BMW just closed the counter on its German layoff program, the reason being too many takers. The Munich-based automaker needs 8,000 white collars out the door by the end of 2027, so it emailed severance offers to tens of thousands of staff. Roughly 40,000 people logged in to see what their exit was actually worth, and curiously enough, the internal HR portal folded within hours.
As per German publication Handelsblatt, the fix landed the next day, and the applications kept stacking higher and higher. A few days later, BMW stopped taking new ones altogether so it could process the queue. When a cost-cutting program develops a waiting list, chances are the company does not have a persuasion problem anymore. Instead, a triage problem arises.
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