Layoffs in MBB.

Ex-London Bainie here and I am so tired of the people parroting this line: arbitrarily giving people shitty reviews and counselling them out is a layoff in all but name. OP it is a though time to be an MBB employee (and don’t think Bain is any worse than the others), as is the case in a lot of other professional services firms. It is what it is.

What are pre Covid enforcement of ratings?

A lot of firms don't do "layoffs" but instead just give out more than usual bad reviews and fire them. If you're on the bench for a few months, your performance review will say "below expectations" even though you haven't really had a shot to prove yourself, and then you'll get fired for "performance." 

This is causing a lot of frustration within the firms, as there is a camp of people who think the firms should just call it "layoffs" instead of blaming the issue on the associates/analysts. Someone less than a year into the job likely hasn't established themselves and their skillsets enough. But others say that strong performers are typically in high demand for staffing, so just do better work and you won't be on the bench. 

That being said, people do need to realize that consulting is 'up or out,' and a lot of this is a return to the pre-pandemic norm; a lot of the 22/23 grads were told in recruiting that everyone who tries gets promoted. That's not how consulting works, unless you lucked into an amazing market. Even in pre-pandemic levels, plenty of hardworking analysts just didn't make the cut. So I do agree with the above poster, but I do think this year the performance standards are stricter than pre-pandemic. And because the market is slower, it's more of a staffing game than anything.

"But others say that strong performers are typically in high demand for staffing, so just do better work and you won't be on the bench. "

I would highly argue against this. I am a second year with stellar performance reviews and lots of contacts in a vertical that is a bit more quiet than average at the moment (i.e., PE) and find it super hard to be staffed on projects at the moment even though all of my former managers up to partners speak highly of me. 

I mean it is like every market for that matter in which supply > demand. Compare it best to rental market. In a rental market where landlords have the high ground because they have so many qualified applicants to pick and choose they can behave as they wish and still find a proper tenant. 

Same is with managers staffing: whereas in prior times, they'd speak maybe with 2-3 qualified consultants that have good feedback, are interested & available they now have 10-12 on the hook. No matter how good your performance is, there is now a very high chance that they speak to at least 2-3 consultants with also good reviews but at the same time something that is edging you out (in most cases for me it has been industry expertise - even in very obscure cases, i.e., some industrial goods specializing in niche products project has staffed an associate who had prior work experience in exactly that industry!). As I am in Europe, unless your office has not somehwhat ringfenced your territory, you are competing against benched people across the continent. Last project had me on the hook until very end of Firday evening ("we are just finalizing the staffing, will get back to you shortly") just to staff another guy from the nordics who happened to become available and fit exactly their needs (knew the client). 

It is a tough, tough situation out there and it is not just affecting average/low performers.