Layoffs at Deloitte

Hearing stories of layoffs at Deloitte Consulting. Boston, Chicago, and LA confirmed. All in S&O. Firm does not appear to be doing well. Anybody here affected/know more?

 
opsdude1:

I have a bunch of friends in the Chicago office, just reached out to them. No lay-offs. Think this is a troll. There quarterly report also showed double digit growth a few weeks ago, so don't know how it wouldn't be doing well...

People in your class (new joiners) shouldn't be getting laid off. It's the class before who have been there for 1.5 years and quality has been exposed.
 

small amount of layoffs around this time of the year may be normal as part of HR trimming strategies. Is there an actual layoff wave with entire teams getting cut, or significant population in an office or area being depleted?

 

Yes. I heard nearly 300 SAP consultants were laid off so far this year. The company is not doing well.

 

Thanks for the monkey shit guys...can't say it was deserved. -_-

The individuals in question are all post-MBA, second-year SC's. Timing seems strange as they would be due for a tuition reimbursement, etc. upon promotion months from now. My contact was staffed on a project and his current team/other senior managers/other partners were unaware.

Agree with Bluevball8 that it is likely "soft performance." My wording of the firm "not doing well" might have been a little strong. Just reporting what I am seeing.

 

Just want to add a little more color to the discussion - I interviewed with S&O late last year (as a lateral candidate) and got a verbal offer in Novermber. However since then the HR has informed me that complete S&O hiring at has been put on freeze till atleast June of this year. I tried reaching out to a Senior Partner and he re-affirmed that there they will not be giving out any offers until summer.

 
Bluevball8:

Not a troll. There are layoffs but the more I hear the more it seems exactly what I said:

Soft performance of the firm, people identified as not doing great, early "force outs". It's probably to dress the numbers a bit.

Can confirm. Deloitte is still above plan for the year, but the market is very soft.

 
Irrelephant:

Is there a difference between "soft performance" layoffs and up-or-out culture?

Yes. People laid off due to "soft performance" aren't necessarily people they were looking to get rid of but will include some random heads they must cut for some reason or another. Usually the first on the "lay-off" list are the people actively being coached out, but if they need to cut more heads they aren't going to lay off the people with long commitments to top clients. People who came off a client at the wrong time and have a perfectly fine but easy to maneuver future schedule may find themselves in this bucket.

"Up or out" is when they make it undesirable for you to stay if you aren't promotion material - they won't fire you but they'll make it clear you aren't on track to progress there either and your opportunities will suck. Most people quit when they realize this is going on, but if you stay in this situation long enough you may find yourself eventually laid off. It's pretty easy to stay employed for awhile if you are in this bucket though - the firms don't lay people off all the often. I saw someone spend 5 or 6 years as an audit associate (normal is 2 or 3) simply because they weren't quitting and weren't doing basic stuff they needed to for promotion.

The "WTF are you even doing here?" performers will generally be fired for the first immediately fireable offense and don't fall into the lay-off bucket unless one is already pending and they are afraid of getting sued.

 

The Consulting market is "soft?" Really? Not trying to be sarcastic, but can someone elaborate on this, please? Are you referring to consulting for a specific industry that is being hammered (energy?)?

At my MBB, our billable period is at record levels. The concept of extended "beach time" is something that none of my peers who joined with me have experienced.

Also, if there is a significant dip in demand for consulting, I'd expect MBB to be hit first. Clients can put off buying strategy and other future-directions type of work, but they can't put off integrating a company that they have recently acquired....the latter is what PwC, Deloitte et al. mostly do.

 

This isn't isolated to S&O. Technology Consulting is in a complete hiring freeze except for campus hires you already have offers. I can confirm as I was laid off and have good performance reviews. I talked to the CEO of consulting and the chief talent officer of consulting. Both confirmed a hiring freeze.

 

You guys are missing a classic trick in every large firm's book...hell even the government uses this one and they've got some of the most inept HR management on the planet.

Sometimes "layoffs" don't need to be labeled as such. All you need to do in order to obtain a slight reduction is to artificially and slightly raise the bar on "low performance" and keep doing that until you've trimmed as much staff as you want. It doesn't work for major cuts but if you want to cause a slow trickle out over the next few months or the next year or two it's more than sufficient.

I'm not saying this is the case there (I'm not tied into Deloitte enough to know) but if those of you who do know hear about noticeably larger numbers than usual getting let go for "low performance" that's a strong indicator.

 
Best Response

So, yeah, it happened to me. I was in what I understand was a second wave of layoffs, and the Partner and HR rep doing mine indicated they had been at it a while. I know it is happening in S&O, it seems mainly Public Sector. The market has been super soft, especially with a). Completion of many HIX systems now going to M&O ode the techs can handle, b). Some HIX systems being divested to the feds, and c). Governments putting off projects while waiting for the elections. I'd been utilized pretty poorly lately, as had the people I know.

I'd share more about my quals and location, but I do not want to be identified. I'll say that I am pretty qualified for Public Sector and had been there a while.

I have talked with people at the SC and Manager level, with one to five years with Deloitte. Everyone I spoke to got eight weeks plus accrued PTO - no difference by tenure. It's administered in an interesting way... one stays on payroll for the eight weeks, then the PTO gets paid out in a lump sum. Here's the issue... if you go to another employer at any point, they write you the check for the rest of your severance. Unless you go back to Deloitte! Then you lose the remaining severance. So if you get a new job quickly, you have a $10k plus incentive to not accept an offer from Deloitte (say they offer you an internal role).

They did not do performance reviews for people being laid off. So all that bad utilization will not bite you if you try to come back. I know people say never go back, but, to me, this is just the market and I harbor no ill will (other than some annoyance that the P/D who did it was not someone in my network).

So, for those wondering how you know... Sort of the order I have heard it happens...

  1. If you are on a project, you are suddenly rolled off.
  2. The next week, you get a sort of empty appointment from a P/D (something like, "Let's Connect").
  3. If you ask about the meeting, you get something vague such as, "Let's talk in person."
  4. You meet with the P/D and a talent rep. The P/D does very little. What stinks is, they may not even send a P/D in your network.
  5. You get the rest of the day to transition projects and stuff.

If you are rehirable, internal recruiters actually may be eager to chat. It's a good reason not to do anything improper on the way out.

Remember when you send your goodbye e-mail to CC your personal address and set the "Reply to" as that one.

Personally, I found the experience calm and easy. Just take it with grace and move on.

 

Yup - FY year end bloodletting. Didn't know people actually rolled back into positions from that state. What you described is exactly what happened to me. In my personal opinion, many practices way overstaffed. I heard stories of bold new hiring initiatives.

 

Can confirm that this happened across the board in many Deloitte groups (think Advisory, Consulting, audit etc). It really sucks, because utilization is not always something individuals can control. When PPD cannot bring business in, juniors suffer no matter how hard you try. I feel really bad for those individuals. Some of them are model students at school and just a few months on this job. Big D, this is disgraceful.

 

I had a friend get laid off a week ago in audit. I thought it was crazy they laid off in audit.

Been hearing about the S&O layoffs for a while, and heard about some tech practices that have gotten slow for a while (Oracle), but I don't know what exactly may/may not have happened.

 

Interesting updates... Have a few questions: 1) Will there be another wave? 2) Have the MBA/Msc new hires from the last cycle gotten called as well (have heard of people with low util.)? 3) I can gather this is Public sector (Gov., and sector teams), but what about Wash. D.C.? Didn't see that mentioned.... 4) How low does your util. have to be before they lay you off? Does have to be noticeably low for six months or shorter?

Curious about this, I saw PwC had a simliar layoff wave earlier this year.

.
 

I was laid off in May. Commercial S&O SC MBA hire. Had been at the firm for nearly two years. Good utilization and strong PEs. Ranking against my peers given the soft market was the reasoning. The severance package was great and I had multiple other consulting firm offers less than a month after getting laid off so not too bad. I had started preparing for the possibility after the first round of layoffs in March which helped. I know people who were caught completly by surprise. I know an SC with 100% utilization laid off in March so performance is definitely not a guarantee. MBA SC hires in commercial are especially targeted given their $140K+ annual base. I thought I had PPDs looking out for me and a great network of support but that was not the case. Deloitte was not a bad experience but had I known about their propensity to layoff MBAs at the drop of a hat when the market gets slightly soft I would have taken one of my many other consulting offers over Deloitte out of bschool so food for thought if you are deciding between MBB, Deloitte, and others like PwC, Accenture, and ATK. Do your research on their record of looking out for their people. Deloitte does not score well for loyalty to its people when the going gets tough.

 

Well, it happened to me just a few days ago... As soon as I hit the bench I got a "touch base" meeting invite from a PPD. For all I knew it was to talk about my skill-set for another project opportunity. I was a solid performer with 111% utilization and recommended for promotion through PE's for the past year. While on the phone I was shocked to hear from this PPD that the "firm" has decided to separate from me. When asked for an explanation, none could be provided. I think that communication through internal emails and through news media, the firm appears to be doing well, but that is just surface. Who knows what is really going on...

 

Yes Completely agree with you. Same thing happened to one of my close friend. PPD said "Today is your last day". No explanation. Deloitte laid off atleast 13 of my friends whom I know in a span of three months - from April to June.

 
CuriousAlpaca:

Can confirm the layoffs. One reason I heard was that the C and M levels are saturated, so there were cuts for the year 2 or up-for-promotion BAs and SCs. Tough times.

WTF? (Sorry Alpaca, not necessarily directed at you, but this makes no sense).

In what world do you cut your "up-for-promotion" (read: higher performing) staff? Why are the Consultant/Manager levels saturated? If this is an attrition problem, weed out your lower performing staff and send them on their way. If this is an advancement problem, weed out your lower performing staff at the higher levels and sent them on their way. Levels are no longer saturated and you can promote your higher performing analysts/seniors.

I can't believe that people still at the Manager level have built enough of a client-relationship base to keep around. If they have, then they should be moving up as well.

Director of Finance and Corporate Development: 2020 - Present Manager of FP&A and Corporate Development: 2019 - 2020 Corporate Finance, Strategy and Development: 2011 - 2019 "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." - Benjamin Franklin
 

I guess my choice of words (up-for-promotion) wasn't the best. Much of the layoffs happened to year-2 practitioners who should have otherwise made the transition to the upper level, but didn't (maybe they were on the wrong end of the Up-or-Out club?).

Why are the C/M levels saturated? I don't know. The evidence is anecdotal. The layoffs seemed random, but a bunch of the folks are BA/SCs.

 

Funny that you asked that. I was actually on jury duty when mine was scheduled so I declined the invite with a request for a different time and sure enough it was rescheduled.

 

All the layoffs were performance-related. Performance being somewhat subjective and were primarily based on a YE review conducted prior to finalization of the actual YE timeline (i.e. the decisions for who would go on the block was done probably at least a month prior to actual layoffs).

Lower than usual attrition + softer market demand meant balancing the supply-side equation. The firm stretched past the usual up-or-out (which is actually quite lenient) and removed below-average people who could have normally dragged along for a few years.

 

Yes, there were layoffs in March through April. Usually people got warning ahead of time that they will be rolled out from the project and put into the bench where they have a very short amount of time to find a billable project. I was in the Federal and my office went through deep reduction of workforce as there was just not enough projects. I was not laid off, I got another opportunity with another company, but several my colleagues from the same project or the same office were let go in the spring.

 

Nope- Just happened to me last week. Utilization was on target, performance was good...I was on project and as someone put thru a framework in order, exactly thats how it happend to me. I am still waiting to hear about severance which is very low.

 
Buckingham U:

Does this apply to those recruiting for analyst level positions? Any idea what's going on for those coming right out of undergrad?

Answering my own question here after I have worked through the recruiting process, as I think it would benefit some other monkeys.

It looks like (from my small sample size) that S&O is cutting down on the hiring of BAs. My school was core for one of Deloitte's offices in the past few years, but they cut us off this year. Then, I tried getting into the process for a few other offices as a non-core student, but the feedback I got was that these offices were only hiring from core schools for this year. From alumni I could tell that I was a pretty competitive candidate (back when we thought Deloitte was recruiting on campus) so I don't think the problem is my lack of qualifications.

Bottom-line: BA recruiting is getting hit too.

 

I was in audit and with Deloitte for almost 7 years. I was up for promotion. I was on a client last year that was lost due to merger with another Company. I moved over to an internal project. I was average rated. A friend of mine whi worked there 10 years and I got laid off a couple of weeks ago.

 

i heard that they are starting with the lowest performers and making their way up from there to average performers if needed ... lesson? don't be a average or below average performer and you have nothing to worry about.

"I'm talking about liquid. Rich enough to have your own jet. Rich enough not to waste time. Fifty, a hundred million dollars, buddy. A player. Or nothing. " -GG
 

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