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This article aims to shed light on the adjustment processes used by companies in times of economic crisis by defining them and analyzing the way they are debated and negotiated or imposed by the management. Its methodology is based on fifteen full-length company profiles compiled at the post-survey stage of the 2010-2011 REPONSE survey on professional relations and branch-level bargaining. It demonstrates that businesses are not facing one overarching crisis, but a series of smaller ones. The worsening economic climate is not the sole cause of the adjustments observed, though it may be seen as some justification for them. The article also gives an account of the range of adjustments, the sequence in which they took place and the way they became polarized between defensive bargaining and concessions. The economic crisis offers fertile ground for imposing compromises on the workforce.