McDonald’s closes all of its US offices and cancels in-person meetings this week as it prepares to layoff corporate staff – after CEO warned ‘difficult decisions will be made
McDonald’s has temporarily closed all of its U.S. offices as it prepares to send layoff notices to a number of its employees across the country via email.
According to a new Wall Street Journal report, the layoffs, which are part of a company restructuring, will begin on Monday after they told employees to work from home so they could fire their employees virtually.
‘During the week of April 3, we will communicate key decisions related to roles and staffing levels across the organization,’ McDonald’s officials said in a memo.
The company stated that the decision to announce cuts virtually was made due to an anticipated busy travel week.
It’s unclear how many employees will be laid off at this time, but CEO Chris Kempczinski stated in a January email that there would be ‘difficult discussions and decisions ahead.’
The new report from the Wall Street Journal said the Chicago-based chain told employees last week in an internal email on Wednesday.
While the message was mostly to U.S. employees, some international corporate workers were also included.
In the memo, company executives also advised that upcoming in-person meetings with vendors and other outside parties at headquarters be canceled.
The decision to have employees work remotely for part of the week is due to an anticipated busy travel week ahead, potentially connected to the Easter holiday.
Workers who don’t have access to a computer were told to give their personal contact information to their manager.
‘We want to ensure the comfort and confidentiality of our people during the notification period,’ the company said.
McDonald’s employs roughly 200,000 people around the world in corporate roles and company-owned restaurants.
Around 75 percent of the employees are located outside of the U.S.
