Fighting Voluntary Exit? Get Ready, Layoffs Can Be Even Worse!

It is an established fact that some of the biggest companies in the world, including Microsoft, Google, and Meta have been firing their employees at an aggressive rate. We have arrived at a point where companies have started to fire thousands of employees, just for the sake of it.

This has become a major concern to the global working population as things are not looking very promising at this point in time.

On that note, we have the latest discussion happening about Microsoft, which has introduced the voluntary exit program for its employees. The company is preparing to fire more than 60,000 workers globally through this program.

This has opened a new discussion about the aspect of voluntary exit and how it is different from the traditional layoff procedure.

In the employment context, this voluntary exit program comes with its own financial incentives as the people who have been with the company for many years will receive significant package.

There are several social media posts about people who have been with Microsoft for more than 10 years, getting a financial compensation of more than ₹50 lakh. If that is the case, then taking the voluntary exit program might not be the worst outcome.

But at the same time, if anyone who has this voluntary exit proposal, but still declines and eventually gets laid off, the consequences could be pretty severe. The financial compensation package might not be as revolving by default.

Apart from that, an employee who exits voluntarily will have a better record than the person who gets laid off by the company. So this is going to be a crucial psychological indication as well.

So it is being established in principal that taking the voluntary exit program is a bit more efficient and reflect well on the candidate than getting laid off.