PWC - Accountants brought to book over raunchy emails - See mod note post 7.

maximoose

:pac:

ONE of Ireland's largest accountancy firms last night launched an internal investigation after male staff were found circulating emails where they rated the looks of their female colleagues.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) started the probe after pictures of young women, who had just recently joined the firm, were sent around and nominated for a "Top 10".

The emails were circulated between a group of up to 17 male staff members within PWC before being forwarded to other businesses as the emails went "viral", spreading across the internet.
The 13 women, whose pictures were accompanied by their names and departments, all recently joined the accountancy firm as trainee accountants or "associates" and are expected to train with the company for the next three years.
The offending emails were traced and are being examined by senior management at PWC, sources confirmed.

The initial email sent around by the group of men had a subject line of "this would be my shortlist for the top 10".
A subsequent comment in the forwarded email says: "Great work... have reservations about the last one getting in."
In one message, a highly derogatory female description is used about the "new" intake.


One of the men who forwarded on the pictures asked for his email signature be removed if it was forwarded again.
Last night, the accountancy firm -- which employs 2,000 people in Ireland -- launched an investigation into the matter after they were informed of the emails by the Irish Independent.
The emails have been forwarded to finance companies, accountants, law firms, technology firms, state bodies and construction firms around Ireland since they were first written at the end of October.

"We are taking this matter extremely seriously and are launching a full investigation. We will take all necessary steps and actions in line with our firm's polices and procedures," PWC's human resources partner Carmel O'Connor said last night.
A number of the women whose pictures were circulated have recently graduated from prominent universities.
Graduate trainees at the firm typically stay for between three and three-and-a-half years where they work as accountants.
Ms O'Connor said the men who had been involved in the circulation of the emails had not yet been contacted about the matter.
She declined to comment on what the ultimate sanction would be as a result of the investigation.
UK-based PWC is the second largest accountancy firm in the world and one of the so-called "Big Four" which provide services to most large companies.

The company previously acted as auditor for Anglo Irish Bank and a team from the company was sent to Allied Irish Banks recently by the National Treasury Management Agency.
PWC is no stranger to controversy overseas. The company paid millions to former partner Christina Rich in Australia two years ago following a long-running dispute over claims she had been exposed to sexual harassment and sex discrimination.
The company's website lists a code of conduct for the firm which includes "behaving professionally" and "respecting others".

From here

This is pretty hilarious

seamus

Well that's accountants and business people for ye.

You know all those immature people in school who always took things one step too far, never seemed to have a tiny bit of common sense and seemed to still make fart and booby jokes at 21? They all went to business school and joined accountancy firms.

That's not to say that everyone in these places is like this, but these companies have a much higher quota of people who couldn't think of anything else to do with their life, than anywhere else.

mikemac

Sacking offence

Morgan Stanly Dublin sacked several people a few years back for sending a joke email to a client.
And this seems to be even worse.

Well you can use this to your advantage, job openings in PWC if you are interested

Hannibal Smith

I bet the blokes themselves are all ugly mingers who ain't gettin any

maximoose

I have taken the email down after second thoughts haha

I received the email by a forward yesterday, it was sent to me and along 20 others including BOI, PTSB, AIB, Quinn, Tesco staff amongst plenty of others. Its safe to say half the country has seen it now!

There was also a second email came out from the same PWC employee, discussing pulling techniques with another worker ABOUT another girl in PWC

Somebody's in trouble!

seamus

seamus wrote: »

Well that's accountants and business people for ye.

You know all those immature people in school who always took things one step too far, never seemed to have a tiny bit of common sense and seemed to still make fart and booby jokes at 21? They all went to business school and joined accountancy firms.
.

...and decided to start posting on AH, making up part of the AH population
Not including you, just general comments on this thread...

dr.bollocko

OK. We can allow this thread to continue but no more requests for PMs of links that have been removed. Whatever you do off site or in private I do not care about but that kind of stuff visible on AH could get us into trouble. PM me for clarification, a bunch of posts removed.

biko

maximoose wrote: »

:pac:

From here

This is pretty hilarious

Good thing you chose to remove the mail link before a mod got here.
Helping to spread information about innocent women, who have done nothing wrong except being in the same company as some fecking **** (who I don't see mentioned with names and faces anywhere hmm) is not on.

standardtoaster

maximoose wrote: »

There was also a second email came out from the same PWC employee, discussing pulling techniques with another worker ABOUT another girl in PWC

Incorrect please get your facts right.

gonedrinking

I tried googling it but nothing

mikemac

Half the offices in the country have seen it by now, been going for over a week.
I got it on Monday

Senior Associate | Asset Management

Stupid feckers are going to the dole queues this Christmas, threw away their jobs
People have been fired for far less

cournioni

Heard about this craic a while back from someone I know working up there. Very very daft. You'd think they'd have better things to be at these days.

M.J.M.C

Could have been much worse - could have been the Bottom 10

Using work email account for personal use & to give the firm a bad name - bye bye job

Orando Broom

It's not the first time PWC have been in the papers over email japery either IIRC.

AnonoBoy

Nice headline about it from TheJournal.ie:

"Males rate females on emails"

thebigbiffo

where is my earlier post gone from this thread? why would it have been deleted?

Riamfada

thats not fair I wanted to see the emails. Stupid no job and no company email.

jameshayes

I want to see the email!!!!

CdeC

Men who view women as sexual objects make me sick.

Bet the ones who were annoyed didn't get into the top 10. :P

S. Goodspeed

Orando Broom wrote: »

It's not the first time PWC have been in the papers over email japery either IIRC.

I dont think you do recall correctly to be honest. When was the other time? I think Merril Lynch was the other high profile one.

tallpaul83

maximoose wrote: »

I have taken the email down after second thoughts haha

I received the email by a forward yesterday, it was sent to me and along 20 others including BOI, PTSB, AIB, Quinn, Tesco staff amongst plenty of others. Its safe to say half the country has seen it now!

There was also a second email came out from the same PWC employee, discussing pulling techniques with another worker ABOUT another girl in PWC

Somebody's in trouble!

The second part of your post is wrong. That was KPMG.

I know the lads in question. 99% sure they'll be sacked on the spot.

Cormic

It appears it works both ways:

A Duke University student, Karen Owen, has become an internet hit after a graphic “PowerPoint presentation” was leaked detailing her sex conquests with more than a dozen men.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8049905/Karen-Owen-Duke-students-sex-powerpoint-presentation-goes-viral.html

Riamfada

Cormic wrote: »

It appears it works both ways:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/8049905/Karen-Owen-Duke-students-sex-powerpoint-presentation-goes-viral.html

Thats fine because we all know that men objectifing women is bad. The other way round is certainly not...


christ I just got a mad desire for some Diet Coke.

df1985

Goes on all the time in these firms, these eejits are just ones that got caught.

EDIT: probably best if i keep my mouth shut in hindsight, I know a guy involved, ill leave it at that.

LuckyLloyd

df1985 wrote: »

a friend of mine is involved in this, dont think he was in the first group that started it but he forwarded it on and left a few comments i think, needless to say hes bricking it.

Goes on all the time in these firms, these eejits are just ones that got caught.

Yup. And for getting caught they will have the book thrown at them. Rightly or wrongly.

midlandsmissus

Does it really go on all the time int hese firms? I would be bricking it to send anything from my work email account, jesus EXPECIALLy anything that could be construed as discrimination/ harassment. How stupid can they be?

How do you know it goes on all the time?

mikemac

df1985 wrote: »

a friend of mine is involved in this, dont think he was in the first group that started it but he forwarded it on and left a few comments i think, needless to say hes bricking it.

Can't remember if it was Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanly that had a similar case a few years back. Probably ML
Several sacked and more suspended and the email was harmless compared to this but a client complained.

Not sure what'll happen your friend.
The lads with the comments on the email that that OP posted are going to be sacked for sure, there is no way they can save their jobs.

seamus

midlandsmissus wrote: »

How do you know it goes on all the time?

Because most of these people are fresh out of college, with a college mindset and a college attitude. Just look at the stuff that people will post on facebook to give you an idea of how little people think about anonymity.

midlandsmissus

df1985 wrote: »

a friend of mine is involved in this, dont think he was in the first group that started it but he forwarded it on and left a few comments i think, needless to say hes bricking it.

Goes on all the time in these firms, these eejits are just ones that got caught.

For example, if you got an email with identifying information on female colleagues in your workplace with ratings. Would you forward it on?

I'd bloody well think f*ck this is really dangerous! How could they not have realised?

midlandsmissus

seamus wrote: »

Because most of these people are fresh out of college, with a college mindset and a college attitude. Just look at the stuff that people will post on facebook to give you an idea of how little people think about anonymity.

I suppose yeah...fresh out of college MAYBE you might have an excuse...you mightn't think...I'm nearly sure that some-one posted up that one of the guys was a senior manager though..

Kinetic^

midlandsmissus wrote: »

Does it really go on all the time int hese firms? I would be bricking it to send anything from my work email account, jesus EXPECIALLy anything that could be construed as discrimination/ harassment. How stupid can they be?

How do you know it goes on all the time?

Happened in KPMG about 4/5 years ago too.

midlandsmissus

feelingstressed wrote: »

Can't remember if it was Merrill Lynch or Morgan Stanly that had a similar case a few years back. Probably ML
Several sacked and more suspended and the email was harmless compared to this but a client complained.

Not sure what'll happen your friend.
The lads with the comments on the email that that OP posted are going to be sacked for sure, there is no way they can save their jobs.

<snip>

seamus

midlandsmissus wrote: »

For example, if you got an email with identifying information on female colleagues in your workplace with ratings. Would you forward it on?

I'd bloody well think f*ck this is really dangerous! How could they not have realised?

You see, it all seems perfectly safe within the workplace. These pictures would be put up on an internal website - either an internal directory or a "welcome to the newbies" site - along with their names and departments.

All these muppets would have to do is copy & paste it into the email. They don't think about sending around internally, because the information is already on the internal website.

It's just when one moron decides to send it to his mate working elsewhere, "Have a look at the new hotties we just got", that it's game over.

midlandsmissus

Kinetic^ wrote: »

Happened in KPMG about 4/5 years ago too.

what hapened in KPMG?

Kinetic^

midlandsmissus wrote: »

what hapened in KPMG?

Exact same thing, photos taken down off the intranet and someone made up an email. It just didn't go national.

midlandsmissus

Kinetic^ wrote: »

Exact same thing, photos taken down off the intranet and someone made up an email. It just didn't go national.

Did people get fired in that case?

I'd nearly feel bad for the lads, one f*ck up and they've ruined their whole career.

Kinetic^

midlandsmissus wrote: »

Did people get fired in that case?

I'd nearly feel bad for the lads, one f*ck up and they've ruined their whole career.

Slap on the wrist.

df1985

seamus wrote: »

You see, it all seems perfectly safe within the workplace. These pictures would be put up on an internal website - either an internal directory or a "welcome to the newbies" site - along with their names and departments.

All these muppets would have to do is copy & paste it into the email. They don't think about sending around internally, because the information is already on the internal website.

It's just when one moron decides to send it to his mate working elsewhere, "Have a look at the new hotties we just got", that it's game over.

Exactly, it goes on all the time amongst the groups of "lads" in these firms, typical jock type guys, the irish version of frat boys.

This only came to light because it went outside the company. I did accounting in college so I have mates in all the major firms, it goes on all the time, only usually its kept to themselves. Ive heard many "you should see the new birds in our department" stories. The annual intake as its known is a big thing in these firms, big nights out paid for by the company etc etc, plenty of scoring opportunities!

NickDrake

The thing is PWC pride themselves in theit excellent staff. It is one of the hardest places to get into.

The HR team would want to look at themselves and think about who they are hiring etc.

This reflects very badly on their staff. What may they be saying about their clients?? I imagine some of their big clients will not be impressed with this. All about competition nowadays. I bet KPMG are delighted.

cournioni

midlandsmissus wrote: »

Did people get fired in that case?

I'd nearly feel bad for the lads, one f*ck up and they've ruined their whole career.

Thats life isn't it? If you make one f*ck up while driving you're dead, if a rubber rips you could be a parent etc.

M.J.M.C

midlandsmissus wrote: »

I'm nearly sure that some-one posted up that one of the guys was a senior manager though..

Not true FYI.

midlandsmissus

M.J.M.C wrote: »

Not true FYI.

Ah yeah sorry, my mistake.

mikemac

Senior associate

That's a lot nearer the bottom then the top

M.J.M.C

feelingstressed wrote: »

Senior associate

Correct,well...... past tense!

ams

Just seen the email there - its innocent enough but really stupid and cringey!

Blowfish

midlandsmissus wrote: »

For example, if you got an email with identifying information on female colleagues in your workplace with ratings. Would you forward it on?

I'd bloody well think f*ck this is really dangerous! How could they not have realised?

Even ignoring that it was a stupid thing to put your name to regardless of the communication method, you have to remember that some people are under the mistaken assumption that work PC's and email are just as confidential as their own email/PC.

In reality, the company you work for owns it all and has every right to poke through all your emails and data if it feels like it and pull you up if it doesn't like what it sees. Working in IT, I've come across extremely personal stuff completely by accident when fixing peoples machines. I don't even want to know what I could find out if I was determined to actually look for this stuff.

Lesson of the day, for work email/PC's assume everything is public and will be read by collegues and/or management. If you wouldn't be comfortable with them reading it, don't write it in the first place.

LuckyLloyd

midlandsmissus wrote: »

Does it really go on all the time int hese firms? I would be bricking it to send anything from my work email account, jesus EXPECIALLy anything that could be construed as discrimination/ harassment. How stupid can they be?

How do you know it goes on all the time?

I worked in a financial services firm for a couple of years! The real fun is when someone inadvertently forwards the 15 email long bitch about the boss onto the boss...:o

smallerthanyou

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1235129/Deloitte-girl-quits-sending-email-asking-colleagues-vote-offices-attractive-men.html

Happens a lot cos 200 new people all the same age straight out of college is a recipe for disaster!

I think it's a tradition in PWC though. I've definitely heard of a very similar list happening 2/3 years ago but obviously didn't go viral. Have any of the girls actually made a complaint to HR about it?

mikemac

M.J.M.C wrote: »

Correct,well...... past tense!

Unemployed is the new job title

cournioni

I wonder how many of the offending employees have been accounted for...

M.J.M.C

feelingstressed wrote: »

Unemployed is the new job title

Exactly, best of luck now getting another job and explaining that