50 Netflix Jobs Lost Due to Microsoft Competence

Netflix has just announced that they will be laying off 50 employees in their tech support department in January. I initially assumed that the culprit for the layoffs would be the ailing economy and the imminent arrival of Great Depression II complete with hoovervilles (or Bushi-villes as they will be known), the dust bowl, and crowded lines for the soup kitchen.


I was wrong. Netflix is blaming the layoffs on the efficiency of Microsoft Silverlight. Wow. It's not every day you see Microsoft and efficiency in the same sentence. I'll give you a moment to let that sink in.

Apparently, Silverlight is so easy to install and use that Netflix customers streaming video to their computers no longer need to call tech support for help. In the New York Times, the VP at Netflix said that, recently, the "tech support staff have been underutilized." Underutilized is such a beautiful way of saying "sitting around twiddling thumbs." I imagine the tech crew sitting around drinking lattes, feet up on the desk, and heading WOW guilds during work hours; maybe answering a call every three hours to say "yeah, just hit install, it will take care of itself after that."

After the two year tech-support fallout from Vista, it's pretty difficult to believe that Microsoft managed to pull something off so successfully. When Vista dropped, there wasn't a tech support line in the country (or rerouted through India) that didn't have a 3+ hour hold time.

In economic terms, Vista increased demand for tech support and probably created quite a number of jobs. Silverlight, on the other hand, is eliminating them.

I'm calling for solidarity amongst tech support staff. In an ailing economy, we need Microsoft to do what they do best-bungle everything up.

Listen, Microsoft! This is no time to start meddling with efficiency, usability, functionality or friendly UI. You can wait for brighter days to introduce successful products. The health of the tech sector relies upon your uncanny ability to make unwieldy, inefficient software.

On the off chance that you actually prefer user-friendly software, we've got loads of reviews to help you find it.

Check out our Holiday Center site to help you get last minute shopping taken care of. Plenty of underutilized blogging talent for you there too:

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