hard times at microsoft

Microsoft begins laying off staff

After posting 11% drop in profit MS announces layoffs of five thousand staff. Lets put this in perspective though. Drops in profit do not mean losses. MS still posted profit of 4.17 billion dollars for the 3 month period.

4.17 billion profit  in three months … are we supposed to feel bad for them now? In the midst of economic uncertain times when many companies are struggling to survive I would think this could be considered pretty good results.

MS has also announced that they will be suspending merit salary increases for the year. The cynic in me has to wonder if this will include the exec’s or just the common workers who I suppose might accept the fact they are not getting a raise with the feeling that they should be happy they even have a job.

I wonder if MS thinks that cutting out merit increases will encourage there workers to work harder during these uncertain times or perhaps they think that fear is motivation enough.

The beatings will continue until morale improves.