You’re fired! Now give us back a few pieces of that golden parachute

Microsoft was forced to take the embarassing step of asking some of its laid-off employees to return a portion of their severance package.

According to a letter that was released to TechCrunch, the Redmond, Wash.-based software maker is asking former employees for reimbursement, by check or money order, within two weeks. Those who do so will be entitled to a much more valuable Zune, the company said (no, not really).

Reports indicated Microsoft was blaming the situation on an administrative error. Who knew Excel was so darn hard to use?