Welp, it’s been another depressing day covering the world of public accounting. About 1,400 people lost their jobs at KPMG on Tuesday, and since the pandemic started, thousands of other Big 4 employees in the U.S. have been let go from Deloitte, EY, and PwC.
Another firm that put its employees through the ringer a time or two during the pandemic is Moss Adams—from pay cuts, to furloughs, to layoffs. Fortunately for MAers, the firm ended employee pay cuts earlier than expected and repaid non-furloughed staff their lost wages.
And now Moss Adams employees are getting another break—an extended holiday break after Christmas.
Thanks to a tipster, the following email was sent this week to all Moss Adams staff from Dave Follett, president and COO:
All —
Firm leadership has been actively discussing ways to support everyone in the need to take time off. All of you have shown incredible resilience and commitment as we’ve navigated through unprecedented times in 2020. As results from our recent pulse surveys showed, many of us find that work and personal life have blurred as we continue to operate in a predominately work-from-home environment. Finding uninterrupted time to unplug and recharge is more important than ever to restoring balance in our lives and promoting wellness for the entire firm.
As a result, in addition to the firm-designated holidays of December 24, 25, and January 1, we have made the decision to close our office operations from December 28 through December 31. This means the firm will effectively be closed from December 24 through January 3. Employees will use their PTO for the time period of December 28 through December 31. The closure is intended to allow everyone to collectively unplug and recharge after a demanding year.
We recognize there will be some client needs or office demands that must be addressed during the closure. If this is the case for you, your local leaders will work through those details with you.
We anticipate there will be questions about the holiday closure as this is new to our firm. These FAQs will answer some of your initial questions. Please contact your HR team if you have more specific questions.
As we look to next year and solidify the 2021 holiday calendar, we plan to carry holiday closures into 2021. We will have two collective holiday breaks in 2021 — one in summer aligned with the July 4th holiday, and another in winter, similar to 2020, aligned with the December Firm holidays. More details will follow in the coming months.
Thank you again for your amazing team work and collaboration over the course of this extraordinary year.
Dave
You all at Moss Adams deserve some end-of-year R&R for the ups and downs you’ve been through over the past six months or so. And money. You guys deserve more of that too.
Related articles:
Pay Cut Watch ’20: It’s Not Good Friday at Moss Adams
Moss Adams Decides Its Employees Have Suffered Enough, Ends Pay Cuts Two Months Early
Layoff Watch ’20: Many Furloughed Moss Adams Employees Are Not Getting Their Jobs Back
Moss Adams Is Giving Employees Back the Pay They Lost During the Pandemic
“Employees will use their PTO for the time period of December 28 through December 3”
Is that a typo? Should there be a “not” in there? Otherwise, it seems like less of a holiday and more of a company wide furlough…
No typo. That’s what the email says.
“Employees will use their PTO for the time period…”
Forced use of the pto YOU earned at a time you may or may not want to use it isn’t exactly what I’d call a gift. In the FAQ section it indicates that you MUST use your pto, you cannot take time off without pay. If you don’t have enough pto you will start out the new year with a negative balance. They are just trying to get more pto off the books prior to the start of the new year and wrapping it up as a present. Slick.
Nobody likes being forced to use PTO, and pitching this as if it’s a “gift” to the employees is a giant FU.
Really forcing them to use their own PTO is how they say thank you. How about you just give them the 4 days off. Everybody knows that nothing gets done during those 4 days.
That’s nice. So force you to burn your unused PTO so they don’t have to pay out on it. What cheapos