Microsoft tackles quality control issues. Just kidding, it's encouraging experienced workers to leave

Windows giant offers buyouts to eligible staffers willing to walk
Microsoft has committed to improving the quality and reliability of Windows, and a step on the path to that goal is… encouraging a chunk of its US staff to leave the company.

As confirmed by The Register sources, the company has announced, via internal memo, a voluntary buyout scheme for US employees.

So if you work in that region, are at the senior director level or below, and if your age plus years of employment at Microsoft comes to 70 or higher – you might be eligible to leap from the gangplank of the good ship Nadella rather than receiving a shove from HR.

There will be some exceptions, including employees with sales incentive plans, but a figure of approximately 7 percent is a guide to how big a chunk of the workforce could be eligible.

That translates to just under 9,000 employees.

Microsoft has laid off thousands of employees in recent years.

In July 2025, it cut 9,000 jobs , and later that month, the company's CEO, Satya Nadella, wrote that the terminations were "weighing heavily on me."
The anniversary of Nadella's handwringing is fast approaching; it is not difficult to imagine a stack of pink slips being prepared somewhere in the bowels of Redmond if voluntary redundancy doesn't reduce the headcount sufficiently.

The problem with voluntary buyouts is that they tend to target experienced employees, and these are the workers that Microsoft desperately needs if it wants to deal with the quality issues in its software.

Earlier this year, Windows boss Pavan Davuluri assured customers complaining about the relentless flow of out-of-band updates that Microsoft will "raise the bar on Windows 11 quality." He didn't specify where that bar will be raised to, but if the corporation sheds too many experienced workers, the answer could end up being "not very high."
The Register understands that AI has not been mentioned, but Microsoft has poured billions of dollars into the technology.

Nadella, who rarely misses an opportunity to talk up AI's potential, saw his own compensation grow to $96.5 million for Microsoft's fiscal 2025.

But hey, he's worth it, right?

Best not look at the company's stock price, which has fallen by more than 20 percent during the last six months.

Buyouts are a blunt tool to reduce headcount, yet early retirees might include staff with useful skills who are effectively being paid to find work elsewhere.

NASA reportedly lost many of its most experienced workers during 2025's buyouts and terminations, and Microsoft might take heed of the space agency's experience.

AI assistance will not resolve Microsoft's quality problems on its own, and persuading skilled and experienced employees to depart seems counterproductive.

Still, if enough people walk, perhaps there won't be a need to pull out the redundancy gun in a few months to keep the Copilot fires burning.®