Technology company Microsoft has offered financial incentives to about 60,000 of its employees in exchange for voluntarily leaving the company.

This number of employees constitutes about 27 percent of the company’s total workforce.

According to Microsoft, this offer is for employees in select areas in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and India. The offer is being given to eligible employees up to the level of vice president, but not all areas are included in this program.

Employees in some data centers, sales, marketing and other teams are exempt from this.

Eligible employees who leave the company will be given financial support, including severance pay, health coverage for a certain period, continued stock vesting and career transition services, depending on their length of service and position.

Employees have been given until early December to accept the offer, while most separations are expected near the end of the year.

Microsoft has clarified that this program is not a mandatory layoff but an offer of voluntary separation. According to the company, the goal is to provide support to employees who are considering a career outside the company in the future, while also giving different business units an additional way to organize their workforce according to changing needs.