‘What do they owe some of these humans’: Gee questions Microsoft’s duty to workers as it offers voluntary exits

Microsoft’s new voluntary exit program has KIRO host Gee Scott asking what the company owes the workers who helped build it and whether non-tech employees are prepared for a future where business growth doesn’t necessarily mean more jobs.

On Monday, Microsoft announced a “Voluntary Exit Offer,” with financial support and career-planning resources for eligible employees who choose to leave. Reportedly, 60,000 employees are eligible for the voluntary exit, roughly a quarter of the workforce. Microsoft did not disclose a count in its announcement, and a spokesperson told KIRO Newsradio the company was not positioning the program as a buyout.

On “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio, Gee and co-host Ursula Reutin examined the offer through the lens of Microsoft’s investment in artificial intelligence. Ursula described the company’s AI push as a fight for its future, while Gee questioned what that transformation means for the people who helped make Microsoft successful.

“This is why I don’t really have too much argument. I’m not trying to be pro-unions or anything, but for things like that, a lot of people help build the models that we are using today,” Gee said. “Then going forward, what do they owe some of these humans that helped build them to be the monstrosity that they are today?”

Company growth may no longer mean more workers

Gee contrasted the current shift with the years when Microsoft and Amazon’s expansion brought growing workforces. He argued that AI is changing that relationship.

“This remodel that’s happening right now, how companies are going to grow, they’re going to grow as a company, but it won’t be necessarily with people,” Gee said.

He viewed Microsoft’s move as a warning that reaches beyond the technology industry. If businesses are changing how they operate, he argued, workers need to consider how they will adapt.

Ursula described Microsoft’s spending on data centers and AI chips as central to that transformation. In her assessment, management sees winning the AI race as essential to keeping the company viable.

Gee agreed with the broader argument that Microsoft is preparing for a different future. He pointed to the way tools such as ChatGPT and Claude have entered people’s daily routines, competing for attention once devoted to more traditional software.

Ursula recalls learning to use the internet

For Ursula, the speed of the transition stood out.

She recalled starting her career before the newsroom had internet access, covering warnings about how the internet would change people’s lives and eventually receiving training to use it herself.

AI’s arrival has felt much more compressed, she explained. What once seemed like a distant development is now a daily subject on the show.

“You know, I can remember when we started talking about it on our show, and now not a day goes by without us talking about it and how it’s going to dramatically change the landscape,” Ursula said.

Gee noted that her work gave her a close-up view of earlier technological changes, from email to websites. He contrasted those developments with the pace of the AI discussion, which he recalled beginning on the show in February 2023.

A listener challenges the advice to pivot

Ursula acknowledged that a voluntary exit offer could work well for someone already considering retirement or departure. But she worried that voluntary exits would not necessarily be the end of workforce reductions.

That left a difficult question for employees trying to prepare for what comes next. Ursula read a text from a listener identified as Jesus who challenged the idea that workers could simply change direction.

“Pivot to what? There won’t be enough of anything to pivot to,” the listener wrote, as read by Ursula.

Her advice was to learn the technology rather than refuse to engage with it.

“Well, one of the things that you have to do is embrace AI,” Ursula said.

She encouraged listeners to understand AI as well as they can and experiment with it, regardless of their age or field.

Gee returned to worker protections, questioning whether more organizing among tech employees could have given them greater leverage during the transition. For him, preparing for AI and asking companies to take responsibility for their workers were both part of the same conversation: What happens to the people who helped build a business when that business decides it needs fewer of them?

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.