Microsoft employees are reportedly expecting layoffs starting Friday as part of the company's reorganisation.
In a story ran by Business Insider earlier today, it revealed that conference rooms at Microsoft have been reserved as some staff members are scheduled to meet their managers for 15-minute meetings. The publication's source, who asked for anonymity, said this scheduling has been widely talked by the employees on Blind, a chat app popularly used by company workers.
The speculated layoffs broke out after the software-turned-cloud computing company announced that it is undergoing a restructure, particularly in the sales force. If downsizing takes place, it is not the first time the company is taking the steps as it had happened in 2016 and 2015 as well. The announced layoffs in 2016 just took place in January, cutting down nearly 3,000 people.
While job cuts have not taken place yet, Microsoft is expected to give reassignments to others. It remains a mystery to the employees how many posts will be removed and retained in line with the restructuring.
The layoff is seen as a small chunk only of the workforce. Microsoft currently houses around 121,000 staff in both the Redmond and India locations, and around 52,000 of this figure are part of the sales force.
On Monday, Microsoft executive vice president Judson Althoff issued an internal memorandum announcing the reorganisation, stating that the company is now following the "commercial and consumer model." Through the memorandum order, Microsoft now operates with two main divisions that will work side by side.
This new system is expected to ease out Microsoft's new branding as a cloud computing firm. In the company's current sales framework, deals mostly undergo different layers of sales and marketing units which dragged processes for too long.
Chief executive Satya Nadella had been vocal with his agenda to clean up the twisting structures inside the company since he took his seat in 2014.
