Microsoft fires 58-year-old exec weeks after his age bias complaint, suit alleges

Meanwhile, the worker’s pay had been sliding. According to the complaint, his W-2 earnings fell roughly 19% between 2021 and 2025 – even as revenue on the FedEx account nearly doubled. His fiscal year 2025 bonus and stock awards were allegedly cut below what his general manager had recommended, with the reduction coming from a decision-maker further up the chain. The complaint says the cut was never explained.

All of this was unfolding as the worker approached a significant milestone. Microsoft’s equity program includes a “15/55” retirement threshold – employees who reach both age 55 and 15 years of service keep their unvested stock awards after leaving the company. According to the complaint, the worker would have hit that threshold in September 2027, about 18 months after he was let go. His termination caused him to forfeit 539 unvested stock units.

In December 2025, he raised his concerns with a skip-level manager and proposed three ways to stay at Microsoft, including a transfer to a different role. According to the complaint, the skip-level manager refused, saying, “I cannot offer that support, as I have not known you long enough.” Three months later, the same management chain supported firing him.

Then came a phone call the complaint calls revealing. On December 30, 2025, a Microsoft corporate vice president allegedly told the worker that management’s discontent was “not about performance” and that his track record was “impressive.” The CVP attributed the pressure to a request from a FedEx executive that the worker be taken off a large sales opportunity, according to the filing.

When the worker confirmed that explanation in writing on January 10, 2026, the complaint says the CVP shifted his position – acknowledging the worker’s “history of solid performance” but claiming, for the first time, a “noticeable decline beginning in FY25 and continuing into FY26.” The complaint says that claim is contradicted by the worker’s own fiscal year 2025 performance review, which praised his “true ‘yeomans’ work,” his “great leadership,” and noted that “everyone recognizes the growth at [FedEx] over the years under [his] leadership.”