3 ms·

> Firing 18k people at Microsoft's scale isn't even close to burning it down and starting from scratch. Eh... According to Wikipedia, MS had 114k employees tot

by piaste 10y ago

> Firing 18k people at Microsoft's scale isn't even close to burning it down and starting from scratch. Eh... According to Wikipedia, MS had 114k employees total as of mid-2016. Given that, I'd say a 18k layoff definitely counts as a big deal.

rugdobe 10y ago
majority of this layoff was the hardware guys from Nokia acquisition.
jonknee 10y ago
It was certainly treated as such locally in Seattle.
mbesto 10y ago
> It's not like Nadella fired every one and started afresh.
- paulddraper 10y ago
  Um, okay. You are correct that he did not fire every single employee (besides himself) and then hire everyone that currently works at MS.
- acchow 10y ago
  HN is frustratingly pedantic sometimes. "It's not like Nadella fired every one and started afresh." is a colloquialism. d--b was basically saying "it's not like Nadella did a major overhaul. With which jonknee disagrees, citing a layoff of 18,000. To which simonh claims is not a major overhaul since Microsoft is nebulously enormous. To which piaste disagrees, as 18k was actually 15.7% of the company. You can all continue to debate whether or not 15.7% is a major overhaul, whether the actual people they fired were significant, etc... But you quoting a colloquialism and asking us all to take it literally is not helpful to the discussion, or the culture of HN.
  - mbesto 10y ago
    > HN is frustratingly pedantic sometimes. I don't disagree, but the parent was being just as pedantic as I was. Perhaps my snark was an attempt to end the petty discussion (apparently, improperly so). Read these two statements in the context of the discussion: > burning it down and starting from scratch. > started afresh 15.7% is a major overhaul, but IMO in no way insinuates "burning something down" or "starting afresh". Do you think either of those statements is consistent with a 15% cut in workforce? PS - 12,500 of those 18,000 came from Nokia[0]. > with 12,500 of those coming out of the streamlining of Microsoft’s acquired Nokia assets. [0] - https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/17/microsoft-to-cut-workforce-by-18000-this-year-moving-now-to-cut-first-13000/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/17/microsoft-to-cut-workforce...

by piaste 10y ago

rugdobe 10y ago

majority of this layoff was the hardware guys from Nokia acquisition.

jonknee 10y ago

It was certainly treated as such locally in Seattle.

mbesto 10y ago

> It's not like Nadella fired every one and started afresh.

paulddraper 10y ago
Um, okay. You are correct that he did not fire every single employee (besides himself) and then hire everyone that currently works at MS.
acchow 10y ago
HN is frustratingly pedantic sometimes. "It's not like Nadella fired every one and started afresh." is a colloquialism. d--b was basically saying "it's not like Nadella did a major overhaul. With which jonknee disagrees, citing a layoff of 18,000. To which simonh claims is not a major overhaul since Microsoft is nebulously enormous. To which piaste disagrees, as 18k was actually 15.7% of the company. You can all continue to debate whether or not 15.7% is a major overhaul, whether the actual people they fired were significant, etc... But you quoting a colloquialism and asking us all to take it literally is not helpful to the discussion, or the culture of HN.
- mbesto 10y ago
  > HN is frustratingly pedantic sometimes. I don't disagree, but the parent was being just as pedantic as I was. Perhaps my snark was an attempt to end the petty discussion (apparently, improperly so). Read these two statements in the context of the discussion: > burning it down and starting from scratch. > started afresh 15.7% is a major overhaul, but IMO in no way insinuates "burning something down" or "starting afresh". Do you think either of those statements is consistent with a 15% cut in workforce? PS - 12,500 of those 18,000 came from Nokia[0]. > with 12,500 of those coming out of the streamlining of Microsoft’s acquired Nokia assets. [0] - https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/17/microsoft-to-cut-workforce-by-18000-this-year-moving-now-to-cut-first-13000/ https://techcrunch.com/2014/07/17/microsoft-to-cut-workforce...