It’s Friday, which means at least one of your colleagues will probably have some last-minute issue exactly at 4 p.m. (or whatever your 4 p.m. would be if you worked normal hours like most employed human beings) that absolutely must be resolved before you can call it a day. Or perhaps you have a manager who likes to drop emails on you over the weekend, never having the balls to say you’re required to respond but strongly implying that there will be consequences if you don’t. Whatever your problems at work, thank your lucky stars that you don’t work under this guy.
Hong Kong’s Apple Daily has shared screenshots of what could be the worst Big 4 manager we’ve seen in quite some time (remember we’ve been doing this for 11+ years). At least the worst this year, that’s for sure. It seems that someone at EY didn’t get the memo that unreasonable busy season demands while understood should never be so blatantly unreasonable. In print, no less.
I mean … at least he said thanks?
If you thought that was the worst of it, I’m sorry to say but there’s more. Anyone who has ever interacted with a nice guy, a possessive partner, or a hungry cat at 5 in the morning will recognize the desperation of this EY manager on full display across multiple platforms.
How about a little gaslighting to go with that freak out?
Yeah, Wayne! If you hadn’t gotten food poisoning you’d probably be a manager by now, you scrub.
Now, we know they work just a bit harder on that side of the world, but according to the English translation of the original Apple Daily article, even by their standards this is unreasonable.
According to the guidelines on “Rest Days, Statutory Holidays and Paid Annual Leave” in Chapter 4 of the Employment Ordinance of Hong Kong, employees who are employed under a continuous contract are entitled to not less than one rest day every 7 days. A “rest day” is defined as an employee’s right not to work for the employer for not less than 24 consecutive hours.
Employers shall not force employees to work on rest days, except for machine or factory equipment failure or any emergency. If an employer requires an employee to work on a rest day, it must assign another rest day to the employee. The alternative rest day must be arranged within 30 days after the original rest day, and the employer must notify the employee of the date of the alternative rest day within 48 hours after the original rest day.
This makes EY the first Big 4 firm to embarrass themselves in 2021, and just seven days in! This year is gonna be great, I can just feel it.
Started out alright with that email but I would guess Hong Kong HR wouldn’t appreciate the IM/text conversation. Can’t really expect much less with the timing, unless you’re just annoyed it’s said out loud instead of implied.
I’m annoyed that you would even agree with this dickhead. Every college and university should post this in their accounting department for anyone wishing to join one of the big firms.
If you have such contempt for these big firms, why do you even waste your time here? Genuinely curious.
To affirm my decision to leave a toxic work culture and irresponsible treatment of staff. I lived it, understood it, and now I criticize it. I’m still here to stay informed about what’s going on know about trends and what people are talking about.
Yes what Bob said, Bill. Mom always said you were the butt of the family. Goingconcern.com. Read the words. Genuinely.
> Every college and university should post this in their
> accounting department for anyone wishing to join
> one of the big firms.
The won’t.
B4 sends too much money to colleges for business/accounting departments to have any integrity.
Wow, this needs to be posted at every college and university for accounting students who think they want to work for the big firms. I’m guessing a good ass kicking is in store for this dude….or maybe just karma gets him. What a fricking ass wipe.
This guy is obviously sharp about it (hence the story), but the sad thing is the hours in the email are not outside of what was routinely communicated to me as an auditor. Forget the touch-feely employees might burn out stuff–the problem is this kind of thinking totally ignores the science around thinking and productivity. If your team is not meeting deadlines–the right answer is almost never to overwork. Rather this manager should focus on creating an optimal neural environment for his team. Decrease distractions, make the team feel important and valued, and lead by example by practicing good sleep hygiene. I realize that sounds like a bunch of HR BS–but it works.
I agree.
Hours worked is easy to quantify versus quality of work. A lot of recognition was based on putting in big hours which skewed the incentive to work long hours, but not complete quality work on time. I would routinely get my work done in 5-6 hours and then do other stuff for 6 hours. I also worked a second job for 30 hours a week all the way to my Senior 2 year.
The culture is to brag about how many hours you work and I would have managers like that. Then you watch them during the day and they take 2 hour lunches, go home for dinner, etc. and would only do like 6 hours of actual work.
This dude was just way too on top of it. He needs to chill out and understand workplace ‘respect’.
If your google translate speaks French fluently, you should read this article about the revolt that EY Paris is currently experiencing. It is an unprecedented crisis within the Big Four in France.
https://www.lefigaro.fr/societes/entre-revolte-et-perte-de-sens-les-jeunes-auditeurs-des-big-four-questionnent-la-profession-20210105
First I’m seeing that, thanks. I knew I should have taken French in high school…
> This makes EY the first Big 4 firm to embarrass
> themselves in 2021, and just seven days in!
Yeah, how dare those ‘entitled’ EY staff pukes expect to not work from 9 AM to midnight.
Anyone have this guys LinkedIn so we can bash him?