McDonald’s shuts corporate offices amid layoffs, reports say

Fast food giant McDonald’s will close its U.S. offices for three days this week as it lays off workers, according to The Wall Street Journal and CNBC.

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In an internal email sent last week and viewed by the Journal, officials with the Chicago-based chain told employees — including some international staff members — to work from home from Monday through Wednesday. Employment decisions were set to be delivered virtually during that time.

It was not immediately clear how many employees would be affected. The company had more than 150,000 workers in its corporate offices and company-owned restaurants at the end of 2022. according to CNBC. About 45,000 of those employees were based in the U.S.

The layoffs come months after McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski announced plans to restructure the company’s corporate operations to make them more nimble, The Associated Press reported.

“We have historically been very decentralized in some areas where we reinvent the wheel way too often,” Kempczinski said on a call with investors in January, according to the AP. “And I think the other thing I’ve seen is we haven’t been as sharp around our global priorities, and so there’s been proliferation of priorities.”

The layoffs are the latest announced as companies look to cut costs amid fears of an economic slowdown. Since the start of the year, Tyson Foods, Amazon, Meta and several other national brands and companies have announced plans to slash positions.