Forvis Mazar’s Layoff Update
Forvis is currently hosting a training week in Austin, and we got the opportunity to hear from our CEO Tom Watson, who addressed why we laid off so many people, and what their plan for AI is. His argument was that our firm has grown in efficiency, leading to less chargeable hours overall, so they “had” to let go hundreds of accountants from our firm to bring our metrics back up. He also confirmed that Forvis is investing a LOT of money into AI, and that all of our jobs will look different in the very very near future. His attempt was to give clarity behind the company’s decisions, but to me it makes absolute zero sense unless this is a preparation for serious mass layoffs in the next 5 years. His claim that more jobs will be created when AI is prepping our returns is completely preposterous, and his speech really dampened the spirits of everyone there. He also mentioned the original Reddit thread and how they weren’t prepared for the layoff news to spread so quickly, which I thought was hilarious. How can you do one of the firms biggest layoffs in recent history because we’re pouring billion in AI and India, and not expect the news to spread as quick as it did. This whole thing is just so insane.