Some Microsoft employees fume over the company’s open offer to hire hundreds of OpenAI staff

• Some Microsoft workers say they are not pleased that OpenAI employees are being offered jobs.
• Microsoft conducted layoffs, imposed a salary freeze, and cut its bonus budget this year.
• Others say they can see benefits for themselves, like an increase in Microsoft’s stock price.

Some Microsoft employees were enraged when CTO Kevin Scott announced that the company would hire hundreds of OpenAI employees and match their current pay.

“How many loyal employees stayed at Microsoft despite working 12+ hours per day and living in constant fear of being laid off throughout the year?””Now comes OpenAI,” said one employee to Business Insider. “When we were told there was no budget to hire more people, we worked even harder.” 14-hour workdays?”

For current Microsoft employees, 2023 was a year of anxiety about their jobs and pay. Microsoft announced plans to lay off 10,000 employees in January. Even some employees working on cloud and AI, two of Microsoft’s priority growth areas, were laid off in February. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced in May that the company would freeze salaries and reduce its bonus and stock award budget for the year.

According to BI, Microsoft was still conducting layoffs in July, in addition to the original 10,000. Microsoft also shut down projects and laid off employees in its previous major AI initiative, the “industrial metaverse.”

Following the firing of Microsoft’s AI partner OpenAI’s CEO Sam Altman, Nadella announced on Monday that he had hired Altman and OpenAI President Greg Brockman to lead a new cutting-edge AI research group.

In an open letter, nearly all of OpenAI’s employees stated that “Microsoft has assured us that there are positions available for all OpenAI employees.”

Scott confirmed the offer in a post on X, writing that all OpenAI employees had “a role at Microsoft” and that Microsoft would match their OpenAI compensation.

‘Different classes of employees’

Another Microsoft employee stated that the company has been on a strict hiring freeze with only a few exceptions, so the OpenAI offer appears to be for “different classes of employees.” Microsoft did not respond to a request for comment.

However, not all Microsoft employees are dissatisfied with the situation. Some believe that the new OpenAI unit will be beneficial to employees, particularly if Microsoft’s stock rises. That is a significant portion of the company’s compensation.

If OpenAI agrees to take back Altman, the new AI unit may not be built. However, some Microsoft employees’ morale has already suffered as a result of the situation.