微软执行长Steve Ballmer周二（5/5）透过内部邮件宣布进行第二阶段的裁员，人数达到3000名员工。微软于今年1月揭露了5%的裁员计划，预计在18个月内裁员5000名员工，当时裁撤1400名。这两波裁员都影响公司上下各阶层职务。

　　Ballmer在邮件中说明，此次的裁员行动包括美国及其它国家的员工，此波缩减几乎已达到预计的5000名员工规模，但尚未完成，微软会尽快达成裁员目标，尽可能降低员工的不确定性，以让组织能够专注在策略目标上。

　　Ballmer还表示，微软仍将仔细观察经济景气下滑对该公司的影响，必要时会针对成本结构采取进一步的行动，包含另一波的裁员。

　　今年是微软成立以来首度执行大规模裁员，在全球经济恶化下，微软第三财季（2009年1月到3月）的营收为136.5亿美元，下滑6%，净利为29.8亿美元，更是大幅下滑32%。

　　除了经济不景气所带来的影响外，微软所面临的挑战也愈来愈多，根据Net Applications的调查，微软窗口操作系统市占率受到Mac及Linux的侵蚀持续下滑到今年4月的87.9%，IE的市占率在Firefox及Safari等其它浏览器的竞争下，也自去年6月的73%下滑到今年4月的66.1%；此外，在网络服务上微软则面临了强敌Google。

　　尽管微软未宣布进一步的裁员行动，但就元月份宣布的裁员人数如今已经差不多额满来看，微软势必评估新一波裁员。在写给员工的备忘录中，执行长Steve Ballmer不排除采取进一步的行动。Ballmer在备忘录上说：“我们将持续密切观察经济不景气对本公司的影响，并在必要时采取进一步行动调整我们的成本结构，包括再度精简职务。”

　　微软发布公开声明证实这两波精简人力行动：“为配合实施本公司1月宣布的降低成本与提高效率计划，今天我们进一步缩编本公司的若干部门。裁减职务总是很困难的决定，但却是因应全球经济不景气而不得不采取的必要行动。”

　　另有消息称：微软今年仍打算在一些成长领域招聘两、三千人，包括在线服务部门。

　　以下是Ballmer发给员工的e-mail全文。

From: Steve Ballmer
Sent: Tuesday, May 05, 2009
To: Microsoft – All Employees
Subject: Update: Realigning Resources and Reducing Costs

In January, in response to the global economic downturn, I announced our plan to adjust the company’s cost structure through spending reductions and job eliminations. Today, we are implementing the second phase of this plan.

This is difficult news to share. Because our success at Microsoft has always been the direct result of the talent, hard work, and commitment of our people, eliminating positions is hard.

Today’s action includes positions in the United States and in a number of countries around the world. In the U.S., affected employees will be notified directly by their managers today. In other countries, local leadership teams will provide more specific information about the impact to their organizations.

With this announcement, we are mostly but not all done with the planned 5,000 job eliminations by June 2010. We are moving quickly to reach this target in response to consistent feedback from our people and business groups that it’s important to make decisions and reduce uncertainty for employees as quickly as possible, and so that organizations can concentrate their efforts and resources on strategic objectives.

As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure including additional job eliminations.

For those of you directly affected by today’s announcement, I want to thank you for your contribution to Microsoft and assure you that we will continue to provide support as we did during the previous job eliminations.

And for everyone across the company, I want to reemphasize how much I appreciate the way you have pulled together to help the company respond to this difficult economic environment. There’s no doubt that these are very challenging times. But together, we are making the right choices to ensure that we will continue to deliver great products and position ourselves for strong future growth and profitability.

Thank you for your continued hard work, commitment, and focus.

Steve