Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Corp.
Grant Hindsley | Bloomberg | fake images
Microsoft will award $ 1,500 bonuses to many of its employees after more than a year of impact from the coronavirus.
The gesture is part of an effort by tech companies to keep employees happy during the pandemic and make sure they stay while many are still out of the office. Such care could help reduce the impact of a dreaded trend called the Great Resignation as companies reopen facilities and workers consider job changes.
The bonuses will cost Microsoft about $ 200 million and are a gesture to show appreciation for the efforts employees made with customers and partners last year, a spokesperson told CNBC on Thursday, after The Verge reported by first time the news. At the end of the first quarter, the company had more than $ 125 billion in cash, equivalents, and short-term investments.
Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief personnel officer, announced the news about the bonuses in a message to employees Thursday. The bonuses will be awarded in July or August to employees in the United States and abroad, although Microsoft corporate vice presidents will not receive them, nor will employees of Microsoft’s GitHub, LinkedIn and Zenimax subsidiaries, the spokesperson said.
Special payments are one way that tech companies have shown their appreciation to their employees in the Covid era. Some companies have provided their employees with credits for food delivery apps like Uber Eats to help pay for meals. Other companies have distributed aid packages or offered additional time off. Microsoft also granted workers an additional five days of paid vacation earlier this year, Puget Sound Business Journal reported.
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