Microsoft Claims The "January Purge" Is Cancelled (For Now)
It is January, the air is cold, and usually, so are the HR departments at major tech companies, but Microsoft insists they are skipping the annual bloodletting this time.
If you work in tech, you know the drill. You come back from the holiday break, still full of turkey and regret, only to find your badge doesn't work. Rumors have been swirling all week that Microsoft was preparing to axe anywhere from 11,000 to 22,000 employees this month. It fits the pattern, it fits the economic vibe, and it fits the "Year of AI Efficiency" narrative.
But apparently, we are all paranoid.
The Denial
Frank X. Shaw, Microsoft's Chief Communications Officer, didn't mince words. In response to a report circulating on Twitter (originally from TipRanks and Blind) claiming massive impending cuts, Shaw replied:
"This is 100 percent made up/speculative/wrong."
He also threw shade at the "AI generated news" cycle that likely amplified the panic. Usually, when a corporation plans to fire you, they give a vague "no comment" or "we are always evaluating our business needs." A hard "100% wrong" is rare. It suggests that either the rumors are completely baseless, or the specific numbers (22k) were so off-base that he felt comfortable debunking them on a technicality.
Why Nobody Believed Him At First
You can't blame the workforce for being jumpy. Microsoft has a tradition of ruining Januaries.
January 2023: The big one. 10,000 employees let go.
January 2024: The gaming gut-punch. 1,900 staff cut from Xbox and Activision.
January 2025: A rolling series of cuts that eventually totaled over 15,000 for the year.
When you have a track record like that, "Happy New Year" sounds less like a greeting and more like a threat.
i want to believe
I want to believe Frank. I really do. But corporate comms is a game of semantics. "100% wrong" could mean "It's not 22,000 people, it's 9,000." It could mean "It's not happening in January, it's happening in February."
For now, the official word is no mass layoffs. If you are a Microsoft employee, you can probably exhale. Just don't get too comfortable. In this industry, job security is about as real as the "unlimited potential" of an NFT.