Happy Friday. A fun fact before the weekend—the word “boss” comes from the Dutch word, baas. It reached the English lexicon in the 1600s through New Amsterdam, the colony that become New York. And this week, the Dutch court gave the baas a win. Grab your coffee, or your Halloween candy (no judgment).

In today’s newsletter:

On Monday, Microsoft offered voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, roughly 27% of its workforce. Two days later, it reported a record quarter: $92.3 billion in revenue, up 19%, driven by Azure cloud revenue that jumped 48%.

The fine print:

This is Microsoft’s third workforce move of 2026. In April, it launched its first-ever voluntary retirement program, and more than 30% of eligible employees took it. In July, it announced 4,800 layoffs. All of this is happening while the company plans to spend about $175 billion on AI infrastructure this year.

Why it matters: A buyout is a softer exit than a layoff. Employees choose to leave and the company avoids another layoff headline. But the timing tells you where the money is going. Microsoft isn’t cutting because business is bad. It’s moving budgets from people to data centers.

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U.S. employees engagement fell to 29% in Q3 2026. That’s the lowest level since 2011 and the first time in 15 years it has dropped below 30%. Remote and hybrid workers took the biggest hit.

By the numbers:

Two things drove the drop: fewer workers said they know what’s expected of them (49% to 46%), and fewer said someone at work cares about them as a person (40% to 37%). The decline was steepest at companies that have rolled out AI, where the engagement boost AI was linked to earlier this year has mostly faded for remote and hybrid workers.

ICYMI: Gallup calls this an association, not a cause. Working remotely didn’t make people disengaged. Globally, remote workers are still the most engaged group of any work arrangement.

Why it matters: This reads less like a remote work problem and more like a management problem. When the tools change quickly and nobody explains what your job looks like now, the people furthest from the office notice first.

🎮 Xbox is adding an office day. Starting February 1, 2027, Xbox employees in the Puget Sound area who live within 50 commuting miles of Redmond must work in the office four days a week. That’s one more day than Microsoft’s company-wide rule. In the memo, Xbox’s Chief People Officer Jacinda Chislum Pearson said in-office time should be “time well spent”, which means reviewing work and playing games together, not taking Teams calls from a different building. Xbox is also one of the teams eligible for the buyout above, so some employees are being offered a way out while others are asked to come in more.

🇳🇱 Booking.com wins its in-office battle. On Wednesday, an Amsterdam court ruled that Booking.com can mandate employees at its headquarters to spend 40% of their time in the office, our about two days a week. The works council, an elected employee group whose consent is needed to change working conditions, had refused to approve the policy, so Booking took it to court. Only 27% of the roughly 7,000 HQ employees currently meet the 40% mark. The court said a mandate is reasonable “especially because the voluntary arrangement has not worked so far”. Employees get a six-month transition period and a hardship clause. The works council is weighing an appeal.

🤖 AI replacement has a human problem. Some companies that cut jobs for AI are hiring people back, and it happens often enough to have a nickname: the AI boomerang. Ford brought back or promoted 350 veteran engineers after AI quality-control tools underperformed. Klarna started hiring human customer service reps again. If your old employer calls, experts suggest asking for higher pay, training, and a clear answer on how AI will affect staffing in the future. One Georgetown professor suggests asking for a one-year renewable contract with a buyout clause.

Ever wanted to spend a winter in the Arctic for free? The Arctic Digital Nomads Grant offers remote workers one to three months of free housing and coworking in small villages in Norway’s Geirangerfjord, Iceland’s Westfjords, and the Faroe Islands. Stays run from February to April. There is a catch though. Participants are asked to give something back to their village, whether that’s teaching a skill, helping at an event, or joining a local project. The goal is to bring life back to communities that slow down after tourist season.

FYI: Applications for the 2027 round closed October 15, but the grant opens every autumn, so subscribe to their newsletter to be the first to know when the next round starts. And if you can’t wait, you can rent housing and a desk at any of the three coworking spaces year-round. Don’t forget to bring a good coat.

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