Thread regarding Ernst & Young layoffs

I was one of the people “fired” due to “performance”, later come to find out about all these other people, who were also high performers, getting fired due to lack of performance. Truth is, I was working on multiple
Busy season clients, working extremely hard to meet deadlines as an experienced senior and all seemed fine. All my reviews were good for FY2020, but HR kept reaching out to senior managers on my teams in order to find out about anything I did wrong. I find this to be an excuse and they just needed any little thing in order to get me out the door. Senior managers all vouched for me and my quality of work, but it wasn’t good enough. Was fired and told to leave on same day; applied for unemployment and couldn’t qualify for the covid supplement since the reasoning for my dismissal was “performance” and not covid. After 5 long years with EY, I was truly shocked as to how they went about this, not only with me, but also with the other people that were dismissed. This looks extremely bad for them and hope that future talent look at these scenarios before accepting a job offer. Luckily, I went on and found a new and much better gig, with less hours and more of meaningful work. Good luck to everyone going through these tough times; I know it’s very hard to put so much effort, work so many hours just to get treated like this.

Looks to me like the same person who originated this post is also writing multiple replies - same style of writing.

Shame on this company. How dare you lay people off during one of the country's worst economic crises and put it down to performance, which will only make it more difficult to find work? It's adding insult to injury. Rotten optics for anyone wanting to work here in the future. If they said it was Covid, then that is honest. Not like this. Watch carefully how this is handled internally. If they try to put that spin on it, get out as soon as possible because next time it could be you. You don't treat people like this. What recourse do these employees have? One of my coworkers was just told the same thing. Good reviews, performing according to expectations, no discussion of performance ever. people loved him and out of the clear blue he is told his performance is lagging. Suddenly they have "new metrics" and he is falling short.

What new metrics? He was working hundreds of hours a week before Covid, his utilization was through the roof and people liked him. Now it's a performance issue when they haven't given him any work for weeks? Watch and listen people. Then make your decision. This is going to say a lot about this company. People can't defend themselves against a negative comment put into the HR file or trashing people after they're gone. Pay attention and let that guide your future moves. Bad move ENY. People talk and you've been exposed.

Got laid off too - one day before the end of the month. High performer, extremely good dashboard for years, discussions with counselor towards path to partner for a year, no warning/early signs or previous communication. Firm is trying to put it as "performance based" rather than saying it is due to COVID.

Got laid off in Risk as a heavy senior as a “performance based”. Dashboard was good. Reviews were good. High Ute. No warning. Had two days to leave.

Count me among them- just found out today on my "performance discussion" for the past year. Not surprised, since my utilization was way down for FY20, but strange that they waited until after my 3-year anniversary and after they gave a $1,000 recognition award.

I was laid off under the guise of “performance based” even though I never was told I was underperforming. Was acting manager as a senior on all large accounts. Dashboard was even or above peer groups. All my reviews were good. Very high utilization. Really no warning this was coming. Definitely felt like the firm was having to trim some fat due to covid related issues but didn’t want to announce it.

I just got layed off, effective notice for the 14th