Is there a good way to deliver bad news in the office?

Sending out a memo is usually a bad idea, as it can be read out of context and misinterpreted

- Somak Ghoshal

Earlier this month, multinational corporation and technology conglomerate Microsoft laid off 6,000 employees, about 3% of its workforce, in a move to streamline and optimize its functions. While the decision must have hit many, it wasn't unexpected. In April, Satya Nadella, the chief executive officer of Microsoft, had announced that the global behemoth now relies on artificial intelligence (AI) to write as much as 30% of codes in some of its projects. It seemed like a preamble to the drastic measures taken a month later.

Ironically, among those affected by the layoffs was Gabriela de Queiroz, the director of AI at the company, who took the blow on the chin with grace. In a post on professional networking platform LinkedIn, de Queiroz expressed her sadness at the situation, while admitting that "These days, no matter how hard you work... none of that makes you immune to restructuring."

Not everyone was as optimistic or controlled as de Queiroz. In a viral post on social media platform Reddit, an anonymous person claiming to be the wife of an unnamed Microsoft employee who had worked there for 25 years, wrote about his unimpeachable work ethic—a man with autism and multiple sclerosis, who routinely pulled off long workdays, never entirely stopped working even on vacations, and seldom called in sick.

THE AI TAKEOVER None of these values, lauded as a sign of loyalty to the employer, matter in the face of hard business decisions. It is difficult to find the exact number of layoffs worldwide since the outbreak of covid-19 five years ago but, for scale, 167,000 techies were laid off in one quarter in 2023, according to data released by Statista.