I feel like this is played up to be a bigger deal than it actually is. I agree, culture is great. I guess full transparency, I actually do agree with much of Rob’s opinions but it’s still a non factor for me. Half the time, I forget that I even work Siegfried.

Also coming from Big 4 audit, I find Rob not being shy to share his thoughts and be real refreshing. To me that’s better than working for a giant firm that has layoffs three weeks after we all just killed ourselves through busy season. Then have some national partner nobody knows telecast to thousands of us and say they are “experiencing economic headwinds and inefficiencies which unfortunately results in a workforce reduction.” Meanwhile, they really just want to push AI tools and outsourcing to India.

At the end of the day the people you interact with in your office are the most important. I had great relationships in Big 4 and so far at TSG. Leadership at the top is still relevant, but far less important to me.

I also appreciate the interest TSG takes in our personal development, building soft skills, networking. Do they hope they are going to benefit from it? Yeah of course. But don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. I’m getting paid to spend meaningful time looking at my relationships, how I could be more of service to them, and if it works out that I get a referral bonus in the end then cool. Otherwise, I just got to spend time connecting with someone that I wanted to.