Ed. note: This article was originally published on September 11, 2024. Layoffs are underway as of October 8, we’ll update with more information when we have it.
According to exclusive reporting by Mark Maurer at WSJ, PwC will be laying off about 1,800 people, or about 2.5% of the workforce. That’s PwC US, guys. The reason given is “restructuring its products and technology group to simplify operations and address declining demand for certain advisory services.”
The Big Four accounting firm is in the process of cutting employees in the U.S. and elsewhere, primarily in its U.S. advisory and products and technology operations, according to people familiar with the matter. The cuts, about half of which are offshore, span employees ranging from associates to managing directors and include business services, audit and tax, the people said.
Wait, they’re cutting offshore people? What is happening. The worst part is that the firm won’t be informing the soon-to-be-axed until October, according to WSJ’s sources.
We were informed last year that PwC would be raising the bar in performance reviews for the express purpose of trimming some fat without outright laying them off and it sounds like that continued this year. That and a soft return-to-office must not have been effective enough to avoid this unfortunate situation.
The last time we wrote about PwC layoffs on our side of the world was back in 2009: People Are Still Talking About Those PwC Layoffs. Allow us to quote a bit of that article written 15 years ago:
Remember those PwC layoffs in Tampa a week or so back? Right. Anyway, the St. Petersburg Times decided to poke around this story a little bit more and discovered some things that most of you have known for awhile: there are two very different sides to large accounting firms and PwC is no exception.
PricewaterhouseCoopers has cultivated an image as one of corporate America’s upper-tier workplaces. Competitive pay. Great benefits. A perennial on Fortune’s list of Best Places to Work.
Human resources experts with the company have preached to clients about effectively managing workers and using layoffs as the last option in times of crisis.
However, interviews with a half-dozen current and former Pricewaterhouse employees support a different picture of a financial evolution within the company in recent years. The accounting and professional services giant, known as PwC, has quietly and methodically slashed hundreds if not thousands of well-paying jobs, offshoring many functions to cheaper labor overseas.
It’s rough out there. And the firm making people sweat it out for a month before they find out if it’s their head on the chopping block isn’t making it any easier.
PwC Laying Off 1,800 Employees as It Plans Restructuring of Products Business [Wall Street Journal]
“And the firm making people sweat it out for a month before they find out if it’s their head on the chopping block isn’t making it any easier.”
This is intentional, and its not about the people who will be laid off. It’s a shot across the bow to the people who aren’t being laid off (at least in this round). Employees have had all the power in recent years, but employers are now determined to get that power back.
I want to know how much PwC pays Fortune to be ranked one of the best places to work. There is no world where a Big 4 is a “best place to work.” Sorry, you’re not fooling anyone.
I’m skeptical of every single one of those lists. IPA’s latest ‘Best of the Best’ list is particularly egregious, people have been complaining to us about Aprio for like two whole years now.
Very sad! Would not happen if I were in charge!
Who needs those scandalous, imperfect creatures of flesh and blood when you dropped a bn on AI? Good thing they got the chatgpt upskilling before getting the boot.
Be glad. Now is your time to go live life outside of the Big Boxes.
Posts on LinkedIn tell a different story that some were let go in September. Some blatantly said it on LinkedIn that they were a part of the big cut and other (directors) just took another position.