McDonald’s is closing its U.S. offices and telling U.S. and some international staff to work remotely between Monday and Wednesday as the fast-food giant prepares for layoffs.
The company made the request in an internal email last week, reports the Wall Street Journal. It also asked employees to cancel all in-person meetings with vendors and other external parties.
McDonald’s is stopping people from going into the office so that it can deliver staffing notices remotely, citing the increased likelihood that people will be traveling during the week of April 3. “We want to ensure the comfort and confidentiality of our people during the notification period,” the company said in its internal email, according to the Wall Street Journal.
McDonald’s suggested in January that it would reduce its corporate staffing levels by April 3 in an effort to cut costs. “Some jobs that are existing today are either going to get moved, or those jobs may go away,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said in an interview at the time.
The fast-food company has about 150,000 employees, working in both corporate roles and in McDonald’s-owned restaurants, with 70% of those positions based outside the U.S.
McDonald’s joins several other companies seeking to slash jobs amid high inflation and a slowing economy. Amazon said it would cut a total of 27,000 employees, mostly corporate workers, in two layoff announcements this year. Last week, Disney CEO Bob Iger announced that the entertainment company would slash 7,000 jobs by the summer, including shutting down the company’s metaverse department.
Layoffs have been particularly brutal for tech companies, with a total of 150,000 cut jobs in the sector so far this year, as the COVID-era tech bubble deflates amid a return to normal and higher interest rates.
McDonald’s reported $1.9 billion in net income in the most recent quarter, up 16% year on year.
At the time it reported earnings in January, the company said that costs were increasing owing to inflationary pressures. But rising prices have also helped McDonald’s. The company said in January that visits to its outlets increased as inflation drove customers to its lower-price options instead of more expensive restaurants.
Correction, April 3, 2023: An earlier version of this article misstated the roles worked by McDonald’s 150,000 employees.
