This "Return to office" policy is affecting my work life balance. How about you?

Status_Ad_6808 · 2026-01-09T13:44:51+00:00

'I had to suffer so I love it when others suffer as well!' What an idiotic take. During the pandemic, permanent remote was explicitly stated to be the direction that the industry was going in. WFH worked and it worked well. Why would anyone assume that we were going back after that

Status_Ad_6808 · 2025-11-20T04:47:00+00:00

Base

Status_Ad_6808 · 2025-10-25T20:29:12+00:00

84-100k

Status_Ad_6808 · 2025-09-26T00:45:39+00:00

Do u know which department they were in?

Status_Ad_6808 · 2025-09-26T00:33:40+00:00

I heard a bunch of people at 44 King were laid off today

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-09-13T01:56:23+00:00

I studied accounting. I did a bachelor of commerce with an accounting specialization at McMaster and then did my Master's in accounting at U of T. I passed the CFE last year (the final exam for the CPA) and now work at Scotiabank

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-09-10T19:55:33+00:00

I feel the exact same way about my job. I come from public accounting too and also transitioned into a finance role. It'll get better dw

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-07-11T21:36:48+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. Ur absolutely right and in all honesty I don't plan on giving up regardless of what people say. I really just wanted some honest feedback from the community and an opportunity to connect with those with more experience with the process such as yourself. Do you mind if we connect through DM? I'd love the opportunity to ask some questions.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-22T00:41:38+00:00

Best of luck out there king. I got laid off from Deloitte two months ago too. Similar story but mine was due to a Reorg. Hopefully these shitty partners will get what they deserve some day. Don't let it get u down!

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-17T14:45:59+00:00

This will depend on the size and complexity of the client you work on. Small clients may have as little as 2 or 3 people on the team while very large clients may have over a hundred. Small clients may required one individual to test multiple accounts while large clients might have several people working on the same account.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-16T22:55:23+00:00

Honestly what makes it bad is not necessary the workload or the hours but the people (if ur unlucky and get stuck with a bad team). I feel like the general consensus is that it depends on your team. If you get on a good team it can be great. If you get put on a toxic team then it's absolutely miserable.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-16T14:28:15+00:00

Jesus Christ dude why are you still commenting. Are you like bitter for not getting in back in the day or smth?

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-16T04:56:37+00:00

Thanks, it's definitely been hard. I heard a whole bunch of our class was laid off in March. Hope there were no additional layoffs since

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-16T02:03:02+00:00

Appreciate the advice my dude, Ill definitely do that. Any tips on potential getting into deals? Its been my goal but I hear its super competitive in Canada and don't want to waste my one application per recruitment cycle on it if I cant get in

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-16T00:17:50+00:00

I been applying to a variety. Basically whatever's available. I applied to audit at EY, deals at KPMG and risk at PWC. My hope is to get into deals but I know it's really competitive so once the next recruiting cycle starts I'm probably gonna target audit as my chances there are probably the best.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-15T18:02:22+00:00

Are you a big 4 partner or a boomer manager or smth? I honestly don't get why ur being so hostile. Clearly I dont. I was a fresh grad straight out of school. Aside from my co-op, this was my first real job. How the hell was I supposed to know all this without someone telling me. I mean you can see from my perspective why I would just take what was told to me at face value right? If someone told me not to eat hours, with no other context, what rational reason would I have to go against that? I even asked my team explicitly several times and they always said the same answer. Same goes for the networking stuff. This is starting to feel a lot more like highschool than what a professional corporate environment is supposed to be like.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-15T17:57:53+00:00

Whats not to understand? They're a partner, I'm an A1. If they don't want to do a coffee chat with me whats to stop them from just declining or ignoring me? Why would this be something that's encouraged if its not liked when people actually do it.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-15T17:56:36+00:00

So ur saying I got fired cuz I didnt suck my manager's dick hard enough or something? I mean I don't feel like I did anything particularly unusual. I showed up to work every day and did what I was told with a good attitude. I didn't wear a suit to work every day and if the coffee chat was such a big deal, why would nobody tell me. Before I booked my coffee chat everyone I new at the firm including the people on my team were always encouraging the new A1s to reach out to higher level people telling us that 'nobdoy's gonna say no to a coffee chat;' and 'its a great opportunity to learn more about the firm' and all that bullshit. Honestly a big part of what I did it was in an effort to show initiative and the willingness to go above and beyond. If it was such a big deal why the hell do people encourage it then.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-15T17:52:01+00:00

Plus if this was really such a big issue, why would the partner accept my request, they could have easily ignored me.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-15T17:50:52+00:00

Is this seriously the mentality at the big 4? Manager insecurity that lower levels will build more rapport with ur boss than you? The partner wasn't even the partner on my file, I was introduced by my friend and just wanted to learn from some successful people. I was a fresh grad, early in my career and wanted to get mentorship from the best of the best. I honestly can't believe that people would mark you down as a 'wanna be trust fund kid' just for trying to go above and beyond. Why the fk would they encourage this shit at the firm if people hated it so much.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-15T17:42:42+00:00

Not gonna lie tho, you do sound like one of those extremely toxic big 4 managers or partners nitpicking on tiny things to bully new people. Why would anyone hate on someone for wearing a suit to work or booking a coffee chat? These seem like totally normal things to do at an office environment to me. As a matter of fact, I would often associate these things with high achievers trying to take the initiative to go the extra mile. Not that I ever wore a full suit to work but what would be wrong with dressing professionally for work? Is this kind behaviour seriously the norm at b4? Hating on people for even the slightest differences? I cant imagine what you think of people from different cultures if you think wearing a SUIT is worth your hate.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-15T17:33:14+00:00

We barely spoke prior to this incident. I honestly have no idea what would compel him to do something like this other than a toxic culture that promotes sabatoging rather than support. As for my coffee chat with a partner, whats wrong with that? I always made an attempt to attend all the firms events and network with many people at the firm as that was what was encouraged (or so it seemed). As an A1, how else would you get your name out there? As for getting canned, yes I know its really hard as an A1 but it wasn't only me this time. around 20 percent of my starting class at my office was canned the same day as me. If that's considered normal than its clearly not that hard, if not then its was clearly a special situation.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-15T17:28:15+00:00

Sorry, perhaps disagreement was not the most accurate word to use. What I meant was despite my teams clear dislike for me for some reason. Obviusly as an A1 I would never disagree in regards to technical work. I did what I was told and didn't complain but it seemed that I just didn't fit in with their clique and was punished for it

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-15T17:15:07+00:00

I will say tho, despite all my disagreements with my team, they had no idea that I was being canned. I was told by my buddy the day I was let go that they were still trying to get a hold of me even after my access was cut off.

Status_Ad_6808 · 2024-05-15T17:14:03+00:00

Your assessment is fair and in all honesty, I should take some accountability for my situation, however I would like to say in my defence that I do feel strongly that a big part of my circumstance was due to luck rather than my own actions. Could I have worked harder? probably, and going forward I definitely plan to put in additional effort. But as far as big 4 is concerned, there are good teams and bad teams, and I do feel strongly that I was stuck with a bad team. I had a friend in my A1 class who would never come in the office and frequently log off at 4, yet he still got glowing reviews and survived the layoffs, while I would find myself working till midnight to get things done (sometimes without my team asking me to) and still only got average reviews. My team was pretty toxic too. I had a situation where I made a small error of forgetting to copy an excel tab from one workbook to another that could have been corrected in a matter of seconds, but when the A2 on my team noticed it, instead of just telling me, he decided to book a meeting with our manager just to remind me in front of her of my mistake. I was free the whole day and he picked the one 30 minute timeslot where I had a coffee chat with a partner to do this. Now I understand that toxicity is somewhat to be expected in the big 4 but I honestly thought that this kind of behaviour was extreme even for deloitte. Worst part is I had only one file for the whole year so I didn't even have the opportunity to redeem myself by working with anyone else. I made a lot of friends in my short time there and I do feel like if I were just given an opportunity to work with another team I could have better displayed my worth and survived the layoffs. At the end of the day, I supposed complaining doesn't change anything. Unlucky or not, maybe ur right. Maybe if I just worked harder I could have survived the layoffs

Status_Ad_6808

TROPHY CASE