A fresh report has shed light on what played out behind the scenes last week as Microsoft laid off around 1600 people and parted ways with a number of studios. While news of the various affects the cuts have had on specific studios still under the Xbox banner since that pint, the report also paints a damning picture of the effect these layoffs and the ones which still loom have had on the mindset of remaining workers, with unclear goals having contributed to a situation whereby staff feel they’re disposable regardless of what they make.

First off, this new report from Game Developer runs through the chain of events staff went through on the Monday that the cuts were officially set in stone by Xbox boss Asha Sharma, following weeks of uncertainty. Affected staff at Bethesda, ZeniMax, and id Software were reportedly told via short video calls with management that they were out of jobs, with it being claimed that the call at Doom developers id lasted less than a minute. Laid off Id workers were reportedly told not to come into the office that day, but had already begun their commute, with the meeting allegedly only coming with around ten minutes’ notice and some staff missing it.

The laid off staff reportedly then had their access to Slack and internal emails pulled within 48 hours, leaving them scrambling to seek more information via an internal company email address which could only be reached via the email addresses which were being revoked. Game Developer cite one source as accusing Microsoft of trying to foist most of the responsibility for dealing with the situation onto the unions representing some workers. “Does Microsoft care? Absolutely not,” one laid off Id staff member put it. “And they seem to actually put some level of effort and care into making it as painful as possible.”

The report goes on to allude to both Id and Zenimax staff claiming they didn’t receive firm enough indications from Xbox management that the games they were making weren’t going in the direction the company wanted them to with regards to their goals, if indeed this was the case. “All of the information that was ever visible to us out of those numbers meetings – out of the monthly staff meetings – were that we were doing fine,” one source said of Elder Scrolls Online devs ZeniMax. “You know, we’re paying for ourselves. […] We were improving on the metrics [Microsoft] wanted us to improve on.”

Meanwhile, an Id developer was left wondering why the higher ups didn’t at least wait to see the initial returns on Doom: The Dark Ages’ Revelations DLC before making a final call on any cuts to that studio. “They didn’t even wait to see if the product is successful before they got rid of the team,” this dev said. “[…] There are no benefits to being owned by Microsoft. In fact, they have destroyed immense amounts of value that I don’t even think that they’re aware of.”

Unsurprisingly then, the report paints a picture of remaining staff questioning whether the quality of their work means anything in terms of job security, especially with further layoffs looming. One staffer Game Developer spoke to dubbed the mindset Microsoft continue to push their workers towards a “disposable worker mentality”. Basically, if you’re left unsure as to what, if any, influence you have on the possibility you’ll get to keep your livelihood long-term, what impetus is there to grind yourself into dust picking up the pieces and going after new goals that might turn out to be hollow and meaningless?

It’s an obvious thing to say, but my heart goes out to the devs left going through that, as well as those unceremoniously told to pack their bags last week.