Layoffs Are Being Rebranded as a Turnaround. KPMG Is a Different Story.

Diageo, Starbucks, Sanofi and KPMG all cut jobs this week, three calling it a turnaround and one unable to even manage the euphemism. A 7,704-person study also found remote staff happier and less likely to quit than colleagues back at their desks.

By EBN 10 min read
Ballerina mid-turn in motion blur on a dark stage, illustrating this week's Paper Cut on corporate turnaround language.
Diageo, Starbucks and Sanofi all called their layoffs a turnaround this week. KPMG's cuts have a different origin story: not a strategy, a scandal.

The Netherlands' unemployment rate rose for a third consecutive month this week, to 4%, according to Statistics Netherlands. In the same week, economists told the Financial Times they'd finally found genuine evidence of a UK productivity boost, the first real sign of one in years. Both of those numbers are accurate, published by people whose job is to be right about this, and neither one explains why Diageo, Starbucks, Sanofi and KPMG all cut jobs in the same seven days, three of them reaching for the same manageable word to describe it.

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This week's Paper Cut is about what "turnaround" is doing for employers that the actual layoff number can't, and what happens once people notice the gap between the word and the number.

This Week’s Paper Cut's