It started Tuesday. Word was that at some point we would start hearing about the lay-offs that where to be starting to happen at Microsoft. Well turns out that little rumor is in fact … well … fact.

Now don’t get me wrong – lay-offs of any kind suck major monkey balls but the problem with lay-offs at companies the size of Microsoft is the chances are it is the general run-of-the-mill employees that will be shown the door. In much of what I have read today, with the exception of Mini-Microsoft, the lay-offs are being billed as being fairly minor or as Anthony Ha at VentureBeat writes

This is reportedly just a routine round of cuts in preparation for the beginning of Microsoft’s next fiscal year.

The one bright spot though comes from TechFlash which says that a large number of the marketing group people are being laid off.

A disproportionately large number of the cuts are coming in marketing groups across the company, according to people familiar with the situation.

The problem is that with much of the lay-offs that happen at Microsoft it is probably the rank and file that are getting shown the door while those in the middle and upper management continue on like nothing has changed.

The worst part of this is that this is almost an annual thing at the company just so that they can have some great saving to report at the end of the fiscal year which will make the shareholders happy. In sort it has become nothing more than a game, a game that affects the hard working people who probably love what they do and quite possible believe strongly in the company.

It is a game where the middle and upper management play musical department chairs, count their bonuses and wipe the whiteboard clear for the next project that they can screw up.

Look if Microsoft really wanted to prove not just to Wall Street but also to us the consumer, and most importantly the employees who really matter, that they care then they would start clearing house of their middle management. then once done there start clearing the decks of the upper management.

I truly feel for those rank and file employees at Microsoft that are getting the old cost saving heave-ho because they should be the last ones to go but unfortunately it looks like Microsoft doesn’t mind cutting itself off at the knees.

[Editor’s Note: Steven cross-posted this at Winextra. –mrh]