Microsoft offers voluntary exit scheme to staff in India, US, UK and Canada

A new Microsoft scheme is drawing attention worldwide. On October 26, the company announced a Voluntary Exit Offer (VEO). Under the plan, employees in select departments have been given the option to leave their jobs by December 1. Those who leave are also paid base salary for a few months.

Mid-level employees who opt for the scheme receive 39 weeks of base pay, while senior-level employees are given 12 months of base pay. The offer applies in India, the US, the UK and Canada.

A voluntary exit offer is a corporate scheme under which a company gives employees the chance to leave of their own accord instead of laying them off. Microsoft has made a similar offer to 60,000 employees in India and four other countries.

Meanwhile, a post on the social media platform Reddit is being widely discussed. A software development engineer based in Hyderabad wrote that they had been offered 1.1 million rupees to leave Microsoft, an amount equal to three months of their salary. They asked others whether they should take the money and quit.

The engineer's dilemma is that there is no certainty about when another job would come after leaving. If a new job does not come quickly, how long 1.1 million rupees would cover their expenses is a matter of concern.

Opinion on the post was divided. Some said leaving before securing another job is not advisable, since finding a new job in the IT sector can take time. Other users said that if an employee has savings and is already considering changing jobs or taking a break, the offer could be the best option.

Many employees are also asking whether their jobs would be at risk if they decline the offer. In its official statement, Microsoft has not said that employees who turn down the VEO will be dismissed. The company has made clear that the entire process is voluntary. The scheme applies only to select departments.