The Deloitte "Layoff" Story – Mad As Hell
I’m still in San Francisco today, enjoying a light work day, but as is my habit, I still get up early. And scroll my Blackberry for the day’s Google Alert results. I know. No rest for the weary.
Imagine my surprise when I saw two MSM (main stream media) stories about the Deloitte “layoff” story. One came from the DealBook Blog in the New York Times that referred to, as its source, a story in Compliance Week.
Both use the same story that was originally posted in the limited circulation Dow Jones News Service story on August 27 (BTW Still not available on WSJ Online). Neither cite this blog nor my story on August 25th, nor my subsequent interview with Deborah Harrington on August 28th as sources.
Now… I am used to breaking stories early from abroad and then seeing them in mainstream US media much later. That happened with the EY non-US merger story, for example.
But I am not going to get used to two reputable publications, who are very aware of this blog, are very aware of blogs, and are surely aware of my posts, so completely ignoring me.
My story on Augut 25th, “Is Deloitte The Perfect Firm?” broke the news of the layoffs and was 100% accurate. My subsequent followup with Deborah Harrington of Deloitte was done August 28. That’s almost two weeks ago! These layoffs started the week before Labor Day!
In the meantime, my followup post, which included the statements that Compliance Week and the NYT Deal Blog reprinted was posted in this blog on August 29th. That post, “Update – Deloitte Statement on Layoffs “ has received voluminous comments. If the New York Times and Compliance Week had read those comments they would see that many of the people who have been affected by Deloitte “layoffs” are very angry and have a story to tell.
Am I the only one telling it?
In related news, check out #2.
http://bwnt.businessweek.com/interactive_reports/career_launch_2008/index.asp
#’s 1, 3 and 5 are also worth noting, but slightly off the topic of the day.
Interesting that the report came out just in time for accounting recruiting season!
When I first subscribed to this blog I found it reasonably useful, however.. Francine, you are increasingly using it to seemingly vent your own personal frustrations and talk about your own life rather than report on useful information…
If you want to build a blog that is valuable and thus used by and referred to by a lot of people… post things that add value, rather than things that detract value from your blog (like this post above…)…
Best…
@Anonymous As the author of this blog, I am very interested in seeing other writers cover the topics I do, in particular writers in the mainstream, traditional media. I am especially interested in seeing issues as important as those that affect people’s lives and careers, such as large-scale reductions in force, get ample coverage.
So, my disappointment in the coverage by Compliance Week and NYT, although also professional, is more for the thousands of folks who read my posts each day and the more than one hundred commenters and others who have written to me about the Deloitte cuts.
I write this blog alone, charge no subscription fee, solicit no donations, and have no advertisements or sponsors. I have no obligation to provide information or serve anyone other than to the extent I can and want to. If you have any doubts about my feelings on this subject, please re-read my disclaimer, https://francinemckenna.com/2007/06/passing-buck.html
I appreciate my readers and commenters, especially the ones who offer suggestions, encouragement, and critique on the phone, via email, or in person.
I welcome your non-anonymous call or email.
I agree with the comments from the anony…
I think the post sounds pretty whiny. So they posted similar info stop crying and get over it. For someone so seemingly into this ‘web’ thing it shouldn’t be such a big surprise.
Keep them coming, Francine. Your blogs are great.
I once wrote in to the New York Times to complain about a poor article that got one of its facts completely wrong, a fact that would have been easy to disprove if the author had done the minimum of research.
The writer replied, apologizing that the New York Times had disappointed me. He then passed the buck, claiming that the error was not his “choice of words”. I was impressed he took the time to write back. That he failed to take any responsibility for the poor reporting, not so much.
Such is the mainstream media. It’s like a high school newspaper, but with better writing skills. Just don’t expect an improvement in the content.
i love your blogs. they are your opinion and you are entitled to it. to the negative posters…stop reading if you don’t like them — plenty of us will continue to read..
Deloitte is still having layoffs and it is currently in the Non AERS areas. One group in the Financial Advisory Services in New York had 10% cut which amounted to approx. 20 out of 200 employees.
Which staff are being targeted?
Fran,
I don’t think this posting reflects your best. That being said, this IS a blog so post what you feel.
I have a lot to say about the Big 4 personnel ranking and reductions, but will hold off until I sign the offer letter (from a corporation) that I hope to receive in the near future.
What I will offer now is this. It is entirely about partner greed, and has zero to do with “running a for-profit business.” When this year’s partner promotes are roughly 50% of last year’s numbers, and then staff reductions are made to preserve the leverage model (and not incidentally per-partner unit values) … then it is crystal clear that the senior partners in charge have decided to sacrifice the future of the firm so that they can maximize their personal compensation today. I’m talking about the start of a death spiral not a retrenchment.
Deloitte is “trimming” the heavier salaried professionals from their FAS practice. With tons of staff with zero utilization for months in FY 08 and a increased headcount which was banking on sub-prime litigation work, they just couldn’t get any work. They are in bad shape.
I worked at Deloitte until October 2008. A partner explained that the firm has cash flow problems. What do you when a client wants to see fees cut? Only solution – ship more work to India – which has been done. India is not affected by the staff “reallocations.” Great firm – but affected like everyone else during the down turn. If and when the economy recovers, Deloitte will be as strong as ever.
Looking for a Mgr, Financial Audit to partner with me at a Fortune 500. Looking for someone with strong internal control / SOX/SAS70 audit experience. Must be based out of CA. Anyone interested?
Please see: http://www.unitedhealthgroup.com. Click on careers. Search for a job. North America. Look for title above located in CA.
Hang in there!
Its true I was laidoff but I am not saying this out of bitterness: For all those out of college I implore you to do research on how the big four deal with economic downturns. You will inevitably find that Deloitte ALWAYS lays off workers when times get tough-although theyll say the opposite. In fact I received a firm wide email stating that they were not going to lay off any employees………… Also so you know D&T reported 18% growth!!!!!! they are far from suffering, but basically theres zero employee loyalty which is fine, yet they tout their emphasis on their employees "people first" what bs