this post was submitted on 25 Oct 2024
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2024 has seen two mass layoffs at Microsoft, with 1900 staff laid off in January, before a further 650 Xbox employees were shown the door in September.

Regardless, Microsoft's shares are up and the company's market value is now higher than $3tn, as it works to capitalise on the rise of AI.

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[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 28 points 1 hour ago (2 children)

When I entered the work force in 2005, it was with a company that had never had a layoff in its thirty-year history.

Then, in 2009, they had their first layoff, and I learned later our CEO had taken an 80% pay raise that year.

Taxes aren't theft. Literally firing people and taking their salaries is theft.

[–] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 14 points 1 hour ago

Also that CEO has an eminently punchable face.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 0 points 1 hour ago (1 children)

Taxes are theft the specific way they are designed in most countries.

Another example of theft is a hired administrator administrating by the criterion of their own pay.

I mean, it is understandable how this works - their pay is a counterweight to the incentive to "mismanage" the company if someone else pays a fitting price. The issue here is that these two incentives do not completely neutralize each other, in some dimension their components add up.

Why I had to say that taxes are still theft - because a CEO is equivalent to a state official in this issue. It's the same problem.

Political ideologies divide these problems, because political ideologies are like hedge funds, they diversify investments, so that every political ideology could be usable in every landscape for every policy. They are the opposite of consistent, by design.

[–] HerrBeter@lemmy.world 1 points 15 minutes ago

Taxes aren't because they come from societal structure i.e agreement that we're better off pooling resources

[–] HotsauceHurricane@lemmy.one 1 points 24 minutes ago

“Look timmy, it’s a man made entirely of bullshit”

[–] ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 4 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Thank god, all these employees lost their jobs so Satya Nadella can pad out their already insanely high salary.

We don't want Satya to starve like the rest us of plebs!

[–] card797@champserver.net 6 points 1 hour ago

They should be paying 90% tax over 1 million.

[–] Gammelfisch@lemmy.world 17 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

Typical and most people in the US view CEO's as heroes. US income distribution is on the same level as fucking Russia.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 3 points 59 minutes ago

As someone from fucking Russia, people with biggest income in your country are usually first businessmen, second - something else, while in Russia those would be cockroaches from MFA, PA and other thieves, plus a few oligarchs who at some point were among those cockroaches.

So it may not be as bad yet, but frankly yes, you are giving out vibes of going in the same direction.

[–] Etterra@lemmy.world 8 points 3 hours ago

Pretty standard issue corporate psychopath.

[–] bamfic@lemmy.world 8 points 3 hours ago

An old friend was one of the people who got laid off in January. Fuck MSFT.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 20 points 6 hours ago

CEO = SIC: Shareholder in Chief

[–] ysjet@lemmy.world 48 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

He made $12000 off each fired employee.

[–] P1nkman@lemmy.world 29 points 7 hours ago

Per year. And lets not talk about his stock options and other benefits... Fucking disgusting.

[–] sunbeam60@lemmy.one 30 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

The board doesn’t care about the number of people employed. They care about the current profitability and future profitability.

Of course that’s their job; to look after shareholder interests. And the money would move to a better investment if they didn’t.

It’s the whole system you need to change, if you seek change, not moan about an individual CEO.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 11 points 5 hours ago (3 children)

That's why Mitbestimmungsgesetz can be goddamn fucking awesome.

[–] rottingleaf@lemmy.world 1 points 51 minutes ago

That would be awesome, but would have limited results if there are still a few enormous companies with patent and IP laws preventing competition.

You can't have that eternal fight between democratic egalitarian monopoly and competitive jungle. The whole point of civilization is to have both representation and competition.

[–] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago

That would literally change everything for the better.

[–] Lizardking13@lemmy.world 4 points 5 hours ago

I've never heard of that. That's a cool idea.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 3 points 7 hours ago

Current profitability is up. Profit margins are also up from last year. But I could see investors looking at the lack of any path after the current Xbox and wondering why they employ so many there. I'm sure other areas have also seen some stagnation.

[–] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 126 points 11 hours ago
[–] RagingHungryPanda@lemm.ee 55 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago) (1 children)

Headline confused "despite" and "due to"

[–] pyre@lemmy.world 4 points 7 hours ago

yeah lol what do they think is happening here

[–] AshMan85@lemmy.world 17 points 8 hours ago

Regulate monopolies. Eat the rich.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 71 points 11 hours ago (3 children)

That’s roughly 30k for every employee laid off

[–] NRay7882@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

That's some real bald-headed behavior if you ask me.

[–] weew@lemmy.ca 9 points 9 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago)

If they were software engineers, they saved $200,000+ per person laid off

That's how he makes dem big bux, by telling other people to fuck off

[–] Telodzrum@lemmy.world 24 points 11 hours ago

Sounds like an easy sell to the board, then. It it's that much of a net positive in economics.

[–] unmagical@lemmy.ml 44 points 11 hours ago (9 children)

When was the last time you got a 63% raise?

[–] eager_eagle@lemmy.world 4 points 3 hours ago

70% workload raise

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Well his compensation is tied to the stock price so it’s not exactly a “raise.” My employer’s stock is near an all time high right now so I’m not complaining about how much I made from the shares I sold, but neither do I consider it a “raise” because it’s not guaranteed to be the same next year.

[–] ChickenLadyLovesLife@lemmy.world 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

At my last company, they usually gave end-of-the-year bonuses instead of raises. They were pretty generous, usually amounting to about half of our annual salaries, but it of course prevented us from being guaranteed that level of compensation the following year. That's why I always describe bonuses as raises followed by pay cuts.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Yeah pretty much. Everything about it is a hedge. They can pay less if their numbers tell them to. They can lay you off and not give you anything. They can make more cash disappear if they have to. It’s the squirrelliest shit yet they cast it like a gift from god.

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[–] YurkshireLad@lemmy.ca 15 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

His salary increase must be inversely proportional to the quality increase in Windows 11.

[–] lando55@lemmy.world 2 points 4 hours ago

You're saying he deserves more?!

[–] pressanykeynow@lemmy.world 1 points 4 hours ago

Well Windows wasn't an important Microsoft product for like 15 years now. It's been like 7 years when Microsoft is a company mostly selling cloud Linux services. Ridiculous I know, but that's from their yearly financial reports. It seems their plan is to cash out Windows as fast as possible before dropping it.

[–] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 22 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
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[–] sgibson5150@slrpnk.net 29 points 11 hours ago
[–] Imhotep@lemmy.world 9 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

his payrise is equivalent to something like 3000 US workers minimum wage annual salaries

if my math is correct (which it probably isn't)

Yup, that checks out for me.

That said, that's the federal minimum wage, which almost nobody actually gets (article says $1M people).

[–] billiam0202@lemmy.world 19 points 11 hours ago

Well, yeah. How do you think they could afford Nadella's pay raise?

[–] Ragdoll_X@lemmy.world 12 points 10 hours ago

I would like to propose some changes to that title:

Microsoft CEO's pay rises 63% to $79m, ~~despite~~ [because of] devastating year for layoffs: 2550 ~~jobs lost~~ [employees were fired by their greedy CEO] in 2024 [because he wanted more money]

[–] Skullgrid@lemmy.world 12 points 10 hours ago

fuck him not just for making those people's lives miserable, but for stamping down the fucking wages of everyone else in tech by flooding the fucking market

[–] zante@slrpnk.net 7 points 9 hours ago

I just want one outlet to break the shit cycle and report it for what it is : CEO got big pay rises thanks to savings made by eliminating jobs.

That is simply the neutral truth.

It’s not some freakish occurance, not some overtime golden goal shit, this is how it works. It’s the norm.

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