The next round of firings (no severance package) starts Friday. Please read the following released today from the US Justice Department for context https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1409486/dl "Justice Department Declares DEI Unlawful".
It applies to public and private entities (like Microsoft) that provide services to the Federal government (Windows, Office/Sharepoint/Exchange/M365, Azure, etc.). The document gives several examples that directly apply to Microsoft (as well as higher education, etc.)
This applies to you if you: have ever had to interview or interview with a diverse slate of candidates or interviewers, you've had to interview or discuss/debrief diversity in hiring, you have had to write a D&I statement (do your annual performance) and/or a manager forced to evaluate an employee's D&I statements on msconnects, you have had to take D&I training, or have had to ask your teams to take D&I training (including D&I training embedded in other trainers, like the "trust" series), you've had to create training (education or AI) taking into account diversity, you've had to create pay/benefits/offers on equality, building/investing/recruiting in "diverse" geos, etc. (read the link above for more examples).
YOU MUST SHOW THAT YOUR OPPOSE THOSE PRACTICES.
Now is the time to take action and ReportItNow. This is important to protect you in the event that you are fired or layed off, Microsoft cannot retaliate for reporting concerns or the truth. I know this is scary to do but it is the best way to protect yourself to leave a paper trail and it's important for you to report illegal activity. You are also not the only one, Redmond is in a panic right now. Fundamentally it is the right thing to do. It is also important to give names and dates, not to incriminate but to demonstrate that others were put in the same position as you. If you don't it is possible that YOU will be found liable for your participation and not opposing them.
Make sure to take a picture of the report before submitting, for your own records. Time is of the essance, please prioritize this before COB Thursday.
Second, after you have done ReportItNow you should share with your collegues that they may have also been asked to participate in illegal practices so they can ReportItNow as well. This is to protect them and there is power in numbers.
Third, report it to WIT (workplace investigation team) AND AskHR, you can find this on MSW.
The first three are necessary to protect you, but not sufficient, you also need to make the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and DOJ aware. Microsoft is very good at tryig to hide their illegal activities (did you notice that a couple of extreme D&I things dropped of signals this year?) and quiet those that have tried to speak up. SLT is not on your side here.
Forth, report it to the EEOC: https://publicportal.eeoc.gov/Portal/Login.aspx
Fifth, report it to the DOJ: https://oig.justice.gov/hotline/employee_complaint
I can't stress the importance of doing all of the above BEFORE you are affected and given a BS reason like "performance". I personally would not be concerned about using your work PC to do all of the above. This will give you the documentation you need if you are terminated (starting this Friday August 1st, but rolling out through August) and need to lawyer up. There is also another planned mass layoff in Q4 which this can also protect you if you have taken the above actions.
Good luck, please help each other with support and other suggestions, this will be a painful one.