EY US fires employees for attending online classes: Sacked workers say firm itself promoted multitasking

Ernst & Young (EY) has terminated the employment of several employees in the United States for attending multiple online training sessions during the firm's learning week earlier this year. The company stated that this action violated its global code of conduct and ethics. The dismissals occurred last week, and some of the affected employees shared their experiences with The Financial Times.

Employee Reactions

Employees who were fired claimed that there was no warning from EY against attending multiple sessions simultaneously. One former employee remarked, “Their emails marketing EY Ignite actually encouraged us to join as many sessions as our schedule allowed. We all work with three monitors. I was hoping to hear new ideas that I could bring to the table to separate myself from others.”

Culture of Multitasking

The dismissed employees criticized EY's work culture, suggesting it promotes multitasking. One individual noted, “If you are forced to bill 45 hours a week and do many more hours of internal work, how can it not?” Another former employee pointed out that an EY partner they know would manage two client calls at once, switching their camera on and off depending on who they were speaking with. They stated, “I know a partner who will do two (client) calls and switch their camera on and off depending on who he is talking to. If this is unethical, then that is unethical, too.”

EY's Response

In response to the terminations, EY called the actions “appropriate disciplinary action.” The firm emphasized that attending more than one training course at the same time breached the company's ethics. “Our core values of integrity and ethics are at the forefront of everything we do," EY stated. “Appropriate disciplinary action was recently taken in a small number of cases where individuals were found to be in violation of our global code of conduct and US learning policy.”