Microsoft to Laid Off Employees: Give Us Back Some of That Severance

Microsoft sent letters to some of the 1,400 employees that were laid of in January of 2009, but it wasn't a return to work notice. Instead the company was asking those former employees to return some of their severance packages...believe it or not.

The situation arose after Microsoft overpaid some employees for their severance packages, according to letters posted by TechCrunch, an error that was the result of a miscalculation on Big Redmond's part. The letters went out to only some of the 1,400 employees that were laid off, and it requested that the money be returned to Microsoft within two weeks.

The letters also offered detailed instructions on where to send the money, but was light on the details of how the error happened and any relevant calculations on the proper severance plan. TechCrunch redacted the specific amounts requested by Microsoft and the persons' names involved.