Layoff Watch ’24: Deloitte’s Busy Scaring People with Business Update Meetings

Deloitte exterior building with scissors

Someone brought it to our attention earlier that quite a few people on r/Deloitte are reporting dreaded “business update meeting” items being added to their calendars. We know what that means.

The someone added:

Just remember that Deloitte employees are never “let go” from their jobs, they are rightsized to align with the firm’s strategic objectives in light of economic uncertainty and sector level trends

Well, apparently a lot of people in audit are being rightsized this week.

Exhibit A: Plot twist, I’m ALSO being laid off.

After getting no real work done today, completely consumed by today’s events i.e. everyone around me being laid off… I also received my business update email to the shock, not only of myself, but of my team. I know you’ll all be in the comments asking, so let’s get that out of the way, I’m an audit senior, west region.

So my staff and I were laid off, it honestly feels like a mistake. There will be no one left on my team except for my manager and above, I feel a little sorry for them too. We had deadlines coming up.

I know the people around the office will try and make sense of this all, “they must’ve been a low performer” or “they must’ve missed too many time sheets.” Etc…

For the record, I was rated strongly agree on my last snapshot for both metrics. I was explicitly told this. I had made strong relationships with my team and the client. I was leading the engagement. I was doing well and my managers made that known. I hadn’t missed a time sheet this year, although I think I missed 2 last year so maybe that’s what did me in lol. Maybe it was some compliance thing that I missed last year? Who knows? They’ll chalk it up to market conditions. And no, I don’t have my cpa, even people with cpa were being laid off today/tomorrow.

TLDR: I received the “business update meeting” invite and spoiler the update is that I no longer work here anymore.

Another: Got laid off. It’s not performance related. It’s related to low business. I kind of already knew but it still stings

We don’t have much info other than a few Reddit posts, will see what more we can dig up and let you know. We don’t anticipate Deloitte will be making a public announcement but perhaps with enough stink they’ll feel forced to (spoiler: they won’t). It sounds like the numbers will be significant when all’s said and done. Wasn’t AI supposed to prevent a bloodbath like this?

Let us know if you were affected by this round of cuts and/or have more info by text or email.

2 thoughts on “Layoff Watch ’24: Deloitte’s Busy Scaring People with Business Update Meetings

  1. Are other professions like this?

    I also get no one will truly know why they were laid off and the person laid off will never tell you if they were a poor performer…but this just seems like such a deterrent for students to join this profession…where annually 2-5% of the accountants get hit with a “surprise” “business update” meeting after being told this was a “safe” job.

  2. Why? Happens every year this week at D. End of Q1. Probably behind plan. $1,300 unit value isn’t good enough anymore. Remember Par is $1,000. Next round of cuts typically is November, end of Q2. I wonder how much they spent on US open sponsorship.

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