Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to staff in four countries
Around 60,000 employees are reported to be eligible, including staff on selected teams in the United Kingdom.
Microsoft is offering voluntary departures with financial support to selected employees in the United Kingdom, the US, Canada and India, chief people officer Amy Coleman announced in a staff memo. The programme is reported to cover around 60,000 eligible employees.
Eligibility extends to employees up to level 70 on selected teams, potentially including some senior staff. Coleman said the Voluntary Exit Offer would be available for a limited period and would provide career-planning resources alongside financial support.
The memo said employees who qualified would be emailed links to their individual offers. Coleman described the programme as a way to give employees more flexibility as the company changes.
Microsoft announced around 4,800 job cuts in July, equivalent to roughly 2.1 per cent of its global workforce at the time. Those reductions mainly affected its commercial and Xbox gaming divisions as it sought to reduce costs and shift its focus amid the rise of AI.
The company also offered early retirement to some employees in 2026. Microsoft said more than 30 per cent of eligible staff took that option and that it would explore similar measures in future.
