EY Finally Admits It Has Some Serious Culture and Overwork Problems After Someone Died at the Office
Last August the body of a 27-year-old woman was found at EY’s Sydney office early one Saturday morning, turns out the woman was an auditor at the firm and had returned to the office late Friday night to get some work done after drinking with colleagues earlier that evening. EY staff would later say they […]
What in the Bullying Hell is Happening at KPMG Australia?
Last August, Australian Financial Review reported that eleven people had been “exited” (tossed, kicked out, told to F off, however you prefer to phrase it) from KPMG Australia for misconduct including bullying, sexual harassment and policy breaches in the past year; during the same period, internal misconduct complaints doubled to 88. Before that, AFR dug deeper into […]
EY Reports a Rise in Naughty Behavior Now That People Have Returned to the Office
EY Oceania has released its second Value Realised Scorecard — a wide-ranging report on how the firm is doing — and Daily Mail Australia immediately latched on to page 33: Workplace Incidents: DM’s salacious headline “EY rocked by soaring number of sexual misconduct and bullying complaints as big four accounting firm workers return to the […]
Another Big 4 Executive Bites the Dust In the UK (UPDATE)
[UPDATE/Jason Bramwell] The Telegraph reported this past weekend that Deloitte UK gave its former diversity and inclusion chief, Dimple Agarwal, around £8 million last year after an internal investigation cleared her of bullying staff. Reports began to surface overseas on March 4, 2021, that she had resigned from Deloitte following the bullying accusations against her. […]
Number of the Day: 63
That is the number of workplace conduct complaints and/or investigations that were disclosed by the Big 4 firms in Australia during financial year 2021, according to the Australian Financial Review. The article today by AFR (which is worth your time reading in its entirely) focuses on sexual harassment and bullying complaints at EY Oceania during […]
Big 4 Firms’ Reward Structure Contributes to Their Bullying Ways, Says Guy
“This is a constant Darwinian contest of survival of the fittest. We need a much better Big 4. Let’s hope the generation coming through will finish off this archaic system of tutelage and abuse based on the dream of the million pound pay day.” — Ken Charman, CEO of uFlexReward, a London-based data company that […]
Big 4 Lawsuits: Ex-Deloitte Manager vs. Deloitte, Ex-Deloitte Switzerland Partner vs. Deloitte, Ex-PwC Employees vs. PwC
On the docket: accusations of pregnancy discrimination and unfair termination, as well as an update on PwC ERISA class-action lawsuit. Deloitte Looks To KO Class Claims In Maternity Leave Suit [Law360] Back in early September, Saxon Knight, a former solutions manager at Deloitte, filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in Manhattan federal court alleging the firm […]
Deloitte Australia Has This Corporate Bullying Thing Down Pat
“It’s using COVID as a lever to change their working conditions. They have no choice — if they say no to the pay cut, they may lose their job, if they say yes, they might lose their job anyway. “Most would have accepted a pay cut because they thought it would save jobs. “In their […]
KPMG U.K. Won’t Have to Deal with Deal Advisory Partner Anymore
The whole Sanjay Thakkar bullying saga at KPMG U.K. has mercifully come to an end. The Financial Times reported on Feb. 28: One of KPMG’s most senior partners who was at the centre of a bullying dispute has left the firm eight months after widespread scrutiny of his conduct that led to a crackdown on […]
Fired Deloitte Switzerland Partner Owes Deloitte Some Money After Defeat In Court
David Joseph might be regretting taking Deloitte to court over his firing. The Financial Times reported yesterday: A high-profile banking consultant sacked by Deloitte over alleged bullying and large expenses claims has been ordered to pay £125,000 to the Big Four accounting firm. David Joseph, who was among the highest fee-earners at Deloitte Switzerland, was […]
Judge and Ex-Deloitte Switzerland Partner Weren’t on the Same Page Apparently
Remember that lawsuit we told you about last week filed by a now-former Deloitte Switzerland partner who thought he was wronged by the Big 4 firm for breaching his partnership contract and being labeled as manipulative, toxic, and a bully? Well, it’s already over. Judge Philippa Whipple said in a London High Court ruling on […]
Lawsuit: Ex-Deloitte Switzerland Partner Accused of Bullying Seeks Vengeance In Court
While David Joseph isn’t seeking vengeance in the same way as, say, Frank Castle (aka The Punisher), who single-handedly wiped out anyone who was remotely involved in the deaths of his wife and children, the former Deloitte Switzerland partner is taking his former employer to court, claiming a formal Deloitte investigation that resulted in him […]
Report: Big 4 Firms Are Cesspools For Sexual Harassment, Bullying, and Discrimination
Did you guys read the Financial Times’ article today about the “culture of fear” at the Big 4? If you have a subscription or know a trick around the paywall, you should carve out some time to read it. FT spoke with 20 ex-Big 4 employees who were victims of sexual harassment, bullying, and discrimination […]
Ex-KPMG U.K. Partners Start Consulting Firm Devoid of Any Big 4 Bullsh*t
Remember Maggie Brereton and Ina Kjaer, the two KPMG U.K. partners who quit earlier this year because the firm protected a male partner who was accused of being a bully? Well, the two women have launched their own consulting firm that they say will be everything the Big 4 is not. The name of their […]
KPMG U.K. Doesn’t Really Care If You Don’t Like How It Handled Complaints Against Partner Accused of Bullying
We were so busy trying to wrap our heads around the $50 million fine the SEC gave KPMG last week for its auditors’ involvement in two separate scandals and which of the two might be more damaging to the firm’s reputation that we missed a new article about the bullying allegations made against KPMG U.K. […]
Here’s More Proof That KPMG U.K. Totally F*cked Up the Way It Handled Bullying Allegations Against Partner
The Financial Times reported today that three—THREE—senior executives at KPMG U.K. were aware of and ignored concerns from staff as early as 2017 alleging senior partner Sanjay Thakkar was acting like a bully before they finally got around to launching an investigation about the complaints last October. KPMG employees approached the firm’s UK managing partner Philip […]
KPMG U.K. Partner Accused of Being a Bully Decides He Probably Shouldn’t Be a Partner Anymore
Remember that KPMG U.K. male senior partner we told you about last week, the one who was accused of being a bully and was found by the firm to have acted like a jerk but not a bully when he was probably acting like a bully, and then two well-respected female partners quit in protest? […]
Two KPMG U.K. Female Partners Had Enough Of Working At a Firm That Protected An Alleged Bully
Last December we learned that the Big 4 firms across the pond sacked nearly 40 partners (probably all men, although we don’t know for sure) within the past four years for inappropriate conduct, such as sexual harassment and bullying, seven of whom had worked at KPMG. But KPMG evidently sided with a male partner who […]
Oh Look, EY Is On the Receiving End Of Another Sexual Harassment Complaint
After we recently reported on sexual harassment allegations made against male executives at EY U.S. and EY Switzerland by former female employees, Adrienne and I got an email from a woman by the name of Ana Raquel Villanueva who told us that she, too, was a victim of sexual harassment while employed at EY in […]