With a potential U.S. recession that could reach global scales looming right on the horizon, large companies like Oracle,among others, have begun laying off. Others like Google have cautioned workers to stay sharp in these difficult times.
Microsoft looks like the latest company to get on the layoff train as a new report by BusinessInsider says that the Modern Life Experiences (MLX) team has been let go. While Microsoft did not comment on the news, there appears to be some decent evidence which points towards the incident being true indeed.
Erynn Hesler, Product design lead and manager for consumer products at Microsoft, took to LinkedIn to offer her support to colleagues who "faced hard news" earlier today.
Although Hesler notes the MLX team was small, probably compared to the total workforce of Microsoft as a whole that is, the BusinessInsider report says that it was around 200 strong according to an employee, and since the entire division is apparently being slashed, potentially everyone of them could be impacted by the decision.
The report adds that Microsoft has offered them 60 days or two months time to find another suitable position at the company or take severance.
The Modern Life Experiences or MLX was a division created by Microsoft back in 2016-17 for researching and developing customer-focused projects. This is an area where Microsoft has generally struggled and has only tasted success in some of its projects like the Xbox consoles and the Surface products. However the news indicates that the Redmond company is potentially giving up on the consumer side of things or feels it does not require such a department.
Source: BusinessInsider