US employees whose combined years of service added to their age totals 70 or more will be eligible for voluntary retirement, and Coleman says this will include “generous company support.” It’s not clear if this is a precursor to more layoffs at Microsoft, but it certainly looks like a method to avoid a bigger round of layoffs ahead of Microsoft’s new financial year in July.
Emphasis is mine. If I’d stayed around Microsoft until now I’d be able to retire. Take my 58 years plus another 30 years of employment (if I’d stayed) and I’d be taking that offer. 😄
My first go round with Visio was in 1993, I left for a spell and returned in May of 1996. Visio was acquired in November of 2001 and I left in August 2003 because I was a remote employee and Microsoft “moved” my job location to Redmond. I took the severance package.