Inside the PwC job cuts and why business leaders can't cope with criticism

Redundancies are sweeping through corporate Australia as companies cut costs in response to a cooling economy.

The news | PwC Australia told staff on Wednesday it would cut 329 jobs as part of a broader restructure to slash ongoing costs by $100 million.

The details | The cuts represent about 5 per cent of the firm’s 7000-strong staff and will affect employees in all three of the firm’s divisions: consulting, assurance and financial advisory.

The restructure, which follows 350 cuts last year and 250 during the pandemic, will centralise back office and other support functions that were split between the firm’s three divisions, in an attempt to simplify the business while simultaneously creating more oversight of the firm’s operations.

Up to 37 partners would be forced into early retirement over the next nine months as well, PwC said.

The background | The news comes after a host of major employers announced cuts earlier this year, including during reporting season in February. There were 2000 job losses at Amcor, 1300 at Ansell, 400 at Downer EDI, 170 at ANZ, and 132 at Westpac, to name a few.

The uptick in redundancies was foreseen. Board directors at major listed companies warned of a job market shake-out last month.

“The first phase of that is, don’t hire, so a freeze,” SBS chairman and director of IAG and I-MED Radiology George Savvides told BOSS at the time.

“Following that, there are some more intentional cuts that will follow. Again, all of my boards are quite intentional about resizing, but not in a ridiculously aggressive way.”

Just weeks after Savvides’ interview the ABS released data showing the unemployment rate increased from 3.9 per cent to 4.1 per cent in January.

Other news | Wei Li explains over lunch how she went from a young maths nerd in China to the chief investment strategist at BlackRock, a former Qantas speechwriter explains why modern leaders can’t take criticism, and Chanticleer columnist James Thomson shares 10 hacks from workplace guru Adam Grant.

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Why business leaders can’t cope with criticism

Many of Australia’s top business leaders can no longer withstand criticism because they have surrounded themselves with a court of “yes people” and reputation specialists, speechwriter and author Lucinda Holdforth has warned.

A former speechwriter for then-Qantas chiefs Geoff Dixon and Alan Joyce, Holdforth said leaders who use reputation specialists and chiefs of staff were unable to calmly present their arguments in public forums such as Senate committees, annual shareholder meetings and media interviews.

Her comments, delivered at The Australian Financial Review Business Summit this week, came after outgoing Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci tried to end a Four Corners interview last month when the interviewer did not agree to cut out controversial remarks made by Banducci from the final cut.

Holdforth, who gave an excellent Lunch with the AFR interview in December, also criticised some of American leadership expert Brene Brown’s work.

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