Microsoft plans first voluntary retirement program for US employees
CNBC • • general
Key Points:
- Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to about 7% of its U.S. employees at the senior director level and below, whose age and years of service total 70 or more, marking the company's first such program in its 51-year history.
- The buyout program, announced in a memo, excludes employees with sales incentive plans and aims to provide eligible workers with a generous option to retire on their own terms.
- This move comes as Microsoft increases capital spending on data centers to support generative AI models, while facing industry disruption from AI coding tools and pressure on software stocks.
- The company is also changing its employee stock reward system by decoupling stock awards from cash bonuses, giving managers more flexibility to reward high performance.
- Additionally, Microsoft is streamlining its employee review process by reducing pay options from nine to five, simplifying managerial decisions.
