Wife Says Husband Was Sacked By Algorithm On His Birthday After 25 Years At MNC
"This is why no one should be loyal to an employer," one bluntly replied.
Cover image via Gemini AdvancedA viral Reddit post by the wife of a long-serving Microsoft employee has sparked conversations online about loyalty, layoffs, and the growing role of algorithms in corporate decision-making
Writing under the subreddit r/TrueOffMyChest, the user shared how her husband, a software engineer with 25 years at Microsoft, was allegedly laid off after being "randomly selected by a computer algorithm".
To make matters worse, his last working day reportedly falls on his 48th birthday.
"He's autistic and has multiple sclerosis. He's the most quietly loyal, brilliant person I've ever met… He never asked for raises or promotions — he just kept showing up and solving impossible problems," she wrote.
According to her, he was the kind of employee who took on Christmas and Thanksgiving shifts so others could be with their families. A dedicated worker who would rather fix bugs than network, he was recently awarded a crystal for his 25-year milestone, only to be let go by what she described as "a spreadsheet".
"He would be so embarrassed if he knew I was writing this. He's proud of keeping a stiff upper lip and not making a fuss. But I couldn't let him leave without someone hearing the story," she wrote.
The post quickly resonated with users across the platform, amassing over 23,000 upvotes and hundreds of comments within hours
Some users pointed to the story as symbolic of a deeper problem in today's corporate world, one where institutional memory, loyalty, and hard work are often invisible to cost-cutting algorithms.
"Your story isn't even rare anymore. We built this industry on the backs of people like your husband… and when the bean counters come looking, it's those people who get shuffled out," one commenter wrote.
Others expressed frustration at how companies continue to reward self-promotion and office politics over quiet competency, loyalty or institutional knowledge.
"He gave his life and soul and personal time to this company just to have a computer fire him. Not even given the dignity of a human telling him why," one user wrote.
"This is why no one should be loyal to an employer," another bluntly added.
There were also comments reflecting on the culture of overworking in tech, with some suggesting that the husband's unwillingness to advocate for himself, by not taking sick days, asking for promotions, or pushing for raises, may have played a role in how things turned out.
However, not everyone was convinced
A few Redditors questioned the story's authenticity, pointing out that companies typically revoke access immediately after layoffs, and expressing scepticism over the post's emotional tone.
"A post from a 10-hour-old account about an autistic engineer with a physical disability and 25 years of being a superstar and a 'random algorithm' fired him with his last day being on his birthday. This is like a Redditor's pity wet dream," one user commented.
Another chimed in: "Why would they continue to allow him system access after he's been laid off? That would be a huge security risk," after the wife claimed, in one of her replies, that her husband had spent his final day with access trying to solve a bug that had been bothering him for weeks.
Still, many chose to focus on the broader issue that even the most dedicated employees can find themselves discarded, without warning, by a system increasingly driven by automation and shareholder interest.
Regardless of whether the post is factual, it has tapped into a wider anxiety about job security, automation, and what happens when companies replace human judgment with data-driven decisions.
