One Possible Revenge Option for the Women of PwC Ireland

Posted on November 11, 2010 by Caleb Newquist

As you might expect, there’s been a fair amount of outrage about the PwC Ireland Hottie List 2010. Revenge ideas are already being floated and we were pointed to the following comment over at Gawker (although we can’t seem to find it now):

If PricewaterhouseCoopers fails to act promptly and decisively on this, the women of the company have a couple of other ways to achieve justice.

My favorite is taking a full page ad in the business section of the leading newspapers… featuring corporate photos, titles, and marital status of the 17 men. The copy would say: “Instead of working on YOUR accounts, these men spend their time imagining their coworkers as sexual objects.”

The copy would be 100% true and provable, so it ought to get published. The wives, girlfriends, neighbors, and churchgoers can take it from there. Any of these men will find it harder to go on an out-of-town trip or stay late in the office without getting mangled in the wringer. And PWC will face questions about its billable hours.

If PWC still fails to act, the next ad can feature the same men, but the copy will say, “There were 13 people on their Top-10 List. Do you really want them auditing YOUR books?”

The 13/10 idea is quite brilliant and we suspect other firms (with the exception of KPMG) to capitalize on it immediately.

It’s been said “the best revenge is living well,” but since these ladies work at PwC, there’s virtually no chance of that. It’s also not clear at this time what firm the action is taking against the perps. Accordingly, some ideas from the peanut gallery are in order for revenge/punishment. Ideas might include:

1) Forced sobriety on the dudes in question.

2) Giving them the horrendous responsibility to respond to all the questions regarding the colors and shapes used in PwC’s new logo.

3) Send them to China with no language training.

That’s just to get your brains working. Leave suggestions below.

Layoff Watch ’11: PwC Discontinuing Global Best Practices Unit

Caleb Newquist
January 25, 2011

Last week we were tipped about layoffs that were communicated to PwC’s Global Best Practices (“GBP”) unit on January 13th. The GBP was purchased from Andersen back in the early Aughts and became a part of PwC’s Knowledge Services Organization which was developed as a part of Internal Firm Services.

Global Best Practices, as the name indicates, developed “best practices” that were either for sale to third parties or was used by PwC professionals to share with their clients.

Our source, a former Knowledge Services Organization employee gave us the initial scoop:

[I]t’s somewhere between 27 and 42 people, depending on how you do the math – there are some contractors. Most of the staff is based in Tampa, as part of the KSO. They have a month, then a package. Some are still in Chicago, where the GBP staff used to be based – the moved them all to Tampa about five years ago when PwC started up the whole Knowledge Services Organization plan.

Subscriptions to the site are way down and apparently the cost-benefit analysis didn’t justify keeping the employees, even though many of them had been around for many years.

We checked with a source within PwC who clarified/solidified some of the tip: simply put, the GBP product is being discontinued and it will affect 24 total jobs, sixteen in Tampa and eight in Chicago. As our original tipster mentioned, there are some outside contractors that aren’t included in those numbers. The separation date for those affected is February 25th and employees are being paid through the 28th. From there, a severance will be provided, depending on the individual’s position and tenure with the firm. All employees that are affected are being encouraged to apply for other jobs inside the firm.

This is second instance of layoffs by PwC in the Tampa area, following the 470 cuts announced last July. Many of those layoffs – 280 to be exact – were effective December 31st. We’ll keep you updated with any further details.

More Layoff Watch:
Layoff Watch ‘11: KPMG Cuts IT Support Staff