GitHub , a company acquired by Microsoft , joins the other subsidiaries of the technology company that will cut staff this year.
GitHub , the company behind the collaborative development platform for hosting and sharing software, will join the rest of Microsoft ‘s subsidiaries in cutting staff.
The firm, which was acquired by those from Redmond in 2018, will go through major changes by laying off 10% of its workforce, closing its offices and adopting full-time teleworking for its remaining employees.
As the Fortune portal mentions , the technology firm has decided to get rid of 10% of its workforce of approximately 3,000 workers. Layoffs at GitHub will be even higher than at other Microsoft companies as Xbox and Surface will only see a 5% reduction in strength. In addition, the company has decided to completely change its work model to reduce costs.
GitHub embraces remote working
Thomas Dohmke , CEO of GitHub , mentioned in a message addressed to his employees that, due to “new budget adjustments”, it has been decided to make this decision before the end of 2023. The executive also highlighted that the company observed a “very low utilization rate” of their offices, so although they will not empty them immediately, they will close them as soon as it is operationally possible.
With this change, all of the remaining GitHub staff will be working remotely, so their collaboration and communication tools will also change due to the new policies. Employees already used Slack in their daily lives, but now they will also use Microsoft Teams for video conferences. “This will allow for significant cost savings and simplify conversations within the company and with customers,” Dohmke said .
On the other hand, the renewal cycle of the laptops that the company gives to the workers to carry out their work will become four years when, in the past, it was three years.
The current situation of Microsoft and its subsidiaries
In parallel with GitHub ‘s downsizing , Microsoft has also been cutting staff at other of its partner companies. For example, the division in charge of developing HoloLens , the third version of its mixed reality viewer, has also suffered the same fate, so the project is in danger according to what the Bloomberg portal pointed out .
These massive layoffs have also come to affect other Microsoft divisions like Xbox and the team behind the Surface devices . Although there are no precise details of the impact generated, Phil Spencer -head of Xbox- sent a message to all his employees last Thursday, February 9, in which he asked everyone to be prepared for the many changes that are coming and, above all, to “support your colleagues”.