#costcutting

Sales have tanked to LY
Credit applications have plummeted

Customers discretionary spending has tightened up tremendously

Payroll Hours slashed in my region

Christian Klein confirmed on CNBC this morning layoffs are coming when he challenged if he would follow META's call of a 10% cut.

He said efficiency is a priority for SAP

Over 6 months into having a BP Staff TSI Engineer take over from a UK based Engineer in my team who was let go.

Myself, and increasingly several others from other disciplines are needing to step in and coach, and correct mistakes from our TSI. Mistakes that rarely happened before and if they did could be sorted over a desk not over time zones.

The bar to entry has been set so incredibly low just to get bodies in chairs.

Yes, they are on 40% of the money, but the output is half, the support required is 4x and it’s demoralising us who are left.

If this is good business I’ll have my hand firmly in the air at the next EOI.

Many U.S. companies, including several in California, announced layoffs this week. These job cuts span various industries like technology, finance, and healthcare. Companies such as Lucid Group, C3.ai, and Wells Fargo are among those affected. The reductions reflect restructuring efforts and cost-cutting measures. Automation and artificial intelligence also contribute to these workforce changes.

https://patch.com/california/across-ca/thousands-layoffs-announced-ca-companies

Snap Inc. cut 247 employees. This represents a 16% reduction in staff. Employees in Santa Monica were affected. Notifications went out on April 15. The company aims to reduce its cost base by over $500 million.

Santa Monica

https://www.bizjournals.com/losangeles/news/2026/04/22/snap-layoffs-santa-monica.html

Wouldn't cutting MW's salary amd other ELT be a great move? Consultants like McKinsey basically run the company so why pay for expensive ELT?

Why are we paying MW over 30 million a year when he can't make decisions and just hires multimillion dollar consultants like McKinsey to run the company? Maybe fire MW and we'll really save money!

Judging by who took on our debt and turned it into equity, I'm hoping the goal here could be to improve results rather than cut costs from the get go. I could be wrong, but we'll see, I guess.

Someone explain to me why we seem to have the money to travel the IT leaders in every region around so they can glad-hand and throw parties for their leadership cronies, when they don’t make us revenue. If anything they cost us more and more every day.

Well, it's almost that time again.... Seems that more folks are on the bench than ever. With the recent departs of the wh-z-bank_no_bang_CAP_cant_hit_numbers crew (they were forced out cause they couldn't hit numbers Y/Y endlessly nor optimize TEAMMATE resource stats) seems that the list making time has come once again.

Best option from the CFO_MOUSE_MODE clown is to: reduce expenses, lay people off and coach Britanucus_Nothingness into how to tell the street that things are really on the up and up when in reality it is all about cutting costs to hit a number.

Well since the market analysts really have lowered expectations, like really lowered the price target the only thing left to do it is to back into a number then divide by the average headcount cost to figure out how many people to cut. All in hopes and aspiration that they will appease investors (of which there are a lot less these days). Hey, let's start with all those expensive CAP_CLOWNS that were a bunch of talk, ruined even more the woke_A$$ culture and took this company to town, like over and over again. Someone has to make room for the washed up Accenture dudes waiting in the wings to be summoned to Chandler for a DREAMY_DREAM_DREAM_JOB with some of the deserts best and brightest.

Also maybe take out Kane and SolyentGreen to save some $$$$ as well, since neither of them amount to much.

What does the class think of all that? TEAM TEAM TEAM team?

ARR that STAT!

So now we have a "Panel Manager" role who gets paid 120k per year to literally take a number from a performance report and put it into an email because directors and field managers arent competent enough to monitor their teams performance on their own. 750k per year spent on a team of secrataries to spoon feed directors data from the same reports they have access to. No wonder we have to layoff other roles.

BNY Mellon’s transformation now resembles a tightly coordinated execution of the McKinsey cost reduction playbook, and employees on TheLayoff.com have been documenting the pattern in real time.

What appear to be uncoordinated, isolated decisions — RTO pressure, minimal merit increases, shrinking teams, selective backfilling, and quiet office closures — align directly with the consulting frameworks used to drive sustained operating expense reduction. This is all by design.

The Platform Operating Model (P-O-M) is the structural engine behind this shift. By standardizing processes, consolidating technology, and centralizing work into platform hubs, P-O-M enables organizational delayering, automation, and location strategy at scale. Employees describe this as work being “platformed,” automated, or reassigned to lower cost regions, particularly Pune.

International labor laws also shape the strategy. In the U.S. and U.K., strict notification rules, severance expectations, and WARN Act thresholds make large layoffs expensive and highly visible. In contrast, offshore hubs operate under more flexible labor regimes, allowing faster scaling, easier restructuring, and lower long term cost commitments. This is why employees increasingly observe that even offshore roles are not permanent; as the cost model scales globally, work continues migrating to the lowest cost compliant jurisdiction available.

RTO, low raises, and real estate consolidation are deliberate levers within this model: RTO increases voluntary attrition, minimal wage growth suppresses labor cost inflation, office closures reduce fixed costs and concentrate work in platform hubs.

The TheLayoff.com threads reflect this architecture in motion — “stealth layoffs,” “jobs shifting offshore,” “constant reorganizations,” and “RTO used as a filter” — all consistent with a long horizon, platform driven cost transformation strategy.

UnityPoint Health announced job cuts due to outsourcing its IT and revenue cycle functions. The health system will eliminate 207 information technology positions. Further job reductions are planned for the revenue cycle department. Accenture will handle IT services, and Omega Healthcare will manage revenue cycle operations. This restructuring aims to reduce costs during a period of sustained financial pressure.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/money/business/2026/04/15/unitypoint-layoffs-des-moines-outsourcing/89604998007/

Snap Inc. announced a reduction of approximately 16% of its employees. This move impacts about 1,000 positions. The company anticipates expenses between $95 million and $130 million. These cuts aim to streamline operations and improve profitability. The Santa Monica-based company has made previous job cuts.

Santa Monica, California

https://www.wftv.com/news/business/snapchat-owner-cuts/QDLQ6UJRP42J7NT75Y35CFFDA4/

Hearing credible rumors from multiple sources this week that YL has set a target for functional cost to be cut 50% by 2030 from 2026 levels. Meaning all current reorgs are only a stepping stone cost cutting measure to be followed up in 2028/2029 with another round equally as deep. Please share what you know. promoted this year, feeling a bit vulnerable now.

Buying SaaS products from vendors sounds simple—subscribe and go—but it’s where a lot of companies quietly lose money or flexibility if they don’t evaluate properly. Citi can save lot of money if they stop all SaaS tomorrow instead of cuts

Certainly McKinsey can get more out of the bottom line by off-shoring Executives who have to read from the teleprompter.

This is a rhetorical question. What's your theory...

Record client growth and growing at rapid pace? But you lay people off and cut costs on benefits…. Cool.

Wells Fargo’s head count has fallen as the company tries to curtail expenses.

The company reported having 201,000 employees at the end of the first quarter, down from 215,000 for the same period last year, a 7% decline.

The bank reported that noninterest expense came in at $14.3 billion for the quarter, up $439 million, or 3%, from the same period last year.

Wells Fargo said personnel expenses rose $119 million due to higher compensation expenses in its wealth management unit where it has thousands of highly-paid financial advisors.

There’s an interesting parallel between what happened at Oracle and what seems to be unfolding at XOM. Oracle initially tried to cut costs by aggressively offshoring technical work, which created short‑term savings but also eroded internal capability. Later, when the AI wave hit, they had to rebuild expertise they had previously hollowed out.
XOM looks like it’s following a similar pattern: first pushing a low‑cost labor strategy, then suddenly pivoting toward AI without having the internal technical depth to support it. The result is the same structural tension.

This is the reality.
NRE employees are not being targeted because they are lazy, noncompliant, or underperforming. That narrative is convenient, but it is not the truth.
They are being targeted because they are the most financially strategic group to remove.
Employees who are already retirement eligible have already earned their pension and benefits. If they leave, the company still carries those costs, including payouts, healthcare, and everything that comes with it. The liability is already locked in.
Younger employees? Many of them will be impacted anyway as AI and automation continue to evolve. They have not accumulated significant pension value yet, so the financial upside of removing them now is limited. They walk away with relatively small payouts, which would likely happen in the near future regardless.
But NRE employees are right at the threshold.
They are the ones about to qualify for meaningful pension payouts and lifetime medical benefits. That is where the financial exposure is. That is where the delta is. That is why they are being pushed out before they cross that line.
Not because they are all poor performers. Not because they are disengaged. Some are, some are not, but that is true of every group.
So let’s stop pretending this is about laziness or attitude. It is not.
It is timing. It is cost. It is strategy.
What is frustrating is not just the outcome, it is the narrative being used to justify it. Do not label people as lazy to explain decisions that are clearly driven by financial incentives.
People see what is happening.

The team in Dearborn apparently held a meeting and believe that everything being done in California is mere smoke and mirrors, a dog and pony show. They have also questioned the cost-value relationship of skunkworks. Recently, some consultants visited and essentially stated that every innovation from the team was merely a rehash of ideas from other companies. They suggested that the internal team could have easily accomplished the same thing at a lower cost with more realistic assumptions resulting in higher return for the company.

My hub doesn’t have coffee pods or tea bags, nothing. Bring your own coffee, tea bags,and bottled water.
‘So cheap

Is this just my hub or bank policy to not even offer free coffee pods and tea bag…not even water other than from the sink

We used to get DoorDash credits all the time … what happened to that ? Is Rick trying to save money?

Halliburton has recently been cutting staff again. Sources indicate these reductions are due to increasing costs and lower crude oil prices. Some workforce reductions occurred over the past several weeks. Three business divisions reportedly lost between 20% and 40% of their employees. Halliburton did not respond or comment on these claims.

https://www.southwestledger.news/news/halliburton-cutting-its-workforce-again

Well, here we go again. We are going to start a new narrative cycle with the street based on a magical restructure. Excom is counting on this holding up the stock and holding up hope for improved performance - "we just need to make these changes first and we will be poised for massive growth over the next 5 years". This will largely be a cost reduction exercise and will set the table for massive off-shoring of jobs over the next 5 years. I'm sure the narrative will be around increased investment in R&D. Just a reminder - that was the narrative when HQ was moved to Dublin. It didn't happen. Any increase in the R&D line was an illusion. Incremental dollars never actually made it to organic Technology or Development. It actually went down over time. But don'w worry, Excom and Sr leadership will make a fortune.

Cars Commerce is laying off 11 percent of its full-time workforce. This action aims to streamline management layers. The company also seeks to reduce overall costs. New CEO Tobi Hartmann began his role in mid-January. These job cuts will be completed early in the second quarter.

https://www.autonews.com/retail/an-cars-commerce-layoffs-0409/

A new CEO has to show how serious he is about cost cutting and being efficient. And of course that he's going to use layoffs to show that. Never mind that his pay and the bonus he'll get from this will negate the majority of the savings. But what a great first impression, buddy. Great job.

Ever since the Pandemic, this place has been horrible. I am finding it financially impossible to do my job. 100% travel here and they moved my home office to a city 20 miles away. Thats 40 miles per day I’m not getting paid. With gas prices $5 per gallon, it’s becoming impossible to do. I get an 2% raise per year if I’m lucky where in the past 3.8% was the norm. All they talk about is “cutting costs” yet BM lives in NY and commutes to Charlotte. I’ve been through 6 management changes in the past 4 years alone. It’s been micro-aggression after micro-aggression. HR is essentially outsourced in most decisions and they work in call centers in India to give you incorrect information. They are leaning full-in on AI and there is no room for advancement except to be a Merrill salesperson that is 100% commission. There are no jobs. I’m so sad at what has become of this place.

To my dear, hardworking US Associates,

I am reaching out today with a heart full of "purpose" and a strategy full of "synergy." As your Managing Partner, I’ve been reflecting on our commitment to being a "human-centered" firm. And what is more human than wanting to keep more money for ourselves?

That is why David Chubak and I are absolutely thrilled to announce the opening of our newest Home Office location in India!

The "Proficiency-ish" Pivot
Now, I know what you’re thinking: "Penny, how can someone across the ocean do my job?" Well, the data is in! We’ve determined that our new international colleagues can perform your daily tasks with a solid 70% proficiency.

Sure, that leaves a 30% gap of "technical errors" and "client confusion," but when you look at the much reduced cost of labor, that 30% is just a rounding error in our quest for efficiency. We aren't just cutting corners; we’re "reimagining the circle."

Out With the Old, In With the Bold
To facilitate this exciting transition, we will be implementing a slow, methodical replacement of US headcount with Indian headcount. Think of it as a baton pass—except instead of passing a baton, we’re passing your desks and responsibilities to a time zone that’s thirteen hours ahead.

Why We’re Doing This (The Honest Part)
At Edward Jones, we often talk about the "Rule of 70." Usually, it’s about retirement, but today, it’s about the 70% increase David and I are eyeing for our own Executive Compensation.

By offloading your roles to a lower-cost market, we are finally able to unlock levels of personal wealth previously unseen in the history of the firm. It takes real leadership to look thousands of dedicated employees in the eye and say, "Your sacrifice is the fuel for my next vacation home."

Looking Ahead
As you badge in for your next Return to Office shift, please do so with a smile, knowing that every spreadsheet you finish helps David and me get one step closer to our "Golden Parachutes."

We are so grateful for everything you’ve done to build this firm. Now, if you could just spend the next few months documenting your processes in extreme detail for your replacements, that would be just "super."

With deep (financial) gratitude,

Penny Pennington
Managing Partner & Chief Compensation Optimizer

America's Car-Mart plans to close 42 of its 136 lots. This represents nearly one-third of its total dealerships. The closures will take effect on April 14. A reduction in staff is expected due to these actions. The company aims to align its cost structure with current capital constraints.

Rogers, Arkansas

https://www.5newsonline.com/article/money/business/layoffs-rogers-car-mart-shuttering-dozens-lots/527-5f8f48b8-c8ba-47fb-b9f2-7e9b388f0ab4

Just heard they are moving the corporate offices to Nashville, TN

This is being driven by lower costs in TN and the overall strategic shift to prioritize Healthspring

As our company is going through a tough time, I would like to propose the following ideas for saving costs:

• Pay Stephanie to do nothing. She has already proven that she creates negative value, so ensuring she does nothing will immediately increase the company's value.

• Move Bob to Cognizant, ideally to a low-cost location. This will allow him the opportunity to live the idea.

• Fire all the CTOs. Why do we need useless executives who have been unable to modernize our products for years? Replace them with AI bot. Productivity jump.

• Move Kelly to report to Koushik, so that both eventually leave. Huge savings.

Any idea you would propose?

The E&Y people are well trained to implant bureautic procedures and redundant controls so they can bill Citi for over-time meetings

Forever 21's U.S. operating unit is preparing for significant layoffs. Its Los Angeles headquarters will also shut down. Over 350 staff members are expected to lose their jobs starting mid-April. The company is exploring strategic options and cost reduction measures. This follows its exclusion from the new Catalyst Brands venture and past bankruptcy.

Los Angeles, California

https://wwd.com/sourcing-journal/industry-news/forever-21-350-layoffs-closure-los-angeles-headquarter-store-closings-1238848593/

They're about cost. The better paid you are, the higher your chances of making the list. So in reality, we're cutting the most skilled and competent people, which leaves teams far more crippled than the raw headcount numbers would suggest. Completely unsustainable.

VP said there will be 6 stores closing in the CA region this year. Came down on last STL call. Looking at 3 in the greater LA area, 1 in San Diego and two in northern California. Going to be cutting the stores with the lowest sales volume because they're not meeting sales projections and they're running above cost for labor.

earlier this week I got an API key for Claude Code. my coworker in EMEA got one too. she also got an email from her band 5's chief of staff asking to verify if she still needs to use Microsoft Apps and to present a "convincing and strong business case" for keeping them. are we buying these off the shelf?!

so let me get this straight: we have money to burn for AI (Gemini, VEGAS and now Claude Code amongst more probably) - BUT WE DON'T HAVE MONEY FOR MICROSOFT APPS?!

Is the management firm hitting the family so hard with fees that they have to lesson the product slowly over time for more profits to sustain the family expenses.