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

Under a time-limited Voluntary Exit Offer announced to staff on 26 October 2026, eligible workers in the US, Canada, the UK and India can choose to leave with financial support and help planning their next career move. The offer is limited to employees at level 70 and below, and only in teams whose organisations have opted in, according to a memo from Amy Coleman, Microsoft's Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer, that Microsoft posted on its official blog.

Coleman wrote that the offer gives staff who may already be weighing a future outside Microsoft the chance to make that move now with support. She said it also gives participating organisations "another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs", according to the memo. Not every part of Microsoft is taking part. The company said participation depends on each business, including its priorities, its commitments to customers and what it needs from its workforce. Eligible employees were due to get an email with a link to the details of their own offer within a few hours of the announcement.

The memo does not say how many employees qualify, how many Microsoft expects to accept, what the packages contain or cost, or when staff must decide. Microsoft presents the programme as voluntary, and the memo does not mention job cuts. Coleman described it as a first for the company: "The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us. We'll learn from it." She added that Microsoft would keep helping people learn new skills and, where it fits, move into other jobs at Microsoft, according to the memo.

The announcement lands shortly before Microsoft reports results for the first quarter of its 2027 fiscal year, which it has said it will publish after the market close on Wednesday 28 October 2026, according to its earnings date notice. Microsoft did not link the exit offer to its financial results or give any savings target in the memo.