After years of job cuts, Microsoft turns to voluntary exits to reshape its workforce
Chief people officer Amy Coleman’s memo introduces another tool for managing staffing as the company adapts to changing business needs. The offer is not universal, with individual organizations deciding whether to participate.
Microsoft is giving some employees a financially supported route out of the company as it seeks to make its workforce more adaptable, with the new program available only to selected organizations rather than across the company.
In an internal memo, Amy Coleman, Microsoft’s executive vice president and chief people officer, announced the introduction of a Voluntary Exit Offer (VEO), describing it as a way for employees considering life outside the company to make that transition with financial support and career-planning resources.
The offer is available to eligible employees at level 70 and below in participating teams in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India. Microsoft has said that approximately 60,000 employees are eligible to receive the offer, although not all parts of the company are participating.
“Some organisations are providing the Voluntary Exit Offer, and some are not,” Coleman wrote, explaining that participation depends on individual businesses’ priorities, customer commitments and workforce needs.
Employees who qualify were told to expect an email containing details of their offer. The program is time-limited, with employees previously informed that they must make their decisions by the first week of December.
The company eliminated about 4,800 positions in July and cut hundreds more in September, following more than 15,000 job cuts in 2025. The July reductions affected its commercial and Xbox businesses as Microsoft sought to reorganize sales operations and address challenges in gaming.
Coleman presented the initiative as part of a broader change in how Microsoft manages its workforce, building on lessons from a voluntary retirement program introduced earlier this year.
“The Voluntary Exit Offer reflects an important part of how we’re evolving our approach to change: creating greater flexibility and, where possible, more ways for employees to shape their next chapter,” she wrote.
The package provides financial support and career-planning resources. The terms outlined to eligible employees include standard severance, stock vesting, healthcare coverage and career services, although healthcare coverage is not extended beyond the standard provisions.
The program offers for Microsoft an additional way to respond to differing staffing requirements across its businesses. Some teams may have reasons to reduce or reshape their workforces, while others may need to retain employees to meet customer commitments or support ongoing priorities. The company has not indicated that every organization will use the program in the same way.
The initiative also comes as Microsoft continues to reorganize parts of its workforce while investing heavily in artificial intelligence and the infrastructure needed to support it. The company has used layoffs as another tool in its workforce management.
Coleman emphasized that the new program is an experiment from which Microsoft expects to learn, rather than a permanent, uniform approach to employee departures.
“The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us. We’ll learn from it,” she wrote, adding that the company would continue helping employees develop skills and pursue opportunities elsewhere within Microsoft where appropriate.
“There is no one-size-fits-all approach for every team or every employee,” Coleman said.
