EY’s Landlord Didn’t Pay the Mortgage on the Downtown LA Office Building
Before we get into the situation, please note the issue discussed here is not EY’s fault. Rather, the office tower bearing the firm’s name at 725 South Figueroa Street in downtown Los Angeles has entered receivership after asset management company Brookfield stopped making payments on its debt in April. Commercial real estate firm Colliers has […]
Elon Musk Thinks You’re a Douche If You Work From Home
Hate to be the bearer of bad news but the glorious days of work anywhere and firms too scared to lose you to force you to return to the office may soon be behind us. Apparently KPMG is telling tax people they need to come in three days a week now and PwC announced a […]
The Rumor Is True, PwC Is Returning to the Office
Today was the much-anticipated firmwide webcast in which we expected PwC leadership to announce a return to office. Lo-and-behold…it happened. A source tells us: 50 percent “people together,” virtual channel staff three times per month, firmwide events requirement two times per quarter. So return to work 50 percent starting July. r/PwC is discussing it and […]
Guess We Should Discuss Deloitte’s RTO Plans
Yesterday the PwC return to office plan set to be announced May 3 and take effect after the firmwide summer break was all but confirmed and in a discussion about it I came across this: Therese are nothing when compared to Deloitte’s planned RTO announcement which has a tentative announcement date of the Tuesday after […]
That PwC Return-To-Office Rumor Might Be True (Includes Potential Confirmation)
Remember that rumor buzzing around last week about a PwC return to office? It might be true. You’ll note that OP updated their post to specify that what they’ve heard applies to US tax. This morning Going Concern received a copy of a memo that appears to confirm just about everything the original rumor-spreader said, […]
Someone’s Starting Rumors That PwCers Are Getting Forced Back Into the Office
Someone on a throwaway told all of r/Big4 a few hours ago that they’ve been given inside information about a mandatory return to office at PwC to be announced in a couple weeks. This screenshot couldn’t have worked out better. Since late 2021, PwC has touted a super flexible remote work policy. Come in, don’t, […]
While Other Industries Have Turned to the Stick, Accounting Firms Continue to Use the Carrot to Encourage RTO
PwC’s hybrid work policy was quite the big deal when it was announced in October 2021, it signaled perhaps a change in corporate mentality that meant employees would be allowed the discretion to determine on their own if they need to be in the office or not. Other firms took a similar approach, though their […]
Accounting Firms Are Being Uncharacteristically Modern About This Whole Remote Work Thing
Are we ready for another survey? OH BOY. Thomson Reuters has written up the 2022 ConvergenceCoaching, LLC® Anytime, Anywhere Work™ (ATAWW) Survey — you can request survey results here — and we learn that almost all responding firms say they are being flexible about where and when their people put in their time. Of the […]
Bad News For Big 4: Educated Men Have Decided to Not Work So Hard
It is known that the pandemic shifted everyone’s priorities and forced many of us to confront the question of “what am I doing with my life?” Almost all human beings with jobs have thought about this at some point between March 2020 and now, and many of them came to the conclusion that whatever they […]
Research: Working From Home Frees Up Two Hours a Week, Time Many People Spend Doing Work
The anti-WFH, pro-RTO propaganda has chilled out a bit in recent months as boomer and boomer-adjacent Gen X CEOs wait out the next big recession but even those pinstriped menaces in the C-suite who think all remote work is the domain of the lazy can appreciate this info we are about to share with you. […]
Accountants Will Not Be Motivated to Get Back to the Office
Someone sent us this r/accounting thread on returning to the office the other day and wanted to make sure we call out one comment in particular. You’ll see why in a second. The question of what would motivate you to go back to the office has been asked before, in a multitude of ways, and […]
Remote Accountant Who Billed Too Many Hours Owes Her Former Firm $2700 For ‘Time Theft’
NPR has a strange story of a Canadian accountant and a firm with time tracking software installed on work laptops that should give remote workers pause before submitting their next time sheet. NPR: When Canadian accountant Karlee Besse was fired for being unproductive at her job, she found herself up against not only her former […]
Hey Tax People, You’ll Be Thankful For This Remote Job That Promises No More Than 40 Hours a Week EVER
Those of you dreading the idea of yet another busy season (so, all of you) will be interested in this gig: how’s 30 to 40 fully remote hours a week sound to you? So not only will you never have to go into the office, you won’t have to sacrifice all your evenings at weekends […]
The AICPA Has Written a Strongly-Worded Letter to the Treasury Department on Remote Work (UPDATE)
If you thought the AICPA’s only job is gatekeeping the CPA exam and selling you insurance offers you are WRONG. They also write strongly-worded letters, sometimes on behalf of our nation’s CPAs or, as in the case of this latest letter, on behalf of American taxpayers. Let’s see what they’ve been up to. From the […]
PwC Is Still Not Forcing People Back to the Office (Really)
Ed. note: In April 2023, rumors began circulating that PwC would soon announce a soft return to office that would be “expected” but not mandated. We are pretty sure it’s happening but will have to wait until May to know for sure. Since last November, PwC has graciously allowed 40,000 client-facing people to choose whether […]
PSA: Do NOT Take a Pay Cut For the ‘Privilege’ of Working Remotely
In the coming weeks and months, you’re going to see lots of headlines warning that the workers’ market we are blessed to experience today is shifting back to one that favors employers as the economy starts circling the toilet. You already have seen these headlines, I’m sure. Here’s one: some HR clown who works for […]
Blind Item: California Firms Are Paying California Salaries to Poach Midwestern Public Accountants (UPDATE)
Are you a public accountant in a LCOL or MCOL Midwestern city? Put down the beer, open your ears, and whip out your wallet for this one. A source tells us California firms are setting their sights on comparatively lower cost of living Midwest cities to fill their vacancies. And they’re doing it not to […]
Attn Firm Leaders: No One Wants to Work at Your Stupid, Ugly Office Park
Collaboration. Culture. Fancy new open offices. The occasional free sandwich. Firms continue their desperate attempts to lure people back into the office, not too aggressively though as they know if you push people too hard on remote work they will leave. To any firm leaders plotting your next “how can we get people back into […]
More Scary Anti-WFH Headlines: Is Remote Work Bad for Your Mental Health?
The anti-WFH propaganda is in full swing and why shouldn’t it be? Commercial leases still have to be paid whether offices are full of bodies or not, might as well try to weaponize pandemic loneliness against workers to force them back under the fluorescent lights while they can. First we heard that remote work might […]
Being Home During Lockdown Shifted Accountants’ Priorities, Says Lady
Kristy Illuzzi, CPA, CGMA of International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) on why the Great Resignation is affecting the profession so acutely: I think the Great Resignation is interesting in that it has impacted almost every sector of our economy and every profession in some way, and it’s no different in the accounting industry. I think […]
Hybrid Work Only Makes It More Obvious How Much Going to the Office Sucks
While there are small pockets of American white collar workers who would welcome a respite from screaming kids and incontinent dogs at home (shout-out to a certain Going Concern team member always regaling us with shitty stories on Zoom calls), a good majority of people have realized that skipping the commute and making your own […]
Top 5 Reasons Why Employers Want You Back In the Office
The debate over employee work preferences continues to explode. Many employers actively ignore employee preferences, particularly when employees favor fully remote work. In recent weeks, even more companies demanded that employees return to offices, immediately, or else. Employee preferences aside, why do companies want everyone back in the office? 1. Companies are losing grasp on […]
Corporate Overlords Try to Scare Us Back Into the Office With Figures on How Much WFH is Costing You
As we watch gas prices tick higher and higher, commercial lessors and middle managers everywhere are anxious to get people back in chairs. Their chairs. Gross, old, shared-space, contains-the-farts-of-coworkers-past chairs. Nothing at all like the luxurious gaming chair your firm WFH stipend covered, though let’s be honest that one is harboring some ghost farts too. […]
PwC Just Announced That You Never Have To Go Back To the Office If You Don’t Want To (Sorta)
Big news today! PwC just announced that effective November 1, its people will need to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to access PwC facilities and client sites. Deloitte announced a similar vaccination policy toward the end of August, as did KPMG, just a handful of days before President Biden announced the country’s own […]
Hywel Talks Hybrid At EY U.K.
“We have championed flexible working for many years prior to COVID-19 and we will continue to do so. This has been built on a culture of trust with our people. We also believe there will always be a need for EY to have office space across the U.K., but how we use our offices in […]
How Intuit Can Help Your Career Thrive In the Remote Work Era
With the widespread adoption of remote and hybrid work structures and an increased reliance on technology, the past year has seen big changes to the accounting and finance professions. As many accountants and finance professionals face the reality that they won’t be returning to the office any time soon (if at all), it’s clear that […]
Number of the Day: 88%
This is the percentage of the 4,500 or so employees of the Queen’s Grant Thornton who want to continue to spend the majority of their time working from home post-pandemic, an in-house employee survey revealed. According to the Financial Times, GT U.K. CEO David Dunckley said the pro-WFH crowd was the same regardless of age, […]
Nearly a Third of Workers Say They’d Quit Before Returning to the Office When All This Is Over
When the world abruptly turned upside down and drove everyone inside their homes last March, many (perhaps optimistically) thought it would end up being a very brief experiment in what happens when white-collar workers are forced to do their jobs remotely for a couple weeks. We know now “two weeks to flatten the curve” was […]
Finding the Best Accounting and Finance Talent In a Gig/Remote Work World
Even before the events of 2020, the gig economy was surging and remote work was on the rise. But the last few months have placed those trends into a pressure cooker, accelerating them at a rate far beyond even the most forward-thinking predictions. Some of the best accounting and finance talent had already gone remote, […]
Yes, You Can Make More Money as a Freelance Accountant or Finance Professional
The pendulum has swung: accountants and finance professionals can make more money—and have wayyyy more freedom—taking on freelance work, especially when compared to a full-time salaried position at a public accounting firm. Just imagine it! Working from home in your pajamas, setting your own hours, taking Netflix-and-nap breaks. No co-workers bugging you with stories of […]
How’s Your Remote Plan Going? What Worked and What Didn’t? It’s Time to Move Forward
Hey there, denizens of Going Concern. If you are a managing partner or lead an HR department, please take the 2020 Anytime, Anywhere Work (ATAWW) Survey hosted by ConvergenceCoaching LLC. This survey will be used to identify trends on how accounting and consulting firms are handling the ongoing shift, as well as the overnight transition, to […]
3 Tips for Crushing Your Accounting Work While Traveling
Whether traveling for business or pleasure, working on the road is a necessary evil for most accountants. No matter how much you promise yourself you’ll unplug, work still manages to creep its way into any trip or vacation, in spite of promises of flexible hours and work/life balance from your firm. So if you’re going […]
While Some Companies Move Away From Remote Work, Others Double Down
Last year, IBM decided to “co-locate” its 2,600 member US marketing department. Translation? IBM is eliminating remote work. The news is especially shocking as IBM is one of the pioneers of remote work, installing work-from-home terminals for some employees as far back as the 1980s. As more businesses move toward embracing remote work, others are […]
How to Be Part of the Team, Even When Working Remotely
Does remote working make you feel like a faceless drone, beaming work from a distant planet across satellites to unseen robotic clients? Cloud accounting doesn’t have to look like this. In fact, it can’t look like this if businesses want to stay competitive and ahead of the curve. As more companies begin to rely on […]
Let’s Talk About Accountants Getting Some on the Side
Ever get called into a meeting in the HR wing on a Monday morning to find out you’ve lost your posh accounting job due to downsizing? Yeah, me neither. But if you had lost your job on a Monday, you’d spend the rest of the morning contacting recruiters (oh the horror) and trolling LinkedIn until […]