In the past week, we have received several tips about an Ernst & Young OMP who was recently demoted to a less-BSD position. While that's the reality, we're certain that any internal messaging took quite a different tone with the partner in question ("PIQ") "transitioning to a client facing role" or some other euphemism for "dude was a dick so we stuck him with some grunt partner work."
Typically, this isn't a story we'd always run because this sort of thing happens on the reg but yesterday all that changed when some shocking allegations came to our attention:
[PIQ] pretty much ran things like he owned the world, and wouldn't let guys have long hair or have facial hair. I can only assume our new CEO didn't like hearing that [PIQ] was not a fan of facial hair.
Who ever thought that the tables would be turned on facial hair insubordination?
You may recall that we've discussed beards in public accounting in the past on a couple of occasions. For some there are religious traditions to be considered but there is also the love of beards by those in public accounting that moonlight as lumberjacks or that fancy themselves as culturally contrarian (but not too contrarian because that's just lame). Whether it be a goat, a chinstrap, Shenandoah, a full-on Kris Kringle, or a classic Burt Reynolds look – facial hair serves as great conversation starter and/or distraction for those capital market servants who don't have much else to offer.
But back to the situation at hand – This E&Y OMP must have known that the jig was up when the announcement was made that fan-of-goat Mark Weinberger would be the next Global Chairman and CEO of the firm. Even though M. Dubs won't be sitting in the big chair for almost a year, it's understandable if he wanted to start making moves now to squash any potential resistance before he had an uprising on his hands.
No, we don't have any concrete proof that the anti-facial hair position caused the demise of this particular partner but anyone that shares those views would be wise to think twice before making their opinions known. Either way, you can make it easy on yourself by remembering one very simple rule: Mark Weinberg is the CEO. You shut up.
