Deloitte partner lays down the law for junior staff in leaked email
The UK lead of Monitor Deloitte told junior staff that they should become “millionaires, authors or bums” if they wanted to be picky with their projects, in a leaked internal email.
Alexander Curry, a partner and UK Lead at Monitor Deloitte, said that junior staff do not own their own time, in an email sent in early July.
Curry, who described himself as a “laissez-faire optimistic sort of” person in the email introduction, wrote: “Today, however I’ve had a couple of discussions with some of the younger members of the practice that have made me rather grumpy.”
He said that they had essentially expressed the opinion that “what they did with their time was up to them,” according to eFinancialCareers.
Curry went on: “Now, if you want to do what you want I suggest that you become millionaires, authors or bums. Failing that, I would like to emphasize the rules of the road for scheduling.”
The news comes in a year when tensions between junior staff and their employers have risen and prompted a discussion on what can and cannot be expected of junior staff at large firms. Earlier this year the UK chairman of KPMG was forced to resign after he told staff to stop moaning about their working hours.
Curry’s email has divided opinion, with some condemning his comments for belittling employees while others have defended him for “doing his job” according to consultancy.uk.
“If you’re overworked and underpaid and you receive an email like this it’s not exactly motivating,” one source reportedly told eFinancial Careers, where the news was first reported.
The note was sent to around 300 of the firm’s 8000 consulting staff, City PM understands, and the partner has since apologised.