EY fires employee for attending two video training meetings at the same time
EY reportedly fired several US employees after they were found to have attended two training sessions at the same time.
The staff was involved online classes this spring as part of the consulting giant’s ‘Learning Explosion Week’, Financial Times report.
Staff at Big Four companies are required to spend a certain amount of time each year on such courses, resulting in a required number of continuing professional credits.
Employees who were flatly fired said they did not take two classes at the same time to accumulate these credits faster, insisting that it was because they did not want to miss the concurrent classes.
Employees who no longer work at EY spoke to FT they’re just trying to take advantage of all the sessions they want to attend, he said, adding that the company has fostered a culture of multi-tasking.
They also claim EY never told employees they should not attend multiple meetings at the same time.
But in a statement with FTEY said The employee’s actions went against the company’s code of conduct: “Our core values of integrity and ethics are at the forefront of everything we do.
“Appropriate disciplinary action was recently taken in a small number of cases of individuals found to have violated our global code of conduct and U.S. academic policies.”
EY did not immediately respond luck request comment.
While some may say that being fired for attending multiple online calls seems like a harsh punishment, EY has been forced to pay a heavy price for employees who abuse the vetting system and internal training.
In 2022, EY is required to pay $100 million to the SEC after employees were found to have cheated on ethics exams required to obtain and maintain a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license.
EY was also accused of concealing evidence during the SEC’s investigation into the matter.
In addition to paying the fine, EY said it will hire two independent consultants to address issues related to both ethics and transparency.
EY has reportedly updated its direction on future Ignite weeks, specifying that only one class should be attended at a time.
Meta violation
EY is not the first major employer to deal with employee abuse of policy provisions and is unlikely to be the last.
Last week, Meta reportedly laid off several employees for abusing its meal credit program.
Writing on Blind, a professional social networking site for the tech industry, a Meta employee pointed out that employees receive a $25 bonus. Grubhub Score points if they work after 6 p.m. in offices that don’t have an on-site cafeteria.
However, a subsequent post was seen by Luck on the platform Blind claims that disgraced employees were ordering food when they weren’t even on site, were extending their credit to other employees, or were using the credit to buy groceries and household appliances.
For example, an individual claims to have spent their $25 credit on items like toothpaste and tea from the pharmacy Ritual supportadding that if they arrange alternative dinner then they feel “privilege should not be wasted.”.
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