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points by John23832 3 days ago | 0 comments

If you take it you're not eligible to unemployment. I think in this market, given the undefined length of employment searching at the moment, that's a major consideration.

[–] hibikir 3 days ago

For most Microsoft employees, the maximum unemployment benefits in most states are a rounding error vs the buyout offer. Here in Missouri it's $320, maxed to 20 weeks. So for most local employees that might get this letter, It's less than a month of salary, and that without accounting for months of health benefits, which I bet the buyout includes.

[–] gpvos 3 days ago

That's $320/week, to be clear.

[–] thefunnyman 3 days ago

Unemployment in WA where Microsoft is headquartered has quite generous unemployment. Max of $1208 a week up to 26 weeks and based on your previous salary so most certainly ex-Microsoft will be maxing this out.

[–] dpark 3 days ago

That works out to $31k. That’s not a lot for a software engineer at Microsoft. Levels.fyi pegs entry level at $170k. So that’s like 2 months of pay.

The buyout offer certainly will exceed the unemployment payout for most.

[–] cactusplant7374 3 days ago

Unemployment isn’t very much, is it?

[–] xp84 3 days ago

Yeah, it’s really not for us, it’s more about tiding over a laid-off retail worker so they don’t get evicted. Not allowing someone with a mortgage in Cupertino or Redmond and little savings to keep their lifestyle mostly intact with just a little belt-tightening.

And I’m not saying that in a grumpy way. Yes we do have much higher salaries, and because of that it’s reasonable that it’s on us to save up for this type of rainy day, in accordance with our own personal risk assessment.

It’s honestly something I spent 15 years rarely thinking about, because while I’ve seen many RIFs, I was never worried since getting a new job was as easy as just responding to a few of the messages that constantly came in via LinkedIn or email. No longer.

[–] rootusrootus 3 days ago

In Washington, it ranges from 383/week to 1208/week. For anybody making up to ~188K it amounts to 1/3 of what they were making, for up to six months.

[–] 0cf8612b2e1e 3 days ago

Ah tech money.

Not everyone has options and unemployment can be the difference between being on the street or eating ramen.

[–] annodomini2019 3 days ago

Weird comment when the context is about whether a TECH employee should take the buyout offer vs unemployment...?

[–] 0cf8612b2e1e 3 days ago

Microsoft employs more than highly paid programmers. There are sales, janitors, cooks, admins, drivers, shipping, etc

[–] annodomini2019 3 days ago

I would assume a lot of the types of people you're talking about are in fact not Microsoft employees, it's way more common these days to hire people like on-site cooks through agencies that effectively make them contractors for Microsoft. This notice is definitely about "corporate" employees, and I believe another comment noted that in a different source it's stated that sales and marketing are not even being offered this deal.

[–] hajile 3 days ago

States like Florida cap out at $275/week with a maximum of $3,300 (over just 12 weeks). McDonalds pays around $16/hr according to indeed. Unemployment almost might as well not exist.

[–] danaris 3 days ago

It's possible you don't live in the US...?

Generally, in the US, unemployment lasts a few months tops. Regardless of how long you worked, or how long you will be without work.

[–] apple4ever 3 days ago

I'm not sure if that's true.