No redundancies to be found at the top, it seems.
In a classic example of "read the room," it has been revealed that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has seen a pay increase of 63%, bringing his annual salary up to $79.1 million. While the CEO of a company can earn anything he wants, it is rather shocking to see such a lavish pay package when Microsoft has laid off over 2,500 people this year. The layoffs have been ongoing and relentless in the time since Activision Blizzard was acquired by the company. Since then, the term "redundancies" has been bandied about as the stock excuse for staff reductions.
In September, 650 employees were let go, while back in January, 1,900 people lost their jobs. This is on top of four Bethesda studio closures, including Tango Game works, which was fortunate enough to be rescued by Krafton and reinstated. Unfortunately, good news like that is relatively uncommon these days, while word of high-ranking corporate officials getting huge paydays is not. This stands in stark contrast with some Japanese CEOs who will take reductions in pay during lean times. We'll see if Nadella's good fortunes ever spread to the worker bees of Microsoft in the future.
Source: Microsoft Regulatory Filing