For all intents and purposes, the job cuts announced this past week by Microsoft should not have caught anyone by surprise. It is one of the first things to happen following a major merger.The
announcements do not say outright, “…and with this merger, we will cut
X-number of jobs,” rather, the language is more nuanced, if not less
obvious, “…and with the efficiencies to be gained in this deal.”
It
stands to ask though if the cuts are being made in the right places,
however. Of the 18,000-ish jobs to be cut over the next year or so, a
full two-thirds of these “efficiencies” (or synergies, harmonization,
cost-savings – pick a nom de guerre for layoffs) will impact people who
were part of Nokia Devices and Services, which as we all know, was acquired by Microsoft.
That accounts for a little more than half of the employees who did a
veritable #maketheswitch (from Nokia to Microsoft, see what we did
there?).
It is times like this, it could be said, where it helps
to perhaps not attract attention to oneself while the final tally is
being run up of who to keep, and who to let go. Sadly, the trawler will
scoop up a lot of former Nokia positions no matter what people do. The
Microsoft employees have a different perspective. Movement attracts
the watching eye you see, and so if some folks remain very, very still…
No comments:
Post a Comment