Sequence Inc. Fraud Files Blog

There are many things wrong with the Big 4 accounting firms, and I predict that within 3 years (probably less) they will all be gone. But the partners are going to stay on the gravy train as long as they can.

Make no mistake: Being partner at a Big 4 isn’t easy. It takes a lot of hard work and bieng a yes man on the way up. Then there’s the buy-in of over $400k. And the partners never really know how secure their positions are, what with liability from audit failures constantly an issue.

But with risk comes reward, and at Deloitte & Touche, there is a reward for partners. Francine McKenna at Re: The Auditors has sources within the big firms, and gets plenty of traffic when she writes about layoffs there.

One of Francine’s sources gave her the scoop on the essential pay freeze that rank and file are getting:

This past month, our region was told that the growth of the non-consulting practices was slow, behind schedule. We were told that our region was the worst performing in the whole nation. The Regional OMP stood up on a pedestal and informed us all that, although we would be getting some raises this year, we should be prepared for “far less” than last year (last year’s were between 4 - 8%). Obviously this has many upset. However, given the “tough” times, many were willing to accept it.

Yet that apparently wasn’t completely true, as partners and directors in the region got an email from headquarters about their “best year ever” and the fat bonuses they could expect.

Well, those of us that were privy to the email were breathless when we noticed that the congratulations was given the region’s partners on the “best year ever!”

The average partner salary was almost US$1 million!

So on the one hand, we are being told that there won’t be any AIP bonuses, and that we should expect lower raises than we have seen in the past 5 years but then we find out that the partners had their best year ever.

Can you say busted? There are college graduates lining up to be a part of these firms because the names still command attention on the resume. But they should be prepared to be abused and they should know that their jobs aren’t stable.

This comes at a time when mid-sized firms are dying for new talent, and they’re willing to decent salary and benefits as well as some work/life balance. Young accounting majors, you’ll be much better off looking for a job with the mid-sized firms.