Happy Voluntary Lobotomy Day, Microsoft - by Jeff Bogdan
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Happy Voluntary Lobotomy Day, Microsoft<br>Take steps to retain your company’s wisdom
Jeff Bogdan<br>Jul 02, 2026
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There is a phrase we have used at Microsoft for decades: “Resting and vesting.” It refers to the subset of the employee population that has stopped making a difference and are, instead, just focused on sticking around longer so that more of their stock awards vest. These individuals are pretty easy to spot. Surrounded by people working hard and putting in genuine effort, the ones who are phoning it in stand out like a sore thumb.<br>When Microsoft announced their Voluntary Retirement Program (VRP) for employees L67 and below whose age + years at Microsoft totaled more than 70, I was optimistic that this program would summon those “resting and vesting” to pull the trigger and exit. But now as I watch the steady stream of individuals announcing they’ve accepted the VRP, I’m becoming hugely disappointed. There is real talent, real ability, real competency that is taking the buyout. This is shaping up to be much less of a de-leeching and much more of a lobotomy of Microsoft’s brain.<br>Going back to my The Complex and The Complicated dichotomy, the humans at a company are the keepers of the Complex: the integrated knowledge, the insight, the gestalt. And, most importantly, the tacit … the knowledge and wisdom that is hardest to articulate, meaning the least likely to be recorded. So as these very experienced humans separate themselves from Microsoft, huge holes are created in Microsoft’s brain.<br>The layoffs will continue until productivity improves
It doesn’t help that this VRP offer is amidst an endless stream of layoffs that started three and a half years ago. In Morale Matters, I talked about the significant hit to employee morale that has been a byproduct of the “AI race”. But I didn’t mention an obvious contributing factor to the declining morale.<br>In a setting where layoffs happen regularly, people live in fear of being next. And they also see their own team and their neighboring teams shrinking in manpower, but not shrinking in responsibility. In fact, most teams talk about their commitments increasing. This is not a sustainable trend. And the spike in people exiting as part of the VRP will spike this trend.<br>For the sake of the employees and the collective morale, is there an end in sight to this?<br>A proper goodbye, for a proper transfer of knowledge
Another side effect of the never-ending layoff cycle is the disappearance of the retirement party. Some of my fondest memories at Microsoft were the lunches, dinners, or all-out parties that we threw for those individuals that were parting ways with us. At the celebration itself, there would be speeches by the retiring employee chock full of gems of wisdom that you would latch on to and take with you. And when it was the manager’s turn to speak, you got to hear the value placed by Microsoft on these individuals, and you aspired to have that big of an impact.<br>As meaningful as these celebrations were, the real gold came in all the meetings between when the employee announced their retirement and when they actually left. This window gave everyone an opportunity to have 1:1s with their retiring colleague to absorb as much of their wisdom as they could before they were gone. This is where the transfer of the most Complex knowledge happened. And sometimes this would even end up being written down for posterity.<br>Act now! Supplies are limited
There are two ideals that we should continue to strive for:<br>Celebrate each employee. Just because more people are leaving than before doesn’t mean we should stop recognizing them and celebrating them.
Leave a paper trail. It would be ideal if everyone could just write everything down: the Complicated and the Complex. From my very first post (Raising My Voice) and through a number of posts that followed (Play the Pause, Mining for Gems, Life’s a Journey; Take Good Notes, Play the (Really) Long Game, Manage Project Tasks Responsibly, and “OneNote Or It Didn’t Happen”), I have stressed the value of capturing more of our knowledge and wisdom in written form.
Here’s how you can further both. This can be generalized beyond Microsoft, but for this post I’m keeping it focused on my Microsoft family. To the current Microsoft employees, if someone on your team took the VRP, take them out to lunch. Bring your computer or at least a recording device. Obviously, thank the retiring employee. Then give them ample time to just talk while you record. If you don’t know where to start, then just lead with this: What are the top five things that you know, that haven’t been written down , and would most benefit fellow MSers knowing?<br>Return to your office, reflect on the conversation, and then write down your own thoughts alongside the recorded notes of your retiring colleague. Save more of the Complex, and you’ll be doing your part to save Microsoft’s...