"The lesson from these layoffs is that simply doing your job well isn't enough. You can toil away for decades doing a fine job and still get caught up in these layoffs."
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-avoid-underperformer-label-and-layoffs-2025-2
It doesn't matter how well you do your job if the top echelon are all making the wrong calls.
Microsoft has lost its way. They've abandoned the customers. Like many other companies, they've made the customer the product.
That's why there's an abundance of bad press, like https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/02/what-i-do-to-clean-up-a-clean-install-of-windows-11-23h2-and-edge .
The company will die unless that changes. Until then, the layoffs will continue.
I had to look up the severance package since you mentioned it. Shock! It's super low. Hopefully they are making things up by being generous w/ salary and the whole compensation package.
One thing is for certain, you will reach the ceiling of what you can deliver. If every year you are expected to produce, do, achieve lets say 10% more than the previous year, eventually over time you’ll reach the pinnacle of what you can do. When you reach that apex and there’s no way you can do 10% more, it at that point you’ll have a very different discussion with your manager as to why you have failed in your assigned goals.
The key at MS is to move around enough, which seems to start that expectation 10% over somewhat. If you don’t then its best to leave on your own terms before it gets to that.
Even more so since MS has seemingly turned really ultra cheap on the severance.