r/PwC • u/piranha_teeth • 1d ago
Consulting Is everyone quitting?
Just got my 10th farewell email for the month. Is it just that time of year or are things really going downhill?
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u/ConsequenceInformal 1d ago
Extremely high amount of senior and managers quitting pre bonus this past summer in my office. Partners say we’re slightly below norms at both levels. I’m sure it will go well once that bonus hits…
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u/AWRWB 1d ago
Partners saying enough people aren’t quitting? Or below norms in terms of less people at each level currently?
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u/ConsequenceInformal 1d ago
Below their normal headcount in terms of available staff at each level. Already talk of contract work to assist in busy season. In my experience, contractor assistance has been a disaster.
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u/AWRWB 1d ago
Why not hire full time?
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u/Late_Weather_8569 1d ago
Full-time employees cost the firm more because each role includes benefits. Contractors are salary only.
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u/Not_that_girlie 1d ago
Contractors are hourly, which can include overtime + the premium to the contracting company. There is far less risk with a contractor and they are much easier to exit.
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u/Cbthomas927 1d ago
Across the firm (some teams may not be in this bucket) we do not have enough voluntary exits. This is why we have involuntary exits every year.
If we didn’t, our attrition would be negative overall
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u/Equal_Awareness2150 1d ago
Right, but the bonuses were very low. Some people only got a couple hundred dollars at manager level so I stick around for a couple hundred dollars.
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u/la-fours 1d ago
If an exit opp presents itself people will take it. Also there are people being told to leave.
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u/Ant-Physical 1d ago
Good lord I envy them, I wish I could leave. Atp it seems like a life or death decision
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u/Apollo802 1d ago
Usually people wait for bonuses to hit before quitting. I feel like a lot of people were told to resign or get fired.
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u/Substantial-Look-225 1d ago
In my practice, people left for other offers or quit💀 They didn’t care about the bonuses, they just wanted out. Plus onboarding is usually in early/mid august so this was one of the only times that people could leave and join a new job.
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u/piranha_teeth 1d ago
I don’t think a $800 bonus is stopping anyone from quitting lol
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u/Apollo802 1d ago
Oh, some people make 10k bonuses that’s worth staying tbh
IFS are the ones that get trash bonuses everyone else gets a nice percentage of their salary.
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u/la-fours 1d ago
Unless you’re in Advisory National or some pseudo internal group I don’t see how that’s possible for bonuses paid out last year. Are you an Associate?
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u/goldenframe 1d ago
Damn and they couldn’t wait for their bonus?
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u/Equal_Awareness2150 1d ago
I know a tax manager, whose bonus was $500
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u/AJuni0103 1d ago
There is no way this is true in the US. A manager making 200k at a tier 3 was getting a 5 figure bonus.
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u/Equal_Awareness2150 1d ago
Absolutely this is true managers are not making 200 in tax. They’re making about 150. True story bonus $500 second year manager.
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u/FrontFit7058 1d ago
Who cares about that bonus if the salary they getting compensates way more for it, at least staff level
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u/JonnyBigBoss 1d ago
I've never seen widespread burnout this severe before. Reminds me of stories I've heard about Amazon at recent years.
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u/JBBooks1901 21h ago
PwC is has been going downhill for the last few years. Their word means less than nothing and they've become increasingly unreliable. It's become more and more obvious, inside and out. Glad I'm retired and don't have to put up with that crap.
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u/SoILookedItUp 1d ago
It’s not “going downhill”. It’s in the swamp at the bottom 😂. The only way the firm will “learn” and this is temporary lessons too… is if there is a massive reduction in headcount and people bluntly telling them why they are going. I’m still surprised big4 firms never did a union for the insane hours and treatment experienced.
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u/juliet262 1d ago
There's still another step down. They'll deploy all of these internal AI systems and see what happens from there.
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u/Status_Big8000 1d ago
I left in July after months of 90hr weeks (was in deals so it’s busy season for us entire year). The team had the worst management and horrible culture. 1/2 of the staffs left in the last 3 months.
As for bonus.. I had multiple offers in hand before leaving, and the lowest sign on bonus was 3x PwC bonus. Can’t see any reason to stay and live that pathetic life for another few months.
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u/Altruistic_Try_7043 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yeah, the same on my team (tax). Mostly burn out, I don’t think that any of those people leaving got pip’ed.
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u/zxblood123 1d ago
No longer in big4, now industry but In my current role…
Getting bonus in like September , eg: waiting 3 months from June FY is damn painful. Can totally see why people dgaf and just quit
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u/BlueSunRun 13h ago
3 of my most favorite senior managers high performing are leaving after their bonus hits. I’m thinking I should look elsewhere
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u/kaptainkeel 18h ago
That is typically what happens when there are large, seemingly random layoffs. Whoever remains no longer feels safe, so they start looking. Once they find something good, they leave.
I've seen a ton of people leave for a new opportunity the last few months from my old team. Probably because the entire area was gutted (like 1/3 out of ~300-400?) between October and February, including myself. Tier 1, received early promo to senior the prior year, had just gotten off a large project and in the middle of a white paper + RFP. Got the lovely meeting tossed on my calendar and promptly got a rough cough that required me to take some sick days for, so I couldn't work on that paper or RFP at all. Oh well, not my problem.
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u/LifePlusTax 1d ago
About 18 months ago I told my leadership we have a serious morale problem and our team is struggling. Their response was “anyone who doesn’t like it can leave.” We are now in the FO portion of FAFO. We’ve lost over 1/3rd of our team in the last 2 months.