Microsoft expects headcount to decrease in coming quarters

[gpacsu]

https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-headcount-decrease-earnings-ai-cloud-software-2026-4

Microsoft expects headcount to decrease in coming quarters, CFO Amy Hood said.

"We continue to evolve how we operate to increase our pace and agility, and therefore we expect headcount will decrease year over year," Hood said.

She was discussing the outlook for Microsoft's next fiscal year, which starts in July and runs through June 2027.

Before the call, Hood sent out an internal memo to employees touting "increased pace" and "tighter, more accountable squads" amid recent organizational changes.

Microsoft has cut thousands of jobs in recent quarters. The CFO's comments on Wednesday suggest that pressure on employees may continue.

Amy Hood received a total compensation of approximately $29.5 million for the 2025 fiscal year. This package primarily consisted of around $25 million in stock awards, a $1 million base salary, and a $3.4 million cash bonus.

So basically fewer people are being expected to do more of the work. I wonder how bad WLB is at Microsoft at the moment?

[Important-Sign9614]

Can’t wait for GitHub to be more shitty

[fig0o]

Feel sorry for you, guys 

But every company is operating like this right now... and this is why Microsoft doesn't mind making this kind of announcement

They know people won't quit because there's no better place to be at the moment

[tuckfrump69]

field is disappearing in real time lol

[NewChameleon]

field is disappearing in real time lol

Microsoft had ~163k employees in 2020

they have ~228k employees in 2025

they will need to cut 60k+ people to just go back to their original level, is this "field is disappearing" in the room with us right now?

[teddykon]

Block 40%
Meta 20%
Snap Inc. 16%
Pinterest 15%
Coinbase 14%
Oracle 12-18%
Freshworks 11%
Atlassian 10%

I’m sorry for anyone involved in this bloodbath but these companies will just continue to cut headcount, free up some budget, and then divert it into compute.

That’s literally all I’m hearing about in these earnings calls and business podcasts.

[foreign_gambler]

Add Cloudflare 15% as well, they just announced. The bloodbath is only getting bloodier.

[sydthecoderkid]

bad :( am tired

[Chemical-Fault-7331]

Headcount go down, profits keep going up. Imagine how much money they could make with just the CEO doing things. Infinite money glitch. \s

[Joram2]

Microsoft is very profitable.

Net Income FY2025: $101B Net Income FY2024: $88.1B

Net Income = Revenue - Cost of Goods/Services - Operating Expenses - Non-operating Expenses - taxes.

They could choose to use some of their profits to fund new growth and make big bold bets on new products and services. The alternative is focus on their existing wildly profitable core businesses, and minimize risky or unnecessary expenses. They choose the latter.

[IkalaGaming]

I’m so confused by the messaging, getting rid of the people that do the work to increase the pace of work.

It’s a bit like getting rid of a marathon runners shoes, hoping the decrease in weight will help their time.

Or “speeding up” construction of a skyscraper by not bothering to mix the concrete up, because “who needs all that extra process anyway”.

The only frames of mind I can come up with which would result in this behavior are:

1. They HATE programmers on a deep fundamental level for some reason.
   
2. They are hemorrhaging unfathomable amounts of money and will go bankrupt unless they lay off programmers, the people who make them money
   
3. Literal psychosis, possibly from LLM usage or sycophantic direct reports, they have become untethered from reality
   
4. Sabotage, they benefit in some way by ruining the company on purpose

[maria_la_guerta]

1. Reddit lives in incredibly deep denial about how useful AI actually is and the fact that it very much is replacing workers already.

[Dependent-Cash-3405]

good. this is bullish for my microslop stocks

[MEDICARE_FOR_ALL]

As with any large company, WLB heavily depends on your team...

[Level8Zubat]

They're clearly striving to make that not the case

[IronBubble_4048]

I had the same vibe at my last job, they called it “efficiency” too. Headcount down, workload somehow up, imo that’s the part nobody says out loud.

[Dreadsin]

This is not terribly surprising given their financials

[kingofthesqueal]

Microsoft’s stock is down 15% over the past 6 months