Not sure where the above 5% came from but 30% accepted the last VBO which had only lower levels allowed:

https://www.cnbc.com/2026/10/26/microsoft-msft-voluntary-buy...

One important distinction was that the previous one was voluntary retirement and was offered to people nearing the ends of their careers. The people taking these offers were likely tired of their jobs and taking the escape hatch to retire (or change jobs in a minority case) a bit earlier than originally planned.

I suspect this VBO will see a lower acceptance rate because there will be a lot of eligible people in their early or mid careers, and unless you are one of the people who won't have trouble finding a new role, or you expect to be fired/laid off soon, or you're are already on your way out, you probably don't want to be starting the job search right now.

On the other hand, the 2nd round of buyouts this year brings certainty. Microsoft laid off 4,800 employees after the 1st round.

If you don’t take the deal now, you’ll spend your remaining days at Microsoft wondering if you’ll be included in the next round of involuntary layoffs, possibly with worse terms and timing.

Will the job market be that much better for you in a year or two?

Maybe not, but if that's what you are worried about, it might be better to start the job search now, while you are employed. Get a 4-month head start before the Spring "right before the end of Microsoft's fiscal year" cleaning. (Euphemism for layoffs - I don't want to minimize the effect layoffs have, but I also find it hard not to be cynical about the reason they happen when they happen.)

If you’re worried things are bad and not getting better, you’re probably better off keeping your job and cutting all expenditures you can, so that you can maximize your savings before the job ends, and maybe you will even look out and not end up being laid off.

*Luck out. That's what I get for using dictation.

I gathered what you are saying. As someone who has done that, and been miserable, I do not recommend it.

I'd take the deal before it gets worse, and get a head start on hunting before there's even more people you're competing against. While you're at it, cash out some stocks before the index gets worse.

Can someone help me understand this part:

> The billing engine that trusts unverified X-ACCOUNT-USER-ID headers. The account service where admin is a tenant ID and impersonation bypasses org checks with owner role.

What is the issue with the billing engine trusting an “unverified” header here? Is the assumption that it’s not auth-ing the request? Is the billing engine internal? What does “unverified” even mean in this context.

What’s the problem with Admin being a tenant ID? How would impersonation even cause bypassing an org check?

That whole paragraph reads to be AI written.

Depending on how the billing engine is deployed, and whether there are adequate controls that it's being deployed correctly, there is nothing wrong with accepting a header like this from an upstream service that produces it or verifies it in the correct manner. It only becomes an issue if the service is directly exposed to potential attackers that could use it for impersonation, e.g. a service directly exposed to the internet.

The entire Page is AI written 100%, and it's very likely DeepSeek because the prose matches my experience. I've been working heavily with DeepSeek this past week on an Architecture issue, so I read A LOT. The most obvious tell-tale of deepseek I've is long, condensed paragraphs that should've been bullet-point lists.