Microsoft has started its culling of managers and noncoders, with about 6,000 cuts planned

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Microsoft plans to cut less than 3% of its global workforce, or about 6,000 employees, with notifications beginning Tuesday, the company confirmed.

A person familiar with the cuts said some affected employees would stay on the payroll for 60 days and still be eligible for rewards and bonuses. Microsoft’s spokesperson did not comment on or confirm these terms.

As B-17 reported last month, these cuts are intended to reduce the number of middle managers and increase the ratio of coders versus noncoders on projects. Microsoft organizations want to increase their “span of control,” or the number of employees who report to each manager. A spokesperson said these latest cuts were not performance-driven.

Across the tech industry, a culling of middle managers is already underway. Amazon has been trying to increase the ratio of individual contributors to managers. And in December, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told staff that the company cut vice president and manager roles by 10% as part of an efficiency drive.

Microsoft is also trying to decrease the “PM ratio” on some teams, which is the ratio of product managers or program managers to engineers.