The rumor mill has been worked into a lather about a reduction in force at Marcum (someone in the comments says that’s BS though we did get confirmation of some kind of private equity deal coming down the pipe), lots of performance discussions at Deloitte after promotions were unexpectedly delayed for many, and possible silent layoffs at EY by way of liberal PIP distribution. It’s rough out there, people. The big conspiracy is that firms want to trim headcounts without all the sensational headlines about layoffs.
For weeks there’s been a conspiracy theory floating around that PwC and Deloitte both will use soft return to office mandates (in PwC’s case, “expectations”) to call the bluff of everyone who said “if I ever get forced back into the office I’ll quit.” Lo and behold, Tim Ryan announced a sort of return to office at PwC yesterday.
A return to office will no doubt trim some fat but we’re also hearing that performance discussions are going to be extra hard this year.
Here’s what our source says about upcoming career round table talks at PwC:
CRTs this year will be hard on people, last year they were allowing people to get by with things due to need but it’s going to be a rough CRT for people not hitting goals. They plan on cutting fat.
If the headcount reduction conspiracy is true, how are firms’ benches deep enough for all this fat cutting? Haven’t we heard nothing but ACCOUNTANT SHORTAGE for at least a year if not longer? One idea I’ve seen floated is that turnover is not as high as expected now that the economy has gone sour and the big spectacular offers of the recent past are beginning to dry up. The market for accountants is still hot, just not scalding like it was.
It was good while it lasted I guess.
