Training proved to be the downfall of several employees of an international auditor. They wanted to learn too much at once.
What exactly were people fired for here? The global accounting firm Ernst & Young reserves one week internally each year for training, called EY Ignite Learning Week. During this week, employees of the company headquartered in the UK must achieve a set score by attending training courses. These take place online in the form of web seminars, which are broadcast live and cannot be repeated at any later date.
However, an unspecified, double-digit number of employees behaved incorrectly from their employer’s perspective. They didn’t join one session, but rather attended two seminars at the same time via a web browser. After internal audits, Ernst & Young responded by terminating the employment relationships.
Fortune and CBSNews, among others, reported on the case in summary. The Financial Times originally broke the story and spoke to both the company and those laid off.
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Clever multitasking or fraudulent negligence?
What does Ernst & Young accuse the fired people of? The company accuses them of violating the code of conduct and US teaching requirements. They also commented to the Financial Times as follows:
Our core values of integrity and ethics are at the forefront of everything we do.
Ernst & Young has explicitly adjusted the internal guidelines for all upcoming training weeks. In the future, only one session will be allowed to be viewed at a time.
What do those fired say? According to the Financial Times, the interviewees confirmed that they had watched several sessions at once. But they would not have had any base intentions such as shortening their working hours, since that way points can be accumulated more quickly.
Instead, they thought they were setting an example by following the mantra of multitasking that Ernst & Young supposedly practiced. Furthermore, the teaching material interested them in all cases and they did not want to miss any of the parallel sessions.
Problems in the past at Ernst & Young
Does the incident have a history? We don’t know all of the internal processes, but an event from 2022 sheds light on the proven misconduct of employees. At that time, several Ernst & Young auditors cheated on an audit to renew a state license. As a result, the company had to pay a fine equivalent to around 92 million euros, as Fortune explains in more detail.
The industry in which the company operates requires a high level of trust from the state in the company and its employees. Every year there are billions of dollars in sales and countless tax regulations that have to be complied with in America, Europe and beyond.
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