Microsoft Layoffs: Barely two months after cutting about 6000 jobs nearly 3 percent of its global workforce Microsoft is poised to announce another major round of layoffs later this month. The fresh round of Microsoft layoffs is likely to target thousands of jobs primarily in the tech giants sales division and interestingly the companys sales chief Judson Althoff is taking an 8-week leave ahead of expected job cuts report said. Why Microsoft sales head is going on a sabbatical? According to a Bloomberg report Microsoft confirmed that its Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) Judson Althoff is taking a 8-week sabbatical from work and will resume his duties in September after the company closes its fiscal year. As per a company spokesperson Athloffs sabbatical was planned and has no connection to the upcoming Microsoft layoffs adding that it aligned with the firms internal calendar. He will be back with his team in September Bloomberg quoted the spokesperson as saying. When is Microsoft planning next round of layoffs? As per Bloomberg the new round of Microsoft layoffs is planned for early July at the start of the companys new fiscal year. Earlier in May Microsoft had sacked around 6000 workers and eliminated 300 additional  jobs a few weeks later. However unlike the previous round of layoffs which mainly affected software engineers and product developers the upcoming job cuts are expected to primarily target Microsofts customer-facing roles. The company has around 45000 workers employed in its sales and marketing division out of the total 228000 workforce as of June 2024 the report noted. Notably Microsoft had hinted at the shift in April when it announced plans to use third-party firms to handle more software sales to small and mid-sized customers. While the layoffs wont exclusively affect sales teams they will bear the brunt of the upcoming job cuts Bloomberg reported citing sources.