Leadership
Why the Smartest Companies Now Pay People to Leave
We count the 1,000 who leave. We never count the 5,000 who stay — and how broken their loyalty becomes.
On October 26, 2026 — just five days ago — Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees, 27 percent of its global workforce. This is not a layoff email. It is a choice — financial support, career resources, and till December 31 to decide.
Contrast this with what Indian IT did in the last 12 months.
TCS announced cutting 12,000 middle and senior roles in July 2025. Its headcount fell by 19,755 in one quarter to 593,314. Wipro cut 6,716 employees in the September quarter alone. Industry data shows India’s top IT firms recorded 92,000 exits in the past year.
Globally, Amazon cut 30,000 corporate jobs — 14,000 in October 2025 and 16,000 in January 2026. Meta cut 8,000 employees, 10 percent of its workforce, in May 2026. Microsoft itself had cut 15,000 in May–July 2025 and another 4,800 in July 2026 before this voluntary offer.
Same numbers, two philosophies — arbitrary layoff vs voluntary exit. And the difference in survivor loyalty is stark.
Evidence One: Survivor Syndrome Is Expensive
Columbia Business School’s Joel Brockner, whose research defined the study of layoff “survivors”, showed that how people are let go shapes how those who stay behave. Their effort, their commitment and their trust in management all turn on one question: was the process fair?
Why? Fairness.
Evidence Two: Voluntary Feels Just
A meta-analysis of layoff studies covering 9,080 survivors found that the commitment of those who stay is consistently and strongly linked to whether the exit process is perceived as just. Microsoft’s first voluntary retirement programme in April 2026 — 8,750 eligible, 30 percent accepted — actually made the July forced cuts smaller, as its Chief People Officer acknowledged. People chose to go.
Amazon’s method was the opposite: early-morning emails, Slack queries about severance, jobs cut in India, the UK and the US. The result? Trust collapsed. Surveys of layoff survivors tell the same story — in one, 71 percent said their motivation declined and 61 percent were less likely to recommend their employer as a place to work.
Evidence Three: The TCS and Microsoft Buyout Model
TCS offered tenure-based severance — up to two years’ pay for employees with 15+ years of service. When exit is voluntary and compensated, union protests reduce, and remaining employees see management as humane.
Microsoft’s new offer covers employees at level 70 and below, with up to 39 weeks of base pay. It is strategic, not panic.
The Question Is Not If, but How
This is the future for 2026. Tech companies have already laid off more than 135,000 employees in 2026 across 336 companies — about 450 jobs lost every day, as per Layoffs.fyi. Oracle cut 21,000 (13 percent) in a single year. Big Tech’s capex, mostly on AI, is up to $725 billion this year. Jobs will go.
The question is not if, but how.
My Prescription for Indian CEOs
One, never do a midnight email. Do what Microsoft did last week — a Voluntary Exit Offer with time, money, and dignity.
Two, talk to survivors openly. Explain the business reason. People can accept a hard decision they understand; what breaks them is being kept in the dark.
Three, invest in survivors on day one. TCS, which shed nearly 20,000 roles in a single quarter last year, reported 17.1 million learning hours last quarter, up 17 percent sequentially.
We cannot stop exits in an AI/SI economy. We can make them voluntary.
