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Staff cull is a bitter pill for McKinsey to swallow

The Observer

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June 01, 2025

Any Other Business

McKinsey, the high-end management consultancy, is understandably keen to downplay headlines that it has laid off 10% of its workforce.

The 5,000-person reduction in headcount in the past two years was merely the result of natural attrition and standard performance management processes, the firm is insisting, and not the reported “layoffs” that prompted critics to snipe that at last McKinsey is getting a taste of its own medicine.

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