After three stints at Microsoft spanning more than two decades, Joe Friend was laid off in May. He’s still figuring out what’s next, but there’s one thing he’s sure of: His time in Big Tech is over.
About six months earlier, Friend, a director of product management overseeing a team of nine, started hearing rumors of company restructuring that could affect managers. However, he didn’t believe his specific role was in jeopardy.
But he was wrong. In May, he learned that he and 14 other members of his working group — including four other managers — had been laid off.
“I wasn’t entirely surprised by the layoffs. I was surprised to get caught up in them,” said the 62-year-old, who lives in Washington state.
Friend said the layoff was “doubly shocking” because it upended his retirement strategy. He had planned to stay at Microsoft until at least his 65th birthday — a milestone that, under company policy, allows most stock grants to continue vesting even after the employee leaves. Once he turned 65, he planned to either retire or pivot to something new. Now, that timeline was out the window.
“My plan was to figure out what I wanted to do over the next three years,” he said. “Then all of a sudden I’m at the doorstep, and I have to make that decision now.”
Friend is among the thousands of Microsoft workers who’ve been laid off over the past year. After cutting about 6,000 jobs in May, Microsoft laid off roughly 9,000 more in July. A company spokesperson previously told Business Insider the company was focused on reducing management layers and streamlining processes.
Google, Intel, and Amazon have also announced plans to reduce the number of managers — part of a broader trend dubbed the “Great Flattening.” While overall layoffs remain low by historical standards, tech workers have been disproportionately affected, and a slowdown in white-collar hiring has made it harder for many to land new roles.
In this challenging environment, Friend shared what he’s hoping to find in the next chapter of his career.
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A final goodbye to Microsoft
Transitioning away from Microsoft was something Friend had done twice, but this was the first time he hadn’t left by choice.
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Friend first joined Microsoft in 1994 as a lead program manager, working on Microsoft Word. In 1997, he and his family moved to Indonesia, where he spent more than six years working for an international NGO — a move driven by his long-held desire to live abroad and do work he found meaningful.
In 2003, when Friend returned to the States, he initially considered staying in the nonprofit world but found it less economically viable in the US. So he reentered the tech industry and found himself back at Microsoft.
Friend spent the next 14 years at the company, but by early 2017, he was feeling burned out and decided to move on. He said he interviewed at a few large firms but soon concluded that none of them were the right fit.
“I finally realized that I didn’t want to work at another big company,” he said.
He accepted a role at the developer site Stack Overflow, a move he said provided the change of pace he was looking for. But Microsoft came calling once again.
Someone Friend knew at Microsoft kept nudging him to join their team. Initially resistant, he eventually agreed to hear them out — and saw the recent internal restructuring in his former business area as a positive sign.
“I was really impressed with what I saw as significant cultural change at the company and agreed to go back,” he said.
Friend returned to Microsoft in 2018 and remained until May 2025, when he learned he’d been laid off.
Purpose over profit
After being laid off, Friend continued receiving paychecks until mid-July, when he received a “very comfortable” lump-sum severance payment that amounted to close to what he would have made if he had been employed the rest of this year. He said he was fortunate to be in a strong financial position, which gave him time to figure out his next steps.
“It feels like a betrayal, and it impacts me financially, but it’s not going to hurt,” he said of the layoff.
Rather than rushing into his next move, Friend met with a financial advisor to see whether an earlier retirement might be feasible. He began exploring job leads that came his way, but nothing stuck.
Friend now considers himself to be “semi-retired.” He said that in recent months, he’s focused on helping a young entrepreneur build a small business.
“It’s not about making money,” he said. “It’s about supporting somebody who wants to transform their life.”
If Friend were to retire fully, he believes he and his wife can make it work financially without major lifestyle changes, but he’s not sure he’s ready to leave the workforce yet.
What he is sure of is that his next job won’t be with Microsoft. He said he believes the company once had an implicit “deal” with employees: If you performed well, you’d be rewarded financially and enjoy job stability. He said he no longer thinks that’s true.
Friend said some of his concerns apply to the tech industry more broadly, which is why he plans to be highly selective about his next role.
“I think I’d rather earn $50,000 a year doing something I’m excited about,” he said. “It doesn’t mean I won’t jump back into a job, but it certainly won’t be Big Tech.”
