Microsoft's L&D Director Loses His Job After 33 Years Amidst Layoffs; Here's What he Wrote

Amidst the layoff wave that hit the American tech sector in 2022 and has been sweeping across the sector since then, thousands of people have lost their jobs at Microsoft. Now its Director of Learning and Development (L&D), Jeff Bogdan has been let go from his position after more than three decades at the company. Following his termination, Bogdan took to LinkedIn and posted that his 33-year journey with Microsoft ended in February due to a shift in the company's approach to L&D. He stated that his job was eliminated as a result of the adoption of an HR strategy known as the hub and spoke model for L&D, a concept that he himself had previously proposed.

Bogdan, now exploring options for a "second career," indicated that he is starting with consultation work. He noted that his most significant achievements occurred in the past two years, particularly in his role in L&D for Windows. He wrote in the LinkedIn post that, "My 33-year journey with the incredible Microsoft came to an end in February when my job was eliminated. I spent my last two weeks at the company trying to bid a meaningful farewell to my extended second family." He went on to add, "Afterward, I spent two weeks in Chelan, splitting my time between family and personal reflection." Bogdan admitted that his entire career at Microsoft has been a "remarkable experience" and the three projects he is most proud of are Windows Phone, Zune, and Windows 95.

He further stated that the most rewarding experience for him came in the last two years when he secured an L&D role in Windows. His approach was to build on the success of promoting a "learn-it-all" culture across the organization by introducing a "teach-it-all" mindset to complement it. He focused on coordinating learning investments for a 2,000-person team and aligning them with learning and development offerings from the company's parent organizations and central HR. Bogdan concluded saying, "To start, I'm thinking of consulting as a way to dive deeper into the industry and figure out where my skills can make the most impact." He added, "#OpenToWork doesn't really capture it. It's more like, 'Open to Anything: Let's have a meaningful conversation and explore opportunities together.'"

In a very different response to being laid off similar incident, a former Twitter security chief has taken legal action against X, alleging he was terminated after opposing various cost-cutting measures introduced shortly after Elon Musk acquired the company last year. Attorneys representing Alan Rosa, who served as Twitter’s global head of security, information technology, and privacy, filed a complaint late Tuesday in U.S. District Court for New Jersey against X, Elon Musk, and Steve Davis, a company advisor and president of Musk's tunneling business, The Boring Company. Musk entrusted Davis and other close associates to help manage the social media firm.

Rosa claimed that Davis, acting on orders from Musk, implemented several cost-cutting measures that the security chief believed would jeopardize the company’s ability to meet various obligations and regulations, such as the Federal Trade Commission consent decree and the Digital Services Act (DSA) enacted by the European Commission. The European law requires major tech platforms to document and monitor illegal online content, with penalties as high as 6% of annual sales for non-compliance.