Microsoft employee fired after 33 years at company, worked on Windows 95; Here's what he said

Bogdan said that his entire career at Microsoft has been an "incredible ride". But he said that the biggest payoff for him came in the last 2 years when he pitched and landed an L&D role in Windows. Here's what he said.  

Microsoft's Director of Learning and Development (L&D), Jeff Bogdan, abruptly lost his job after serving at the company for over 30 years. He shared his amazing experience at Microsoft on social media a few days after losing his job.

Taking to LinkedIn, Bogdan wrote: "My 33-year run with the wonderful Microsoft come to a close in February, when my job was eliminated." He stated that his "job elimination was the result of HR adopting the hub and spoke model for L&D that I was pitching."

Bogdan had a significant part in three Microsoft products, according to his post: Windows 95, Zune, and Windows Phone. He said that his "biggest payoff" occurred two years ago when he successfully pitched for and was hired for an L&D position at Windows.

He went on to say that HR's adoption of the hub-and-spoke approach for L&D, which he was advocating, was the reason he was fired. "Sadly, when my division already had their L&D team in place, there wasn't a seat at the table for me," he said.

"My premise was that, after successfully spreading a "learn-it-all" mindset throughout the org, it was time to spread a "teach-it-all" mindset to accompany this. I focused on organizing the learning investments for a 2,000-person org, and then worked to align that with learning & development offerings from our parent orgs and from central HR," he wrote. 

"After ample contemplation, I have determined that I am nothing close to the "R word". I still want to offer so much more. Thus, I'm starting the process of looking for a second career," he continued. Bogdan is looking for a "second career," and he says consulting is a straightforward place to start.

The post was shared by Bogdan only a few days ago. It has received several comments and more than 2,800 replies since then.