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McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

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Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#61
post #13

McKinsey’s brand has taken a beating these last few years with the company going from scandal to scandal. The NY Times has been doing a whole string of stories on the firm’s questionable business practices and ethics. Funny though how it sounds like, per their own admission, McKinsey badly mismanaged running their own internal operation and woke up to realize they need mass layoffs. Sort of causes one to question how…

Have you worked with Bain or BCG? Are they any more competent?

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why not hire contractors or contract-to-hire for those bursty work needs? Or spin up a separate company and buy services from them?

> Why not hire contractors or contract-to-hire for those bursty work needs? To start, it's not legal. If the people you are hiring are doing the same work as full time employees, with the same work structure, you're not supposed to hire them as contractors. > Or spin up a separate company and buy services from them? I mean, companies certainly do outsource to third parties for "bursty" needs, but if you think this is…

> If the people you are hiring are doing the same work as full time employees, with the same work structure, you're not supposed to hire them as contractors.

This is not true at all. Many firms do “staff augmentation” for exactly what the parent described, bursty work for clients on a time and materials basis.

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#65
post #13

McKinsey’s brand has taken a beating these last few years with the company going from scandal to scandal. The NY Times has been doing a whole string of stories on the firm’s questionable business practices and ethics. Funny though how it sounds like, per their own admission, McKinsey badly mismanaged running their own internal operation and woke up to realize they need mass layoffs. Sort of causes one to question how…

When you have to layoff people or have hard conversations or navigate politics qualities that are required are - being good looking , being popular and liked , being pleasant in conversations and demeanor. Management consultants usually come from wealthy or upper middle class families , go to elite schools and are usually good looking and have a very pleasant demeanor. So that’s why they are hired to do what leadership in a big organization cannot for fear of revolt or bad blood.

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Most had never actually run a business or done the thing they were offering up advice on, and it showed. "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach."

I've always found that saying disrespectful because it treats teaching like everyone's second choice. Many that "can" choose to teach. Currently licensed and practicing surgeons are the primary way that medical residents learn how to become effective surgeons. I would never trust somebody incapable of surgery with the education of a surgeon.

It is and sadly similar sentiment exists in the old country. I am not entirely certain why that is the case. Granted, they are always outliers and heavens know I had my share of bad teachers ( partly because it is a hard thing to do well and partly probably because, with some interesting exceptions it is not that well paid compared to non-teaching variants ). If one is to look at income alone ( again with the exception of ,say, some Chicago teachers ) and effort involved, the choice and sentiment makes sense.

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#67

Wonder if they hired Bain or BCG to figure out how many to layoff

And when do the announcements come from Bain and BCG as well, as if this isn't due to market conditions, it's due to their specific network being edged out. I'd wonder if it signals a shift in consulting in general, as a big part of their value prop was you became part of the network when you hired them, but for some reason McKinsey is letting on that they are short those relationships. When the smart money with as i…

I want to agree, but is that insider knowledge even appropriately distributed to make that kind of determination. I want to believe that senior management reads the reports generated by their underlings, but part of me just assumes they merely skim TLDR section with very few taking the information in reports seriously.

Re: McKinsey Plans to Eliminate About 2000 Jobs in One of Its Biggest Rounds of Cuts

#70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why not hire contractors or contract-to-hire for those bursty work needs? To start, it's not legal. If the people you are hiring are doing the same work as full time employees, with the same work structure, you're not supposed to hire them as contractors. > Or spin up a separate company and buy services from them? I mean, companies certainly do outsource to third parties for "bursty" needs, but if you think this is…

> If the people you are hiring are doing the same work as full time employees, with the same work structure, you're not supposed to hire them as contractors. This is not true at all. Many firms do “staff augmentation” for exactly what the parent described, bursty work for clients on a time and materials basis.

Right but the difference is that those contractors need to be W-2 employees of some other company. You can't hire them as 1099 independent contractors. That used to be common practice among tech companies but federal and state income tax authorities have cracked down hard on it.
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