Microsoft’s top sales leader, Judson Althoff, is taking a two-month break from work, according to a report by Bloomberg. His break comes at a time when the company is expected to cut more jobs, especially in its sales team.
A Microsoft spokesperson said Judson’s sabbatical (planned break) was scheduled to begin after the end of the company’s financial year, which was on June 30. He is expected to return in September. However, the timing has raised questions since it matches with expected changes inside the company.
Reports say Microsoft is also planning to lay off more people in its gaming department. This would be the fourth big round of job cuts in the Xbox division in the last year and a half. Although Microsoft has not confirmed this, sources say senior leaders in Xbox have been informed about the expected job losses.
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The Xbox team, which handles gaming consoles, services, and software, is under pressure to become more profitable—especially after Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard last year. The job cuts are said to be part of efforts to make the division run more efficiently and make more money.
Experts say Microsoft often makes major changes at the end of its financial year. This helps the company start the new year with a smaller team and clearer goals.
So far, the exact number of job cuts hasn’t been confirmed. But there are worries among employees, especially those who have already been through past layoffs and studio closures.
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Earlier in May, Microsoft cut about 6,000 jobs—around 3% of its global workforce. That round mostly affected engineering and product development teams. Sales and marketing roles were mostly safe at that time.
