When Microsoft laid off 1,400 employees earlier in the year, an administrative error resulted in some of the unlucky folks getting overly generous severance packages – and the company has asked them to please return it, if they wouldn’t mind.
Copies of a letter that Microsoft sent to some former employees surfaced on the Internet this weekend. In the letter, the Redmond-based software giant blames an “inadvertent administrative error” for the overpayment, and requests that the affected ex-employees return the extra cash: “We ask that you repay the overpayment and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to you.”
Those who did not promptly return the money, the letter hinted, would find that the funds would be taken out via taxes instead. A Microsoft representative confirmed the letter’s authenticity to CNET, but declined to comment further, calling it a “a private matter between the company and the affected people.”
The phrase “adding insult to injury” comes to mind here, no? Ironically, the people responsible for said “administrative error” – and the entire PR snafu surrounding it – are the ones who weren’t fired.
(Via CNET)
Published: Feb 23, 2009 02:53 pm