Microsoft Layoffs – an ‘Excel’lent mistake
After launching the first Mass Layoffs in its 34 year history, Microsoft admitted it screwed up on a part of its layoff plan. With the recession biting into sales of Microsoft’s core Office and Windows software, the company said in January it would let up to 5,000 of its 94,000 employees go. Almost 1400 employees were let go the following week. Apparently there was a glitch in the severance that MSFT paid to its layoff workers. Severance was overpaid to certain employees. Everyone who was overpaid were sent official letters asking that they pay back the “overpaid” severance.
When one of Microsoft’s letters seeking repayment surfaced on TechCrunch’s website on Saturday, the situation turned embarrassing. On Monday, the company reversed course and said the laid-off workers could keep the extra payouts. Lisa Brummel, Microsoft’s senior vice president for human resources, said the letters were mailed to 25 of the 1,400 people let go in January. Most of the checks were off by about $4,000 to $5,000, she said. Brummel called most of the 25 laid-off employees Monday to personally tell them Microsoft would not seek repayment after all. An unexpected bonus, and they are quite happy with the ‘Excel’lence at Microsoft.
In another ‘Excel’lent glitch, another 20 employees got too little severance. When the mistake was noticed, MSFT sent the underpaid amount to those people. Lisa Bummel obviously called the glitch a clerical error, but we would be hard pressed to believe that one of the world’s largest software makers does a manual process to calculate and cut checks. With a cash hoard of nearly $21 billion, we are sure they can afford to buy spreadsheet software that is glitch free.
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