Feel Confident in a Decision You Won’t Regret:
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
A 90-minute decision workshop for Microsoft employees weighing the Voluntary Exit Offer.
Decide with clarity, not panic, before December 9th.
Three live sessions on Zoom. Pick the one that fits your schedule:
Saturday, November 14 · 9:00–10:30am PT
Sunday, November 15 · 4:00–5:30pm PT
Monday, November 16 · 5:00–6:30pm PT
Only 25 seats per session.
“I left feeling equipped to move past analysis paralysis and make decisions with much greater clarity and confidence”
This decision is hard, and not for the reason you might think.
On paper, it's a simple yes or no. In real life, it touches everything: your money, your career, your sense of who you are, and the life you want to build next. And it's hard for different people in different ways.
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and this is the first time you've had to weigh walking away from a stable, well-paid job. Microsoft has become part of how you see yourself, and it's hard to imagine what comes next.
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people who count on you, a mortgage, or the very real question of how you'll pay for healthcare. Earlier in your career you might have trusted your gut and leapt. Now the gut feeling is buried under a lot of anxiety.
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and now the door is open. Which is exciting, and also terrifying.
Whatever your situation, a few things tend to show up.
You opened the offer email weeks ago. You've run the numbers, then run them again. Some days staying feels obvious. Some days leaving does. So you've done what most smart, busy people do with a big, uncomfortable decision: you've set it aside. I'll think about it this weekend. Then another weekend goes by.
You want to decide based on the facts, but anxiety, guilt, and excitement keep getting tangled up in the math.
And everyone has an opinion: your partner, your parents, your friends, the colleague who already decided. Most of the advice centers on the numbers. But some things matter just as much to you and don't fit in a spreadsheet: your energy, your wellbeing, and what you need to recharge. In those conversations, they keep getting talked over, sometimes by you.
You don’t need someone to tell you what to do.
You need a way to hear your own wisdom again, and to trust it.
The biggest risk isn't picking the wrong option. It's letting the deadline pick for you.
When you put off a decision this big, four things happen:
Your options shrink. There's no time left to talk to a financial planner, test the job market, or have the real conversation at home.
Fear takes over. In the final days, people grab whichever choice makes the anxiety stop, not the one that's right for them.
You make someone else's decision. If the only criteria that get airtime are the easiest ones to measure, you can end up with a choice that makes sense on paper but doesn't fit your life.
You don't fully own it. A decision made in a panic is the one you second-guess for years.
Just this week, someone was introduced to me with a compelling offer in hand. She admitted she'd been dragging her feet for weeks and worried she was nearly out of time to decide well. If that's you, you're not alone, and there's still time.
December 9th is closer than it feels.
Give yourself 90 minutes to decide on purpose.
Should I Stay or Should I Go? is a 90-minute live workshop that turns an overwhelming choice into one you can actually think through.
It won't make the decision for you. It gives you a structured way to lay out what you know, what you're unsure of, and what matters most, so the choice you make is grounded in your situation and your values, and you can stand behind it.
Along the way, you'll learn to separate the facts from the feelings without ignoring either one. Your emotions point to something you care about, and you'll learn to read them as information, not noise. You'll name your non-negotiables, like your energy, your wellbeing, and what you need to recharge, so they get weighed alongside the money instead of getting lost.
It's built on the same decision-making process I’ve taught at Google, Harvard Business School, and Stanford's Life Design Lab, adapted for the buyout decision in front of you.
What you’ll walk away with:
Get clear on what actually matters to you right now, beyond the numbers
Lay out your real options, including the ones that aren't obvious
Weigh the money, the risks, and the unknowns without going in circles
Leave with a decision you can stand behind, or a clear plan for getting there before the deadline
“Michelle has a rare gift—the ability to make rigorous, principled thinking feel accessible and even liberating. If you’re looking to make better decisions with greater confidence and less second-guessing, Michelle Florendo is the real deal.”
This workshop is for you if:
You're a Microsoft employee who received the Voluntary Exit Offer and haven't decided yet
You're leaning one way but want to be sure before December 9th
You're a partner or family member helping someone you love make this call
It's not the right fit if:
You're looking for financial, tax, or legal advice. This workshop is about how to decide. Pair it with a financial planner for the numbers.
I'm Michelle Florendo, a Stanford-trained Decision Engineer.
I help people make high-stakes choices with clarity and confidence.
I've taught decision-making at Google, Harvard Business School, and Fortune 500 companies around the world. I’ve taught at Stanford's Life Design Lab, helped redesign the decision-making curriculum for the world-famous Designing Your Life course, and host the Ask A Decision Engineer podcast. I've also coached hundreds of engineers, managers, and directors at global tech giants.
When the buyout news broke, my phone started buzzing. Former clients and their friends were reaching out with the same question: How do I decide?
This workshop is my answer.
What Others Are Saying
The details
Format: 90 minutes, live on Zoom
Sessions:
Sat 11/14 9am - 10:30am PT
Sun 11/15 4 - 5:30pm PT
Mon 11/16 5 - 6:30pm PT
Group size: capped at 25 registrants per session
Recording: Every session is recorded and sent to registrants
Investment: $150
For context, a single session with a financial planner or career coach often costs more than this, and this is the conversation you'll want to have before you meet with them.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Yes. The workshop helps you figure out which details matter most, so you know what to look for when you dig in.
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Yes, and it's encouraged. When the people closest to you share the same process, the conversation stops being a tug-of-war over whose priorities win.
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No. This workshop is about how to make the decision. It isn't financial, tax, or legal advice. It pairs well with a session with a financial planner.
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Your situation is yours to share. You'll do most of the thinking individually, and you choose what to say out loud. Cameras are optional.
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Every session is recorded and sent to registrants, so register for any session and watch the recording.
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Then it's a chance to pressure-test your decision before December 9th, so you can move forward knowing you chose on purpose.
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So there's room for your questions and real attention on your situation.
"But What If This Doesn't Work for My Specific Situation?"
I've guided professionals through every type of major decision you can imagine:
Should I take this job offer in another city?
Should we move our family abroad?
Should I leave my corporate job to start my own business?
Should we buy this house that stretches our budget?
Should I go back to school for my MBA?
Should we have another child?
Should I take care of my aging parents or hire help?
The framework is the same because the structure of decision-making is the same. The content is different, but the process: understanding what matters most, evaluating your options systematically, and moving forward despite uncertainty, applies to every major choice you'll face.
You don't have to figure this out alone, or at the last minute.
The answer is already in you. In 90 minutes, you'll have a clear way to find it, and a decision you can stand behind.
Sessions run this weekend, with only 25 seats each. The decision window closes December 9th.
“Your session today was life altering for me.”