Voluntary purchasing is having a moment in Big Tech.

Google workers recently pressured the search giant to make exit offers a standard first step whenever it plans job cuts, and extend them to all affected team members, regardless of seniority. Meanwhile, Microsoft launched its first broad voluntary retirement program last spring, offering packages to thousands of long-time U.S. employees. He said more than 30% of those eligible accepted.

The developments are raising broader questions in technology, where many once-successful startups are now sprawling corporations, and where repeated rounds of layoffs have eliminated dozens of jobs in recent years.

Now that many of those companies have workforces that include employees with decades of service, acquisitions are being made: part of the downsizing playbook at legacy companies from Boeing to General Motors: a fairer, less painful way to reduce headcount than layoffs? And should they remain reserved for veteran employees, as has traditionally been done, or be offered more widely?

“Acquisitions are increasingly attractive for older Silicon Valley companies,” said Laszlo Bock, a former Google human resources director who now advises CEOs. “They have more people eligible and it’s a softer message for morale.”

A “more humane” approach

Nearly 100 Google employees demonstrated this month outside the company’s headquarters in Mountain View, arguing that the company’s past use of selective exit offers should become a broader, more consistent policy. As part of the event, the union presented a petition signed by more than 4,500 Google employees calling for better layoff protections.

Voluntary buyouts “offer agency to workers,” said Emma Jackson, a Google employee for more than 20 years and leader of the Alphabet Workers Union. Alphabet is the parent company of Google.

Jackson said workers nearing retirement could have taken buyouts in previous rounds of layoffs at Google, reducing the number of cuts needed. He called the approach “more humane.”

Google did not respond to Business Insider’s requests for comment. The company said in a stock exchange filing Wednesday that its workforce grew by nearly 12,000 employees over the past year, reaching about 199,000 at the end of June.

Microsoft announced its retirement program in April, making it available to employees whose age plus years of service total at least 70. The company then cut about 4,800 jobs earlier this month.

Those who accepted Microsoft’s retirement offer received pay based on seniority and tenure, plus up to five years of health insurance coverage. Still, the formula meant that some employees became eligible long before the conventional retirement age, forcing them to weigh whether to abandon careers they didn’t expect to end soon.

At 47 years old, retirement was not on Marisela Cerda’s radar. However, Cerda, a senior customer experience manager at Microsoft who joined the company after college in 2001, was among those who received an exit offer.

Although he ultimately decided to stay, Cerda previously told Business Insider that he stayed as long as he could because of the opportunity to continue learning about emerging technologies and the relationships he has built with colleagues over the years. The offer led Cerda to think more urgently about the next phase of his career.

“You move toward what you want most, rather than away from things you don’t want,” he said.

A Microsoft spokesperson declined to comment further.

Why the calculus may be changing

As Silicon Valley companies age along with their workforce, acquisitions may become more attractive, said Josh Bersin, a human resources analyst and consultant. Forcing veteran employees to leave through layoffs “creates a lot of resentment,” he said.

Peter Rahbar, a New York employment lawyer and co-host of the “Across the Bar” podcast, said buyouts may not reduce staff as quickly as layoffs, but they don’t carry the same “enormous” moral costs for those who stay, or for potential future hires.

“The way people are treated on the way out is certainly something people look at on the way in,” he said.

However, there are disadvantages for employers. Offering buyouts can make job reductions less predictable, said Jay Zagorsky, a professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business. If too few employees accept, the company may still have to make cuts to reach its goal.

“With a layoff, there is certainty,” he said.

Extending purchase offers to everyone, including those who have recorded only a few work anniversaries, also has drawbacks.

“People who would prefer to stay could leave,” and they could go to a competitor, said Bock, the former Google executive.

The risk is especially worrying for companies with what he calls “spike talent,” where a small number of employees create disproportionate value.

“That’s typical of Silicon Valley companies,” he said.

For workers who receive a buyout offer, Rahbar, the employment attorney, said they should understand how accepting it would affect their retirement benefits, stock awards, deferred compensation and health care coverage. Depending on the company’s plans, retiring employees may continue to enjoy certain benefits or keep those they already earned, he said.

Termination packages also tend to be more generous than severance offers, Rahbar added, and there is an emotional difference between choosing to leave and being told to leave.

“People feel good about leaving on their own terms,” ​​he said. “With a layoff, they clearly are not.”