14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft goes on with the plan to lay off 18,000 workers after the Nokia Devices and Services acquisition, firing 3,000 new workers as part of the third wave since the announcement.
The news comes via Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley who says that the company sent notifications to approximately 3,000 people from various departments. Just like it happened during the previous layoff wave, no official announcement has been provided, as Microsoft is doing the whole process internally.
A fourth and final wave of job cuts is very likely to happen in early 2015, the aforementioned source noted, explaining that Microsoft is very close to reaching its goal of 18,000 fired people.
Workers in human resources, finance, sales and marketing and IT have been impacted by today’s round of layoffs and it appears that both Microsoft and Nokia employees have been targeted.
Only a vague response
While Microsoft doesn’t provide any official announcement whenever it makes a job cut, the company did confirm in a short statement for the aforementioned source that more people were let go as part of the initial plan.
“We've taken another step that will complete almost all the 18,000 reductions announced in July. The reductions happening today are spread across many different business units, and many different countries,” a company spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Microsoft’s new CEO Satya Nadella announced the job cut in July, revealing that after the acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services unit the company needed to reorganize many of its departments to work more effectively and to integrate the newly purchased division into the company.
Internal reorganization going according to the plan
Satya Nadella said on several occasions that Microsoft needed to become obsessed over customers, and as a result the company went through a major reorganization that would optimize work between departments and put the focus more on what users want.
That’s actually one of the main ideas promoted by Nadella ever since he replaced Steve Ballmer at the helm of Microsoft in February, stating that customer feedback is critical for the success of future products.
Windows 10 is living proof that this new approach is indeed a priority for the company, so the new OS packs a dedicated application that allows users to submit issues and suggestions for improving specific features. Last but not least, the company also launched an online platform for collecting feedback, again with Nadella’s word in mind to put the emphasis on customer feedback for future products.