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Tweet of the Day: On KPMG U.K. Pulling Its Sponsorship of Prince Andrew’s Pitch@Palace Event

Posted on by Jason Bramwell

Actually, this tweet was sent yesterday, but it’s too good not to share today. It’s regarding KPMG and the news that broke across the pond on Monday that the firm decided not to renew its sponsorship of Prince Andrew’s networking initiative for young entrepreneurs called Pitch@Palace.

The news that KPMG had backed out came following the Duke of York’s TV interview on BBC last weekend in which he answered questions about his friendship with convicted (and dead) sex offender and asswipe Jeffrey Epstein. The prince also denied he had sex with an underage American woman—one of Epstein’s accusers—who alleges Epstein forced her to have sex with Prince Andrew not once, not twice, but three times.

KPMG apparently decided last August to stop sponsoring Pitch@Palace, which the prince started in 2014. The firm’s sponsorship officially ended in late October.

Although KPMG would lead you to believe that Prince Andrew’s relationship with Jeff wasn’t the main reason why it pulled its sponsorship, let’s be real: If any Big 4 firm needed to escape from under the dark PR cloud hovering over it, it would be KPMG.

So this tweet from Financial Times reporter Tabby Kinder yesterday pretty much says what we’re all thinking:

Burn.

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KPMG Gives Green Light to Start Pretty Disappointing/Pleasantly Surprising Conversations

This just in (late on Friday):

Heard from a partner in our office, corroborated by the HR manager, that they can officially start having comp discussions with employees starting on Monday, 9/27.


So if you’ve got a scheduled sit-down or call today to have a little chat, let us know how it goes and spare no details. This includes – but is not limited to – percentage raise, bonus, your subsequent tirade (or jubilation) to hearing the news, any explanation that your messenger offered to make you feel better, the number of people crying in conference rooms, etc. And if you too shy/ashamed to share, just email us and we’ll update the post.

UPDATE:

This is just in:

Multiple partners in my office (including a sit down meeting with all senior associates) have floated numbers from 8% to 12-14%. We’ve been told Hearing that we will be “pleasantly surprised” by the numbers and that they will be higher than what Johnny V said this summer. Partners have received the comp numbers but have NOT yet been given the green light. Later today is the plan.

Discuss.

UPDATE 2: The latest from a Southern KPMG office:

SP: 5-7%, 2% bonus
SP+: 7-12%, 4% bonus
EP: 10-14%, 6% bonus

Range is attributable to prior year ranking and individual performance. For example, there may be a “really good” SP+ who was an SP last year, who may get 12%, or a “barely there” SP+ who was an EP last year getting 7%. Needless to say, morale is fairly high.

Also, all practices and divisions are having “EOCircle” events, which are small events ran by the partner. Mine is occurring at a bar, for example, for a happy hour. These are occurring this week.

UPDATE 3, September 28th:
Early reports are in:

I’m an SP+ SA3 (I was an EP each of the last few years) and got a 6.7% raise with a 2.5% bonus. I know an SP+ SA3 who was an SP/SP+ (no differentiation in prior years) who got 10.3% bump with a 2.5% bonus. We are now both making the same. It looks like the percentages were relatively correct but that the bonuses are slightly below what was originally communicated to us.

New KPMG Associate Wants to Know What the “Deal” Is with Working Mothers

Yesterday we discussed the plethora of accounting firms that are pro-mom, according to Working Mothers. It seemed like a pretty simple idea – treat moms good = win; treat moms bad = Christ, what kind of hellhole firm are you running? Despite this elementary idea, there still is some questions out there:

GC,

On the subject of working mothers…what’s the deal with that? I’m a first year at KPMG and there is another first year who is already pregnant and taking maternity leave soon.

My question is, does she really get promoted on the same schedule as the rest of us? I get the importance of allowing some flexibility for working moms but does it make any sense to treat someone the same as the rest of us when it comes to raises and promotions when they’ve missed out on all the work? I’d love to hear what other readers have experience with this.

Thanks,

KPMG First Year

Well, the “deal” with working mothers is that not having policies that allow them to pursue a career and having a family is what I like to call “doing shitty business.” As to your specific question, the details aren’t clear. It’s not as if she will be on maternity leave for 6 months. KPMG offers up to 9 weeks of paid maternity leave, according to the firm’s profile on WM. That means that there are 43 other weeks (that assumes no PTO, obv) that she will be working. That doesn’t really qualify as “miss[ing] out on all the work” as you put it.

Those who are evaluating her performance should have a pretty good idea whether or not she’s capable of being promoted. Besides, it’s a jump from A1 to A2, not exactly a huge change in responsibilities or expectations. Furthermore, your raise from A1 to A2 isn’t going to be anything to write home about so getting worked up about whether or not she’s getting the same 11% bump as you isn’t worth it.