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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

#101

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #30
JCM9 wrote: 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…

> Mass layoffs generally don’t follow strong management execution. I realize that's a common sentiment on HN, but it's not really among executive leadership in US businesses. Sure, nobody wants to do layoffs, but then you're essentially left with 2 choices: 1. Potentially underhire despite growing business opportunity. 2. Potentially overhire to take advantage of business opportunities that may not eventually come to…

It's a common sentiment everywhere. That's just basic human decency. Hiring shouldn't be used as a variable of adjustment. That's people lives you are playing with. That's why any decent country has some employee protection in its law.

If you want temporary workers to face a burst of activity, hire temps. They are paid more specifically for this reason. It will never cease to amaze me that companies in the US seemingly can have their cake and eat it too with workers neither organising nor complaining.

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

#102

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

rvba wrote: post #81
oneoff786 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An associate is typically a fresh MBA grad or someone with a few years of tenure out of school. Awkward imbalance of levels aside, I enjoy the consulting lifestyle personally. It’s interesting to work with many different clients and have enough political clout to get things done on a fast timeline.

Consultants get things done? Apart from a deck of slides?

Having been on the receiving end of two McKinsey decks, in my admittedly limited experience, no, they don't. But the package somewhat looks good.

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

#103

Post by speleding »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #101
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mass layoffs generally don’t follow strong management execution. I realize that's a common sentiment on HN, but it's not really among executive leadership in US businesses. Sure, nobody wants to do layoffs, but then you're essentially left with 2 choices: 1. Potentially underhire despite growing business opportunity. 2. Potentially overhire to take advantage of business opportunities that may not eventually come to…

It's a common sentiment everywhere. That's just basic human decency. Hiring shouldn't be used as a variable of adjustment. That's people lives you are playing with. That's why any decent country has some employee protection in its law. If you want temporary workers to face a burst of activity, hire temps. They are paid more specifically for this reason. It will never cease to amaze me that companies in the US seeming…

Many countries make hiring temporary workers very hard or unattractive. In my country there is an additional tax and strict terms on how long they can be employed. So they end up being hired and then fired instead. Ironically, it's often the left wing politicians pushing companies to offer fixed employment instead of using flexible labour. Of course, they also try to make the firing as hard as possible. It would be much better if they realise that in some businesses labour demand just fluctuates and it's not necessarily capitalists trying to take advantage of the little man.

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

#104

Post by WastingMyTime89 »

speleding wrote: post #103
WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a common sentiment everywhere. That's just basic human decency. Hiring shouldn't be used as a variable of adjustment. That's people lives you are playing with. That's why any decent country has some employee protection in its law. If you want temporary workers to face a burst of activity, hire temps. They are paid more specifically for this reason. It will never cease to amaze me that companies in the US seeming…

Many countries make hiring temporary workers very hard or unattractive. In my country there is an additional tax and strict terms on how long they can be employed. So they end up being hired and then fired instead. Ironically, it's often the left wing politicians pushing companies to offer fixed employment instead of using flexible labour. Of course, they also try to make the firing as hard as possible. It would be m…

Your argument doesn’t seem very coherent to me.

Placing strict terms on how long temporary workers can be employed is not an issue in the case you point. If your demand really fluctuates, you will have ended their employment long before the generally generous limit.

Avoiding long term employment though a stint of short term contracts is legitimate. You don’t want company trying to wiggle out of employment law through this kind of stints and experience prove some definitely will.

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

#105

Post by oneoff786 »

rvba wrote: post #81
oneoff786 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An associate is typically a fresh MBA grad or someone with a few years of tenure out of school. Awkward imbalance of levels aside, I enjoy the consulting lifestyle personally. It’s interesting to work with many different clients and have enough political clout to get things done on a fast timeline.

Consultants get things done? Apart from a deck of slides?

Please tell me more about my job.

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

#106

Post by speleding »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #104
speleding wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many countries make hiring temporary workers very hard or unattractive. In my country there is an additional tax and strict terms on how long they can be employed. So they end up being hired and then fired instead. Ironically, it's often the left wing politicians pushing companies to offer fixed employment instead of using flexible labour. Of course, they also try to make the firing as hard as possible. It would be m…

Your argument doesn’t seem very coherent to me. Placing strict terms on how long temporary workers can be employed is not an issue in the case you point. If your demand really fluctuates, you will have ended their employment long before the generally generous limit. Avoiding long term employment though a stint of short term contracts is legitimate. You don’t want company trying to wiggle out of employment law through…

Business cycles in many industries can be 5-10 years, much longer than you are allowed to have people on temp contracts. Forcing companies to keep staff around they no longer need tends to make matters worse in the long run. I think the Danish model of combining a very flexible labour market with a great social safety net is better for all involved.

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

#108

Post by prottog »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #101
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mass layoffs generally don’t follow strong management execution. I realize that's a common sentiment on HN, but it's not really among executive leadership in US businesses. Sure, nobody wants to do layoffs, but then you're essentially left with 2 choices: 1. Potentially underhire despite growing business opportunity. 2. Potentially overhire to take advantage of business opportunities that may not eventually come to…

It's a common sentiment everywhere. That's just basic human decency. Hiring shouldn't be used as a variable of adjustment. That's people lives you are playing with. That's why any decent country has some employee protection in its law. If you want temporary workers to face a burst of activity, hire temps. They are paid more specifically for this reason. It will never cease to amaze me that companies in the US seeming…

> That's why any decent country has some employee protection in its law.

You can probably draw a linear relationship between the amount of employee protection in the laws of a country and its unemployment rate, especially among younger people.

This sort of stuff always benefits those already in the system at the cost of those outside looking in. Cities with stronger tenant protection have higher rents than places without. Homelessness is worse in places with rent control.

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

#109

Post by MarkMarine »

prottog wrote: post #108
WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a common sentiment everywhere. That's just basic human decency. Hiring shouldn't be used as a variable of adjustment. That's people lives you are playing with. That's why any decent country has some employee protection in its law. If you want temporary workers to face a burst of activity, hire temps. They are paid more specifically for this reason. It will never cease to amaze me that companies in the US seeming…

> That's why any decent country has some employee protection in its law. You can probably draw a linear relationship between the amount of employee protection in the laws of a country and its unemployment rate, especially among younger people. This sort of stuff always benefits those already in the system at the cost of those outside looking in. Cities with stronger tenant protection have higher rents than places wit…

> You can probably draw a linear relationship between the amount of employee protection in the laws of a country and its unemployment rate, especially among younger people.

You can not draw a linear relationship between those. Top unemployment rates over the last 10 years: Greece, Turkey, Spain, Costa Rica, Poland, Slovak Republic... [0]

One thing you're ignoring is that countries with strong employee protection also tend have a strong social safety net where unemployed people have a backstop, they haven't lost their healthcare and assistance, so being unemployed isn't the peril it is somewhere that employee protections are basically nil.

Correlation is not causality, strong tenant protections allow people to live in places longer term, which is seen as desirable to forming neighborhoods and bonds among neighbors, which in turn makes it a more desirable place to live. Homelessness in a specific place has a diverse number of factors that play into it, including geographic factors, from ambient air temperature, housing prices, employment availability, social services available, etc etc etc. You can't draw a line from rent control to homelessness unless those are the only two graphs you're looking at.

[0] https://data.oecd.org/unemp/unemployment-rate.htm#indicator-...

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

#110

Post by hn_throwaway_99 »

WastingMyTime89 wrote: post #101
hn_throwaway_99 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Mass layoffs generally don’t follow strong management execution. I realize that's a common sentiment on HN, but it's not really among executive leadership in US businesses. Sure, nobody wants to do layoffs, but then you're essentially left with 2 choices: 1. Potentially underhire despite growing business opportunity. 2. Potentially overhire to take advantage of business opportunities that may not eventually come to…

It's a common sentiment everywhere. That's just basic human decency. Hiring shouldn't be used as a variable of adjustment. That's people lives you are playing with. That's why any decent country has some employee protection in its law. If you want temporary workers to face a burst of activity, hire temps. They are paid more specifically for this reason. It will never cease to amaze me that companies in the US seeming…

> It's a common sentiment everywhere. That's just basic human decency. Hiring shouldn't be used as a variable of adjustment. That's people lives you are playing with. That's why any decent country has some employee protection in its law.

Sorry, as someone who has been through layoffs, I totally disagree. I don't think it falls under "basic human decency" that just because a company hires me that they have an obligation to keep me on until I retire or die. Essentially what you are arguing is "It would be better to never have hired that person at all, and provide them a salary for N years, than to hire them if you may one day lay them off due to changes in the business."

I'd much prefer either (a) requirements for a longer notice period or severance and/or (b) the government providing a better safety net for the ups and downs of the business cycle (like someone commented with the Danish model). I especially think it's nuts that in the US so many critical benefits are tied to employment, like healthcare.

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