As Microsoft offers buyouts to 60,000 employees, a tech leader explains the hidden risks of such a large-scale offer

When thousands of employees decide that they want to leave a company, the biggest losses might not be immediately visible on a balance sheet. Critical knowledge that has been built over years can disappear, while access to company systems and sensitive information needs to be secured before the exiting workers move on. These are the risks technology advisor Rob Zelinka has highlighted as Microsoft offers voluntary exit packages to around 60,000 employees.

Zelinka, who has previously worked as chief information officer at Jack Henry & Associates, spoke about these implications in a LinkedIn post. While voluntary buyouts give employees a choice to leave, he warned that companies should be prepared for the operational and cybersecurity challenges that large-scale exits can create for them.

“The unwritten process I’ve written about here. It's the judgment that never made it into a procedure,” Zelinka wrote, pointing to the kind of experience that companies risk losing when long-serving employees leave.

Why is Microsoft offering buyouts to 60,000 employees?

Microsoft's Voluntary Exit Offer (VEO) is for the eligible employees in India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada. The programme is available to employees at level 70 and below in participating organisations, with eligibility varying according to business priorities, customer commitments and workforce requirements.

The latest announcement comes after an earlier voluntary retirement offer this year and job cuts that affected around 4,800 employees in July.

According to PTI, Microsoft has approximately 23,000 employees in India, but the company has not disclosed how many qualify for the latest offer. Eligible employees in India reportedly have until December 1 to decide whether to accept it.

The package is reported to include one month's base salary for every completed year of service, health insurance and career transition support. Individual terms may vary, and employees must refer to their offers for the applicable conditions.

Risk 1: Experienced employees could take critical knowledge with them

Zelinka's first big concern is that voluntary exit programmes can easily attract employees who have other career options. Such workers may have years of experience and a detailed understanding of systems, processes and problems that formal documentation does not fully capture.

He explained the risk in direct terms: “If we don’t capture it before people walk out, we lose it.”

Also, if companies do not arrange knowledge transfers before employees leave, the remaining teams may struggle to maintain operations or resolve problems.

Risk 2: Departures can create cybersecurity gaps

Zelinka also warned that employee exits need careful attention from technology and security teams.

“From where I sit as a technology leader, large-scale departures are an identity and data risk,” he wrote.

He specifically highlighted accounts, privileged access, shared files and credentials as areas that require attention when employees leave. If access is not reviewed and revoked appropriately, former employees could retain permissions they no longer need.

Zelinka described departing employees as a “classic insider risk moment”, showing why access management must be part of the exit process rather than an administrative task left until later.

Is AI behind Microsoft's workforce changes?

Microsoft's offer comes as major technology companies invest heavily in AI infrastructure, including data centres and chips. Zelinka said the cost of these investments is coinciding with workforce reductions elsewhere in the industry.

However, he cautioned against assuming that AI is directly replacing the employees covered by Microsoft's offer. The company has not said that AI is the reason for the programme.

His argument is that businesses should be transparent about why they are restructuring. “If a restructuring is about funding a strategic bet, say so,” Zelinka wrote. “People can handle hard news. They don't forgive being managed.”