairs" treatment to find another job internally - seemingly that privilege was reserved only for those at the top of the "rank-and-yank" pecking order - presumably to avoid those perceived as being less-capable from taking an in-company job away from someone else being laid-off who was more desirable to retain. (I had a friend in MSFT HR at the time who confirmed that the 2014 layoffs were conducted by-algorithm and were absolutely not based on job-performance - hence why management had to resort to creative ways to retain people they wanted). Even for those who were granted the "privilege" of applying internally, it was incredibly stressful for them because now there was rampant competition for a limited number of places. The QA/SDET roles were hit the hardest because most of the open positions were exclusively SDE - and SDE hiring managers are reluctant to engage SDETs.
PhantomGremlin 10y ago
We're letting you go, but if you REALLY want to stay, find a team that wants you I don't know about Microsoft. But I've known quite a number of people at Intel who have gone thru this sort of procedure. Every two or three years there would be a re-org and thousands would get thrown into a layoff pool, from which they had perhaps 60 days to get hired into another group. But there really wasn't a stigma, many people successfully navigated that process four or five times over the years. The real downside was that being in the pool was your severance. When your 60 days ran out you were SOL.

erinnh 10y ago

Its more like: "Your team is going to be no more or is being downsized because its not as important anymore, we really want to keep you though, so we are going to give you 2 months to find another place inside the company where you would like to work at."

sharps_xp 10y ago
Maybe, but they're weighing another place inside the company against another place in some other company PLUS severance.
DaiPlusPlus 10y ago
I was at Microsoft during the "great" mid-2014 layoffs when they eliminated 4/5ths of all SDETs in OSG (the Windows org). My division was one of the least affected, but not everyone was given the "musical chairs" treatment to find another job internally - seemingly that privilege was reserved only for those at the top of the "rank-and-yank" pecking order - presumably to avoid those perceived as being less-capable from taking an in-company job away from someone else being laid-off who was more desirable to retain. (I had a friend in MSFT HR at the time who confirmed that the 2014 layoffs were conducted by-algorithm and were absolutely not based on job-performance - hence why management had to resort to creative ways to retain people they wanted). Even for those who were granted the "privilege" of applying internally, it was incredibly stressful for them because now there was rampant competition for a limited number of places. The QA/SDET roles were hit the hardest because most of the open positions were exclusively SDE - and SDE hiring managers are reluctant to engage SDETs.

PhantomGremlin 10y ago

We're letting you go, but if you REALLY want to stay, find a team that wants you I don't know about Microsoft. But I've known quite a number of people at Intel who have gone thru this sort of procedure. Every two or three years there would be a re-org and thousands would get thrown into a layoff pool, from which they had perhaps 60 days to get hired into another group. But there really wasn't a stigma, many people successfully navigated that process four or five times over the years. The real downside was that being in the pool was your severance. When your 60 days ran out you were SOL.