The company’s investments in AI are unsurprising considering how central this tech has become for the industry, but the scale of Microsoft’s layoffs has been particularly noteworthy. Microsoft has announced the general availability of Windows 11 version 25H2 after months of testing. The next version of Windows 11 has been ready and waiting in the wings for a handful of weeks, and now the company is giving it a formal go-ahead for launch. With Monday’s layoffs, disclosed in a state regulatory filing, the number of Washington-based workers affected has passed 3,200. “Embrace, extend, and extinguish” (EEE),338 also known as “embrace, extend, and exterminate,”339 is a phrase that the U.S. Microsoft is frequently accused of using anticompetitive tactics and abusing its monopolistic power.
Microsoft’s Consistent Job Cuts Bear Down Heavily on Employees
Since the pandemic, Microsoft has had a flexible work arrangement, allowing remote work as much as half of the time. According to the BI report, Microsoft is considering increasing the requirement for in-person work for employees based in its Redmond, Washington, headquarters to at least three days a week starting in January. The tech industry is highly competitive, and prolonged layoffs can deter top talent from joining or staying with Microsoft, despite the trend of layoffs across top-tier organizations. Layoffs are notorious for disrupting organizational culture, particularly at a company like Microsoft, which has historically prided itself on innovation and collaboration. The company has doubled down on how central AI is to its operations, even asking employees to utilize the tool sufficiently if they hope to get an A-plus on their performance reviews.
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The Microsoft layoffs this time are minor, with only around 42 jobs being axed in Redmond. The link between the Microsoft job cuts and the company’s AI investments is clear to see, but the evidence doesn’t soften the blow for employees. Microsoft layoffs, for the fifth month in a row, add to the consistent anxiety that employees are operating under, fearful of what’s to come next. Austin, Texas-based cloud computing giant Oracle, which has an engineering hub in the Seattle area, laid off more than 260 Seattle-area employees this summer as part of companywide cuts. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella explained the job cuts in a memo to staff released on Microsoft’s corporate blog last month.
- The company is on a streak of layoffs right now, continuing one of the largest runs in its history.
- Microsoft reported its quarterly revenue results for the last part of its 2025 fiscal year in June, and they were certainly impressive.
- If you don’t want to wait, our latest guide shows how you can force Windows 11 version 25H2 to update right now.
- Microsoft’s job cuts have been linked to its AI ambitions, with an investment of $80 billion announced for 2025.
- The next version of Windows 11 has been ready and waiting in the wings for a handful of weeks, and now the company is giving it a formal go-ahead for launch.
We have already seen reports of multiple employee protests at the organization over its business practices and political associations, which suggest the presence of considerable unrest among employees. Will the company continue to thrive, or will we see cracks appear in the facade as employees grow weary of the conditions of work? Layoff survivors face considerable guilt over the relief they feel at still having their jobs, and they remain under constant anxiety under the threat of additional layoffs.
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New reports from the Seattle Times confirmed that Microsoft was entering its fifth consecutive month of layoffs, albeit on a smaller scale this time around. The Microsoft Redmond job cuts add up to around 42 workers, but this brings the number of cuts among Washington-based employees to over 3,200, and the total methods of accounting number of employees affected by layoffs since May 2025 to over 15,000. Microsoft continues down the warpath, making cuts both big and small across its organization for the fifth month in a row.
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It has been criticized for its monopolistic practices, and the company’s software has been criticized for problems with ease of use, robustness, and security. Empower your organization with Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat that supercharges productivity, sparks creativity, and keeps your data protected with enterprise data protection. I understand that the data I am submitting will be used to provide me with the above-described products and/or services and communications in connection therewith. Regular updates, town hall meetings, and clear explanations of the company agenda and strategic direction can help maintain trust to some degree, but the impact is considerable nonetheless.
- Last month, Microsoft announced that for the quarter ending June 30, revenue was up 18% from the previous year, reaching $76.4 billion, while net income was $27.2 billion, a 24% increase.
- If you’d like to download the enablement package update files to upgrade from version 24H2 to version 25H2 quickly, you can download the file corresponding to your architecture below.
- Microsoft continues down the warpath, making cuts both big and small across its organization for the fifth month in a row.
- New reports from the Seattle Times confirmed that Microsoft was entering its fifth consecutive month of layoffs, albeit on a smaller scale this time around.
Microsoft’s job cuts have been linked to its AI ambitions, with an investment of $80 billion announced for 2025. The number of cuts mentioned in filings for June and August was far smaller, but the impact on employees has been consistently harsh. The Redmond job cuts at Microsoft appear targeted at fields like product management, engineering, and legal teams, so they are sufficiently spread out and indicate a desire for additional efficiency. In the middle of Microsoft’s waves of layoffs this summer the company reported record quarterly revenue and profits for the final three months of its 2025 fiscal year, which ended June 30. Microsoft’s logo with the tagline “Your potential. Our passion.”—below the main corporate name—is based on a slogan Microsoft used in 2008. At the same time, Microsoft has reported stellar earnings, greater than analyst expectations.
While version 25H2 doesn’t include any new features on its own, Microsoft is working on a number of new Windows 11 features that are expected to debut in the coming weeks. Things like a brand new Start menu, improvements to dark mode, updates to Phone Link, and more are all in the works. Alternatively, you can download the official ISO media for Windows 11 version 25H2, which is available in 38 languages in either x64 or Arm64 flavors. Or you can use Microsoft’s official Windows Media Creation Tool that will streamline the process and make creating a USB installation key easy.
During the first few waves of layoffs this year, Microsoft’s enormous financial success was the unmentioned elephant in the room. CEO Satya Nadella addressed that in July, after more than 15,000 employees were let go, acknowledging the “uncertainty and seeming incongruence” between historical success and massive job cuts. The company is on a streak of layoffs right now, continuing one of the largest runs in its history. Some waves have been large, with more than 6,000 employees let go in May and an additional 9,000 cut in July. Criticism of Microsoft has followed various aspects of its products and business practices. Frequently criticized are the ease of use, robustness, and security of the company’s software.
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Last month, Microsoft announced that for the quarter ending June 30, revenue was up 18% from the previous year, reaching $76.4 billion, while net income was $27.2 billion, a 24% increase. Microsoft recently conducted mass layoffs, eliminating 9,000 roles in July, or nearly 4% of its workforce. Two months earlier, in May, Microsoft laid off over 6,000 employees, or 3% of its workforce.
Microsoft’s recent three-day RTO policy came with the assurance that the move was not directed at encouraging headcount reductions. But this becomes harder to believe considering the current climate of Microsoft layoffs for the fifth month in a row. The next version of Windows 11 is now generally available, and while it doesn’t include any new features or changes, it does come with up to 36 months of additional support over version 24H2. The Microsoft 365 Copilot app brings together your favorite apps in one intuitive platform that keeps your data secure with enterprise data protection. In 2025, both AT&T and Sweetgreen revised their stances on remote work, with AT&T asking U.S. staff to work all five days from the office while Sweetgreen mandated four days. If Microsoft implements a stricter return-to-office policy, it would join a slew of other companies that have tightened the limits on remote work recently — or eliminated it altogether.
As of today, Windows 11 version 25H2 is now rolling out, which means it will soon show up as an update available for you to download and install via Windows Update. Version 25H2 is a minor update, delivered as an enablement package and sits on top of version 24H2, meaning the download and install process should be very quick. The layoffs are separate from previous announcements, and the companywide impact was small, according to a Microsoft spokesperson.
