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Liu Lei has been busy since the announcement of Microsoft’s plan of global layoffs on July 17. As a member of the team taking charge of the layoffs in China， he needed to work out the plan of layoffs in China.
In the plan of cutting 18 thousand jobs， Nokia， which was acquired by Microsoft not long ago， became the biggest victim. About 12.5 thousand jobs to be cut off come from the latter’s device and service departments. Liu Lei’s task is to take care of this part.
As a veteran in Nokia， Liu Lei witnessed several layoffs in Nokia’s history. However， it was the first time that he took charge of the layoff task.
Previously， Nokia’s layoff plan barely touched the Chinese market since quite a few people were to be fired at that time. Those few laid-off workers could usually leave the company calmly after being compensated. But out of Liu Lei’s expectation， this time the staff staged a collective protest before the coming-out of the layoff plan， accusing their new employer Microsoft of “cutting jobs violently”.
The Angry Employees
This April， Microsoft finished the acquisition of Nokia’s device and service department. A large number of Nokia’s employees in China thusly shifted their employment contracts to Microsoft. But only three months later， the doom of layoff fell upon them.
Since the news about Microsoft’s plan of cutting jobs came out， the 2000 workers working in the company’s R&D department in Yizhuang Economic Development Zone， Beijing， could not concentrate on their work. They spent more and more of their working hours talking whether they are to be fired and how much compensation they can get.
When Microsoft started the acquisition of Nokia last September， Stephen Elop， then the CEO of Nokia， said that there were no plans of layoffs. In order to release the employees from their concerns， Elop promised that the employees would get the compensation according to Nokia’s plan if Microsoft cut jobs within a year after finishing the acquisition.
Now， the layoffs happened within a year after the acquisition. The amount of compensation has become a problem. Li Ping （alias）， who is a two-year worker at Nokia China， kept trying to pry out the relevant information from experienced workers.
It is said that that Microsoft is likely to offer the employees the compensation equal to the “N+6” months of monthly wage （N refers to the number of years an employee has been working in Nokia）. In Li Ping’s opinion， this compensation would be completely acceptable even if he were fired. After anxiously waiting for the plan for about half a month， Li Ping and other employees of Nokia finally saw the coming-out of Microsoft’s announcement of the layoff plans.
On the morning of August 1， the executives of Microsoft China came to Nokia’s R&D department in Yizhuang to talk about the layoff plan. The fixed compensation standard is the “N+2”term， which is a great disappointment to the employees. Hundreds of the employees walked out of the building and initiated the protest in front of the building. Someone held a banner， accusing Microsoft of breaking its promise and “firing people violently”.
It is known that 1500-1600 of the 2000 R&D workers of Nokia in Yizhuang were to be fired. For the 3000 manufacturing workers in the same industrial park， Microsoft launched the plan of “voluntary resignation”instead of a “mandatory layoff plan”. The compensation follows the “N+2”months of salary.
Meanwhile， these employees that have accepted the layoff plan and signed the agreement will get a Lumia 630 mobile phone as a souvenir. Lumia 630 is a medium-end smartphone of Nokia’s families with the price tag of 1000 yuan or so.
The Grieved Microsoft
A major part of the protestors of Nokia China came from the R&D department. Liu Lei and his colleagues have expected this. Microsoft has already closed Nokia’s product lines of mobile phones and Nokia X， an apparent mark for the relevant R&D employees to foresee their fate.
“The fierce response of the R&D staff might be related to the lagging communication between Microsoft and them，” Liu Lei says. Microsoft has its own dilemma， however. It is not an easy task to ask the team Liu Lei was in to work out a layoff plan involving thousands of people in just two weeks.
According to Liu Lei， Microsoft gave the team one week to communicate with the employees， which is a task really beyond their ability. It is not strange that the layoff plan could raise so much anger. In order to appease the workers， Microsoft promised the employees of Nokia China that “no one would be forced to leave before September 30”. As Liu Lei has said， some of the teams need to “get their jobs done” and “make the clearance task”， so their leaving might not happen until the end of this year.
An insider of Microsoft China insists that Microsoft has done the best for the employees of Nokia. The promise to force no one to leave before September 30 actually gives the laid-off workers two months to find new jobs. It means two additional months’ salary in the compensation. For the employees who can leave at the end of this year， the compensation equals “N+2+5”months of their salary. Some laid-off employees complained that the compensation standard for them is different from one for the employees in Taiwan or other countries/regions. For this， the aforementioned insider says that the compensation standards are made in the light of the labor laws of these countries/ regions. Microsoft is a strict follower of local laws and regulations.
In China， the labor law set the compensation standard at “N+1”months of the salary. Compared with that requirement， Microsoft believes that the compensation it offers is much more “generous” than the law requires and that it stays true to the promise to the employees of Nokia.
“Actually， the compensation Microsoft offered to Nokia’s employees is somewhat better than the one for Microsoft employees，” says the insider. For example， when calculating the average salary， Microsoft automatically increased the wage coefficient of Nokia’s employees.
In addition， Microsoft sets up an 18-million-yuan training fund for the technique transformation of laid-off employees. In addition， Microsoft offered these employees the opportunities to work for Microsoft in other positions， with the hope of helping laidoff employees to find jobs as quickly as possible.
The “Wicked” Competitors
When Nokia’s employees were protesting over their “unfair treatment” and Microsoft was trying to prove its “innocence” and “care for employees”， outsiders， especially the competitors of Nokia and Microsoft， spared no efforts in making fun of this event.
On the afternoon of August 4， a Microblog user who claimed himself to be an employee of Chinese mobile phone maker Xiaomi， wrote down that“many Nokia’s employees want to find jobs in Xiaomi， but they still miss the old working environment featuring high salaries， many holidays and small workload. I am sorry to say that there are no such jobs with Xiaomi”. The words and phrases he used seem to be laughing at Nokia and its employees.
This tweet soon raised an intensive debate in the network. Wang Sicong， a popular figure in the Internet and the son of Dalian Wanda Group’s board chairman Wang Jianlin， wrote that“we can see what kind of enterprise Xiaomi is since it could recruit someone as foolish as this guy”. In less than two days， the tweet of the employee of Xiaomi was reposted 30 thousand times. People divided into two camps– pro-Xiaomi and pro-Wang Sicong.
The other IT companies did not miss that too. Alibaba posted a recruitment notice on its official Microblog account， saying that “Nokia is a great company that has made remarkable contributions and Alibaba is willing to provide a new stage of dream for the talents that are going to leave”. Meizu， another smartphone maker in China， also announced that it planned to offer a new platform for the laid-off employees of Nokia. The positions cover software and hardware design， network development， product operation， user experience， software testing and supply chain management. Even though its campaign started later than Alibaba， it put forward a rather poetic slogan – “Reload for the Next Classic”， next to which is a picture of shaking hands with the apparent imitation of the classic starting picture of Nokia’s mobile phone.
No one could tell how the 1000 laid-off workers of Nokia feel when they saw the “recruitment advertisements”. But they have been working in Nokia for years and have got used to the good working conditions and environment of the foreign company. What remains to be seen is whether they can find a job and survive in the highly competitive mobile phone industry with their current knowledge structure and working methods.
The Spoiled Nobles
The protest on August 1 was said to be intense and fierce. However， the intensity and furiousness was gone with that day. On the noon of August 5， the industrial park was occupied by the employees of Nokia. They sat and walked together in threes and fives. Their easy and joyful expressions showed nothing similar to the tenseness or sadness of a man that is going to be fired.
This scene makes people believe that there is some truth of what the employee of Xiaomi said in his tweet. Nokia， as well as other foreign hi-tech companies， was known for the high salary， good welfare and human-oriented management the moment they got into China. When their business was good， these foreign enterprises were the dreamland of work and could attract a lot of young talents.
When the business soured and the enterprises need to cut jobs to save the cost， the easy environment might be what many employees miss and stop them from leaving. The reluctance to jump from the “platform on fire”（quoting Elop） to the icy water caused many employees to think of getting more compensation instead of finding a new platform.
The same problem happened two years ago when the underperforming Motorola announced the 1000 layoffs in China. 500 researchers in Nanjing’s research center that were involved refused to sign the agreements as well. An insider said at that time these employees were used to the days without too much workload. Getting to work late and leaving for home in advance have been their daily routines. Their reluctance to leave was caused by their dissatisfaction with the compensation. Luckily， these employees found jobs in Lenovo， Huawei， Coolpad and other Chinese mobile phone companies. But someone says that the employees of Nokia won’t have such a good luck. They say that the easy working environment in foreign countries has rendered these employees less efficient and capable.
Different from Motorola， Nokia just embraced Android – very slightly– this February. Its long-term involvement with Windows Phone and other operating systems render its employees less experienced in the development of Android. In today’s world of smartphone where Android is in the favor， the workers， especially the R&D guys， are hard to find a decent job.
At the beginning of this year， Nokia started the Project X， signaling its acceptance of the Android system. However， Satya Nadella， Microsoft’s new CEO， announced the abandon of Nokia X this July， ruining the last hope.
“We used to work overtime for this project and is prepared for – with great excitement – more overtime. The email from him （Nadella） forced us to give up everything we have been working hard on. A great blow at our morale，” says one of the employees of Nokia.
In the plan of cutting 18 thousand jobs， Nokia， which was acquired by Microsoft not long ago， became the biggest victim. About 12.5 thousand jobs to be cut off come from the latter’s device and service departments. Liu Lei’s task is to take care of this part.
As a veteran in Nokia， Liu Lei witnessed several layoffs in Nokia’s history. However， it was the first time that he took charge of the layoff task.
Previously， Nokia’s layoff plan barely touched the Chinese market since quite a few people were to be fired at that time. Those few laid-off workers could usually leave the company calmly after being compensated. But out of Liu Lei’s expectation， this time the staff staged a collective protest before the coming-out of the layoff plan， accusing their new employer Microsoft of “cutting jobs violently”.
The Angry Employees
This April， Microsoft finished the acquisition of Nokia’s device and service department. A large number of Nokia’s employees in China thusly shifted their employment contracts to Microsoft. But only three months later， the doom of layoff fell upon them.
Since the news about Microsoft’s plan of cutting jobs came out， the 2000 workers working in the company’s R&D department in Yizhuang Economic Development Zone， Beijing， could not concentrate on their work. They spent more and more of their working hours talking whether they are to be fired and how much compensation they can get.
When Microsoft started the acquisition of Nokia last September， Stephen Elop， then the CEO of Nokia， said that there were no plans of layoffs. In order to release the employees from their concerns， Elop promised that the employees would get the compensation according to Nokia’s plan if Microsoft cut jobs within a year after finishing the acquisition.
Now， the layoffs happened within a year after the acquisition. The amount of compensation has become a problem. Li Ping （alias）， who is a two-year worker at Nokia China， kept trying to pry out the relevant information from experienced workers.
It is said that that Microsoft is likely to offer the employees the compensation equal to the “N+6” months of monthly wage （N refers to the number of years an employee has been working in Nokia）. In Li Ping’s opinion， this compensation would be completely acceptable even if he were fired. After anxiously waiting for the plan for about half a month， Li Ping and other employees of Nokia finally saw the coming-out of Microsoft’s announcement of the layoff plans.
On the morning of August 1， the executives of Microsoft China came to Nokia’s R&D department in Yizhuang to talk about the layoff plan. The fixed compensation standard is the “N+2”term， which is a great disappointment to the employees. Hundreds of the employees walked out of the building and initiated the protest in front of the building. Someone held a banner， accusing Microsoft of breaking its promise and “firing people violently”.
It is known that 1500-1600 of the 2000 R&D workers of Nokia in Yizhuang were to be fired. For the 3000 manufacturing workers in the same industrial park， Microsoft launched the plan of “voluntary resignation”instead of a “mandatory layoff plan”. The compensation follows the “N+2”months of salary.
Meanwhile， these employees that have accepted the layoff plan and signed the agreement will get a Lumia 630 mobile phone as a souvenir. Lumia 630 is a medium-end smartphone of Nokia’s families with the price tag of 1000 yuan or so.
The Grieved Microsoft
A major part of the protestors of Nokia China came from the R&D department. Liu Lei and his colleagues have expected this. Microsoft has already closed Nokia’s product lines of mobile phones and Nokia X， an apparent mark for the relevant R&D employees to foresee their fate.
“The fierce response of the R&D staff might be related to the lagging communication between Microsoft and them，” Liu Lei says. Microsoft has its own dilemma， however. It is not an easy task to ask the team Liu Lei was in to work out a layoff plan involving thousands of people in just two weeks.
According to Liu Lei， Microsoft gave the team one week to communicate with the employees， which is a task really beyond their ability. It is not strange that the layoff plan could raise so much anger. In order to appease the workers， Microsoft promised the employees of Nokia China that “no one would be forced to leave before September 30”. As Liu Lei has said， some of the teams need to “get their jobs done” and “make the clearance task”， so their leaving might not happen until the end of this year.
An insider of Microsoft China insists that Microsoft has done the best for the employees of Nokia. The promise to force no one to leave before September 30 actually gives the laid-off workers two months to find new jobs. It means two additional months’ salary in the compensation. For the employees who can leave at the end of this year， the compensation equals “N+2+5”months of their salary. Some laid-off employees complained that the compensation standard for them is different from one for the employees in Taiwan or other countries/regions. For this， the aforementioned insider says that the compensation standards are made in the light of the labor laws of these countries/ regions. Microsoft is a strict follower of local laws and regulations.
In China， the labor law set the compensation standard at “N+1”months of the salary. Compared with that requirement， Microsoft believes that the compensation it offers is much more “generous” than the law requires and that it stays true to the promise to the employees of Nokia.
“Actually， the compensation Microsoft offered to Nokia’s employees is somewhat better than the one for Microsoft employees，” says the insider. For example， when calculating the average salary， Microsoft automatically increased the wage coefficient of Nokia’s employees.
In addition， Microsoft sets up an 18-million-yuan training fund for the technique transformation of laid-off employees. In addition， Microsoft offered these employees the opportunities to work for Microsoft in other positions， with the hope of helping laidoff employees to find jobs as quickly as possible.
The “Wicked” Competitors
When Nokia’s employees were protesting over their “unfair treatment” and Microsoft was trying to prove its “innocence” and “care for employees”， outsiders， especially the competitors of Nokia and Microsoft， spared no efforts in making fun of this event.
On the afternoon of August 4， a Microblog user who claimed himself to be an employee of Chinese mobile phone maker Xiaomi， wrote down that“many Nokia’s employees want to find jobs in Xiaomi， but they still miss the old working environment featuring high salaries， many holidays and small workload. I am sorry to say that there are no such jobs with Xiaomi”. The words and phrases he used seem to be laughing at Nokia and its employees.
This tweet soon raised an intensive debate in the network. Wang Sicong， a popular figure in the Internet and the son of Dalian Wanda Group’s board chairman Wang Jianlin， wrote that“we can see what kind of enterprise Xiaomi is since it could recruit someone as foolish as this guy”. In less than two days， the tweet of the employee of Xiaomi was reposted 30 thousand times. People divided into two camps– pro-Xiaomi and pro-Wang Sicong.
The other IT companies did not miss that too. Alibaba posted a recruitment notice on its official Microblog account， saying that “Nokia is a great company that has made remarkable contributions and Alibaba is willing to provide a new stage of dream for the talents that are going to leave”. Meizu， another smartphone maker in China， also announced that it planned to offer a new platform for the laid-off employees of Nokia. The positions cover software and hardware design， network development， product operation， user experience， software testing and supply chain management. Even though its campaign started later than Alibaba， it put forward a rather poetic slogan – “Reload for the Next Classic”， next to which is a picture of shaking hands with the apparent imitation of the classic starting picture of Nokia’s mobile phone.
No one could tell how the 1000 laid-off workers of Nokia feel when they saw the “recruitment advertisements”. But they have been working in Nokia for years and have got used to the good working conditions and environment of the foreign company. What remains to be seen is whether they can find a job and survive in the highly competitive mobile phone industry with their current knowledge structure and working methods.
The Spoiled Nobles
The protest on August 1 was said to be intense and fierce. However， the intensity and furiousness was gone with that day. On the noon of August 5， the industrial park was occupied by the employees of Nokia. They sat and walked together in threes and fives. Their easy and joyful expressions showed nothing similar to the tenseness or sadness of a man that is going to be fired.
This scene makes people believe that there is some truth of what the employee of Xiaomi said in his tweet. Nokia， as well as other foreign hi-tech companies， was known for the high salary， good welfare and human-oriented management the moment they got into China. When their business was good， these foreign enterprises were the dreamland of work and could attract a lot of young talents.
When the business soured and the enterprises need to cut jobs to save the cost， the easy environment might be what many employees miss and stop them from leaving. The reluctance to jump from the “platform on fire”（quoting Elop） to the icy water caused many employees to think of getting more compensation instead of finding a new platform.
The same problem happened two years ago when the underperforming Motorola announced the 1000 layoffs in China. 500 researchers in Nanjing’s research center that were involved refused to sign the agreements as well. An insider said at that time these employees were used to the days without too much workload. Getting to work late and leaving for home in advance have been their daily routines. Their reluctance to leave was caused by their dissatisfaction with the compensation. Luckily， these employees found jobs in Lenovo， Huawei， Coolpad and other Chinese mobile phone companies. But someone says that the employees of Nokia won’t have such a good luck. They say that the easy working environment in foreign countries has rendered these employees less efficient and capable.
Different from Motorola， Nokia just embraced Android – very slightly– this February. Its long-term involvement with Windows Phone and other operating systems render its employees less experienced in the development of Android. In today’s world of smartphone where Android is in the favor， the workers， especially the R&D guys， are hard to find a decent job.
At the beginning of this year， Nokia started the Project X， signaling its acceptance of the Android system. However， Satya Nadella， Microsoft’s new CEO， announced the abandon of Nokia X this July， ruining the last hope.
“We used to work overtime for this project and is prepared for – with great excitement – more overtime. The email from him （Nadella） forced us to give up everything we have been working hard on. A great blow at our morale，” says one of the employees of Nokia.