Microsoft

The company's sole redeeming quality was its culture. However, the recent layoffs, which stigmatized thousands of employees as low performers, have completely eliminated that advantage.

This company has consistently been hampered by poor decisions. It was making progress after 2014 until this year, when, in an attempt to avoid severance costs, they publicly labeled the latest layoffs as "low performance." This disastrous move has reverted the company to the toxic atmosphere of the 2010s, where employee morale was abysmal, and only low performers and those adept at office politics thrived.

Instead of laying off productive individual contributors who directly impact the company's bottom line, I strongly recommend reconsidering and focusing on reducing the number of junior to mid-level managers. These managers often prioritize self-preservation and currying favor with their superiors. During my time there, I had three managers, and each of them had fewer than five direct reports, which seems to be the norm. Astonishingly, Microsoft HR never addressed this inefficient management structure.

Companies like Meta, Amazon, and Google recognized this issue and took proactive steps to optimize their workforce. However, Microsoft seems incapable of intelligent optimization, instead relying on algorithms to make cuts, which disproportionately affect valuable individual contributors managed by these inefficient mid-level managers.

Without trust, you have nothing. So, it’s time for companies to take a more proactive approach to building back the trust between management and labor. People need to be able to believe and trust that if they do right, the business will do right for them.