back to article Axeman cometh: Microsoft lays off 27 staff

Microsoft plans to axe 27 jobs at its Redmond and Bellevue sites. The latest cull in Microsoft’s Washington offices is expected to hit workers on 1 November, according to the Seattle Times. The software giant had notified the Washington State Employment Security Department about the job cuts. "I can confirm that part of our …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    27? 27!

    Microsoft employing 10's of thousands lays off 27 people across the country and that's news!

    Must be a slow news day or troll fodder....

  2. Tim Spence

    Twenty-seven?!

    Come on, for a company employing nearly 100,000 people, is 27 layoffs really news? That many people probably come and go each week through natural causes!

  3. Peter Labrow
    Thumb Down

    Get real

    27 employees from a company Microsoft's size isn't an axe. It's not even a penknife. I bet it's not even a round percentage! News?

  4. James O'Shea
    Gates Horns

    hmmm

    was one of the 27 to be let go named Ballmer, S?

  5. Jad
    Joke

    Flying Furniture?

    Do you reckon that 27 was the amount of chairs he had in the boardroom?

  6. Don Mitchell

    Charm111

    27 people. This is a news story??? How about giving the average and variance to see if this is even statistically significant.

  7. disgruntled yank

    about half of one percent

    They've laid off most of 5000 staff, now they're planning to cut 27 more jobs. Hasn't Paris Hilton done anything worthy of mention lately?

  8. James O'Brien
    Joke

    @Commenters thus far

    Its news.....How often do you hear of a company the size of M$ letting go that few people?

    Let alone all managers :P

    (I hope its management anyway cant see any other reason the number would be so small)

  9. Snert Lee

    Scale

    A third of a tenth of a percent? The daily churn report?

  10. Giles Jones Gold badge

    It's news

    Why would they sack such a pathetically small amount given the bad PR it would generate?

    Just shows they're desperate.

  11. Andrew Williams
    Paris Hilton

    It'd be news if these 27 were all upper echelon serfs...

    You know the people who are supposed to have a clue about what an earth it is Microsoft does, or at least appears to be doing, or thinking about, or something.

    That being said, if it's just some tea ladies or whatever, then I guess it must be a really, really, really tedious day. Mind you, if it was tea ladies being fired and they went Columbine or Britney Spears down in Microsoft HQ that'd be news.

  12. Big-nosed Pengie

    Call me when they lay off 27,000.

    That is all.

  13. Andus McCoatover
    Jobs Horns

    Could've done better, El Reg...

    <<The Register asked Microsoft to provide comment on this story, but at time of publication it hadn’t got back to us>>

    What about "The Register asked Microsoft to provide comment on this story, but at time of publication it hadn’t got the balls to answer, their PR peeps quivering under a desk from Ballmer's chair-shaped spinny-axe. And Uncle Fester works late, especially as it was a full moon last night."

    But, only 27? Chicken-feed. That's the stuff one feeds to chickens, right?

  14. rhdunn
    Joke

    Applying UK government logic...

    Microsoft lays off 2,000 staff, according to official figures!

  15. petep
    Unhappy

    Pah

    Last year my employer made 12 staff redundant - out of a total workforce of 16. That's 75%.

    The remaining lucky 4 of us are permanently overworked but at least still employed.....

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    I don't know..

    ..loss of tea ladies generally has a more serious (adverse) effect on productivity than random managerectomies. People like tea.. meetings- not so much.

  17. mrweekender
    Coat

    Could it be....

    ....the team who "coded" Vista?

  18. Maryland, USA
    Gates Horns

    overpaid, clueless PR hacks

    "...we are taking these necessary actions to realign our resources against our top priorities."

    Do these Public Relations people have any idea how wording like this comes across as slick, evasive, and unsympathetic? Can they adduce a shred of evidence to demonstrate that such sterile wording, devoid of humanity, makes their company look better off, not worse off?

    PS: When you realign something, you move it, or its parts; realigning is not about subtracting.

  19. Glen 9

    @ Maryland

    They only speak in metaphors, similes and hyperbole while only using a thesaurus to make themselves feel superior and to dodge the question. It's easy to get around the question whenever the asker is confused without realising it.

    I assume they are realigning the metaphorical bow and arrow and aiming at the imaginary apple being held in the transdimensional mouth of 27 employees. Either that of it's Balmer's researchers that old him the iPhone would be a "fail and you"

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