TechWag

Image via CrunchBaseIf nothing else says troubled economy, it is the rumor now semi-fact that Microsoft is going to lay off 17% of its work force on 15 January 2009. The nice part is that they did not do this before the holidays, like many other companies did. The backscatter on this is very large, featuring techmeme, search engine land, Fudzilla, and a host of other bloggers that can be tracked on Techmeme.

This is going to be bad, depending on where the cuts happen, and how truly deep they are going to be. The odds are most likely that this will hit contractor and IC (Independent Contractors) harder than regular FTE’s (Blue Badges) as has been the tradition at Microsoft to let contractor staff go long before they will let other staff go. A cut in the blue badge, as reported on Mini Microsoft, in Live Meeting, and other departments will mean that there will be more unemployed folks hitting the street in Seattle.

The good part is that if there are startups that are looking for great employees, then some of the Microsoft Layoff’s will release pent up programming prowess to help startups reach their goals quicker if they can afford them.

This also means that Health Care companies like Premera, Group Health, and Regents will also get access to developers and mangers that would otherwise be locked up in Microsoft.

The release of talent into the pool locally and in other locations will help companies that can afford to hire right now, or will hire Microsoft’s Best and Brightest over other candidates. Microsoft has a history of firing their best, not their worst. Some of the best programmers and managers who have problems fitting into the bureaucracy at Microsoft will be the ones who will be let go and back into the wild.

While this will be scary for many, those that have had the time to prepare, those who saw the writing on the wall will be able to move into other environments, or failing that, do their own startup’s or other companies that eventually will be purchased by someone else, or by Microsoft. This also provides opportunities to check out something else, do something else that the lifestyle at Microsoft will not allow someone to do, like teach, experiment, or otherwise take their good ideas and do something with them.

It all depends on who they let go, the contractors should make up a significant proportion of the laid off, but if Microsoft starts cutting into the Blue Badge community (FTE’s) too much, the best and brightest are going to bail anyways, meaning there might be even bigger losses than 17% of staff at Microsoft. If it does not seem safe, the best and brightest are going to bail.

Tags: Microsoft, layoff, interesting, blue badge, mini-Microsoft, chatter