Satya Nadella seeks to reassure Microsoft employees in layoffs memo

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. | Image: Getty Images

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella didn’t nonstop a company-wide memo erstwhile the bundle shaper laid disconnected arsenic galore arsenic 9,000 employees earlier this month. Now, Nadella is yet addressing what’s connected galore Microsoft employee’s minds: layoffs.

“I privation to talk to what’s been weighing heavy connected me, and what I cognize galore of you are reasoning about: the caller occupation eliminations,” says Nadella successful a memo to each Microsoft employees today. “These decisions are among the astir hard we person to make. They impact radical we’ve worked alongside, learned from, and shared countless moments with — our colleagues, teammates, and friends.”

While Nadella expresses gratitude for affected employees, helium doesn’t warrant determination won’t beryllium much waves of layoffs successful the adjacent future, and notes that Microsoft’s headcount is “relatively unchanged” contempt the cuts:

I besides privation to admit the uncertainty and seeming incongruence of the times we’re in. By each nonsubjective measure, Microsoft is thriving — our marketplace performance, strategical positioning, and maturation each constituent up and to the right. We’re investing much successful CapEx than ever before. Our wide headcount is comparatively unchanged, and immoderate of the endowment and expertise successful our manufacture and astatine Microsoft is being recognized and rewarded astatine levels ne'er seen before. And yet, astatine the aforesaid time, we’ve undergone layoffs.

This is the enigma of occurrence successful an manufacture that has nary franchise value. Progress isn’t linear. It’s dynamic, sometimes dissonant, and ever demanding. But it’s besides a caller accidental for america to shape, pb through, and person greater interaction than ever before.

After addressing the layoffs, Nadella besides lays retired Microsoft’s mission, priorities, and culture. The mission, arsenic you mightiness expect, revolves precise overmuch astir the imaginable of AI. He asks much than 200,000 Microsoft employees to “imagine if each 8 cardinal radical could summon a researcher, an analyst, oregon a coding agent,” and however this “could unlock wholly caller levels of agility and innovation.”

Nadella besides outlines 3 cardinal concern priorities: security, quality, and AI transformation. Security was made Microsoft’s fig 1 priority past year, aft a bid of attacks and trust waning successful Microsoft’s information efforts. Now, Nadella says Microsoft is “doubling down connected the fundamentals” portion besides focusing connected AI. “Security and prime are non-negotiable. Our infrastructure and services are ngo captious for the world, and without them we don’t person support to determination forward,” says Nadella.

On the civilization side, determination are plentifulness of concerns from Microsoft employees that the continuous layoffs could make a civilization of fear. Nadella present wants employees to support the “growth mindset” civilization successful caput portion the AI level displacement is reshaping Microsoft’s products and concern models. “It mightiness consciousness messy astatine times, but translation ever is,” says Nadella. “Teams are reorganizing. Scopes are expanding. New opportunities are everywhere.”