A former Microsoft employee needed a safe space to vent after the tech giant cut the red thread of fate connecting them. And they eventually did on the social media platform Reddit.
Just days ago, the internet user took the digital forum, sounding the alarm on Reddit they deemed a betrayal on the part of his old company that began with Microsoft and ultimately had Cognizant also playing accomplice in the supposed corporate deception.
What was particularly heart-breaking about this person’s layoff story was that Microsoft didn’t outrightly cut the professional trying them together. Instead of minimising the pain felt on their side, the tech mammoth pulled off a “corporate sleight of hand that cost real people real futures.”
Viral Reddit post details ex-Microsoft employee’s layoff story
The once-“proud” Microsoft employee said that upon landing the job of their dreams they felt as if they had finally “made it somewhere real.” However, a bitter plot twist awaited them at the end of the road.
As per their Reddit account, Microsoft ended up selling their entire division to Cognizant with “zero warning” as if they were “secondhand office chairs.”
Following the professional transition, Microsoft completely dusted off any responsibility of the division.
Contrary to their silent snubbing, Cognizant “didn’t even fake a transition plan,” wrote the Redditor. And so, the ex-Microsoft employee and other in his team were given “no chance to pivot.” The situation ultimately devolved into a “slow bleed until (they) were all laid off.”
Redditor accuses Microsoft, Cognizant of ‘killing trust’
The former Microsoft worker goes on imply the tech giants “didn’t just kill the job,” but also “killed the trust” and their “dignity” in the process of silently pushing them off the corporate ladder. As a result both companies not only ended up terminating the staff members from their posts, but also their “belief that effort meant something.”
Whoever was behind the post further confesses that they still fell angry about what happened and hot it all transpired. Nonetheless, they acknowledged that the particular emotion that continues to surge in their mind has a way of telling them it a “corporate sleight of hand” costing “real people real futures” was “not okay.”
The Redditor then confesses that they are no clinging on to one truth for their own sanity, which is: they were “not fired,” rather “freed.”
“What for?” one might ask. Well, they answer, “Freed to build something that can’t be sold off behind closed doors. Freed to stop chasing brands and start chasing meaning.”
In an attempt to console others who may have suffered a similar corporate fate given the amplifying numbers of layoff consuming the employment sector at large, they concluded by taking a jab at the big companies calling the shot. “You’re not the disposable one. They are,” the ex-Microsofter wrote.
Internet reacts to viral Reddit post
“Looks like Microsoft found a way to not pay severance,” commented a user. Meanwhile, many some others debated whether the Redditor was a contractor or a full-time equivalent (FTE).
Another Redditor chimed in by sharing their own experience with AT&T. “I am pretty sure you are correct because I worked for AT&T and that’s exactly what they did. One day the team came in and they said the whole department is moving to Tech Mahendra,” they wrote in the thread. “Effective today you no longer work for AT&T…”
Yet another user directly went on to take a jab at the US employment scene altogether: “America is NOT a meritocracy, it is a get yours before someone else does. Sad but true.”
The someone came in and advised similarly affected people by layoffs in the tech sector to branch out into other areas. “My advice: Don’t be afraid to restart,” they began. ” I thought I had a ruined career. It took two years for me to get back to near 3/4 what I was making as an IT exec. Now I am with a job so relaxing and easy that my morning anxiety went away. They can have that money in that right… I haven’t been happier.”
Having switched directions after their own presumed job cut, they divulged, “I am now a utility pricing and regulatory consultant. I used to do IT, and now I feel bad for anyone still trying to make that work in the USA.”
They even encouraged people to take “the lesser pay” if needed while starting out in a new professional area, and then “push your pay up.”
“Not saying to take less than you are worth. Don’t let anyone know your worth until it makes sense so you can push that salary up,” they added.
A Redditor even went as far as calling Cognizant a “scam body shop that actively discriminates against non-Indian workers and delivers garbage quality work for the bottom dollar.”