Microsoft is offering about 60,000 workers money to leave their jobs by choice. This is about 27% of its 223,000 workers worldwide. The offer covers some workers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and India. Workers do not have to accept it.
Some senior managers can take the offer, but not every team can join. Some workers in sales, marketing and centres with large numbers of computers cannot take part. Workers have until early December to decide. People who accept will leave on 31 December.
The amount of money depends on their time at Microsoft. The rules also differ between countries. In the United States, workers will get at least eight weeks of pay. They will also get help with health costs and finding another job.
Microsoft expects fewer than 5% of workers with the offer to accept it. It says it does not want a large fall in staff numbers. The company is spending more on equipment for artificial intelligence, or AI, a type of computer technology. Some economists link the offer to this change, but Microsoft says AI is not the reason for its offers to pay workers to leave.
