A great blog post on this topic: http://www.bhorowitz.com/the_right_way_to_lay_people_off http://www.bhorowitz.com/the_right_way_to_lay_people_off Though it's

A great blog post on this topic: http://www.bhorowitz.com/the_right_way_to_lay_people_off http://www.bhorowitz.com/the_right_way_to_lay_people_off Though it's advice aimed at much much smaller companies than Microsoft it still resonates. Also I bet HN readers are much more likely to have to one day lay off 18 people than 18,000.