McDonald’s-Office Closure and Job Cuts-Corporate Greed and Crisis Capitalism?

[Knarf]

McDonald's corporation has announced plans to temporarily close its U.S. offices this week as it prepares to cut jobs and restructure operations, according to reports.

In an internal email, McDonald's instructed employees to work remotely from home, claiming the move would allow them to 'communicate key decisions related to roles and staffing levels across the organization.'

However, the notice did not specify the number of layoffs pending or which departments would suffer losses, suggesting the potential for widespread downsizing.

McDonald's also canceled all in-person meetings with outside vendors and partners at its Chicago headquarters, a move that highlighted the likely scale of changes to come.

Though the company pledged simply to 'review corporate staffing levels as part of a new strategy, the vagueness of its message and decision to inform staff virtually pointed to the unpopularity and unpleasantness of its impending announcements.

Sensitive Timing
McDonald's move comes at a sensitive time, as the fast food giant continues to suffer losses from the COVID-19 pandemic, and the current economy, and struggles with changing consumer habits.

However, while the virus dealt blows to revenues and profits, the same cannot be said for executive compensation, which recently called out for immense increases even as average workers faced hardship. Despite financial troubles and a crisis that devastated communities, McDonald's priorities remained misaligned, as usual.

Now poised to deliver an 'updated business strategy' through means of layoffs, department downsizing, or restructuring, McDonald's actions seem motivated more by pressure to boost profits and share prices than responsibility toward employees, customers, or society.

The company's pledge to 'expand' in certain areas rings hollow, a mere public relations tactic, as it prepares to cut costs by cutting people.

McDonald's is slated to begin announcing key job-killing decisions as early as Monday, as it works to ram through unpopular changes rather than build trust or goodwill.

How many regular people will pay the price of executive ambition and financial gains, their livelihoods cast aside in McDonald's drive to survive and thrive? The human cost of corporate greed and crisis capitalism appears poised to be huge.

Why This Matters
Though now presented as a means of future-proofing and progress, McDonald's actions suggest exploitation and decay. The company's moral authority and social standing seem certain to suffer the consequences.

If this is what stakeholder-centered leadership now looks like in practice, the future seems bleak indeed. The lives and dignity of real people are being gambled for the sake of numbers on a balance sheet and stock price. There is a deathly calculus at work here with humanity as the variable sacrificed.

https://www.capith.com/innovation-hub/

[K-Dog]

At 3 minutes.  Blacks smoke rising.  Twelve burning McDonalds fill the night sky.

If Mickey Dees wants to to the socially responsible thing, they can go out of business.