Audit firm count Friday out for the summer
(CNS): Grant Thornton Cayman Islands has given all of its staff the option to take every Friday off throughout July and August. Given that many auditors and financial service professionals experience burnout after the busy period, the firm said in a press release announcing this summer’s four-day working week that it wanted to ensure its employees take extra time off to focus on what matters most and maintain both their physical and mental wellness.
“I am very excited to see the new summer four-day working week policy come to life,” said Adrianna Christian, the senior HR manager for the firm. “It will allow for additional time to pursue a passion, spend more time with loved ones, travel, or simply relax. Our people have worked extremely hard over the past few months and truly deserve the time to take a step back and improve their work-life balance, which will naturally lead to an improvement in well-being.”
Managing Partner Dara Keogh said that both the physical and mental health of staff is of integral importance to the firm. “Our people make us different and it’s the individuality and diversity of our team that strengthens us,” he said.
While this is the first year that staff in the local offices of Grant Thorton have had these additional days off in the summer, a spokesperson told CNS that the firm’s offices in the US and the UK have implemented similar policies, which have been successful. Any potential cost is mitigated by the firm’s ability to attract and retain high-quality people because of a happy work environment, the spokesperson added.
The firm said that so far the announcement has been very welcome. One accountant described the introduction of Summer Fridays as a “fantastic initiative”, especially coming after a busy period in the financial services sector.
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Category: Business, Financial Services
The job-hoppers are usually not the Caymanians, it is us expats, pal.
Because that works so well when you have a work permit. If your employer doesn’t consent to the transfer of the permit, you have to leave and then try re enter on a new permit application. You are either not an expat, or your employers are so keen to get rid of you or don’t see you as valuable to their competitors that they just consent.
Makes sense. All companies should do this!
If they all worked as hard…
Law firms should consider this as well.
Seems like lawyers never sleep. Doubt it’s the coffee.
The whole thing is premised on a cyclical business. Auditors don’t have that much to do mid summer – they would be sitting around the office non chargeable anyway. Lawyers – not so much.
Not true. I’m sitting here right now with your mom.
hahaha. good to see some of us still have a sense of humor.
She’s been dead for 19 years, so I very much doubt it.
It is high time for a Modern Slavery Act to be put in place here, We also have a constitutional right to family life and privacy so an Act like the French have by preventing employees to be contacted outside of ‘normal’ working hours should now in place. The fat cats at some of these firms keep all the huge bonuses by keeping costs down i.e. limiting staff recruitment at the expense of employees wellness and family life when in fact some employees are doing at least two jobs. Why should employees have to work 14-16hrs regularly because of the absence of laws to protect them and the greedy fat cats at the top.
Oh FFS, quit crying! If you’re fortunate enough to be employed by one of these firms, you are most likely earning in the top 5% of income earners globally. Don’t like the hours? Do something else!
There is a generation of whiners and crybabies that see oppression at every turn, without having the slightest idea of what real oppression and hardship looks like. Generations before you have dealt with world wars, gender discrimination, racial inequality, limited access to higher learning, famine, etc., etc. Suck it up cupcake! You are a financial industry professional, living in the Cayman Islands! What more do you want?? You’re living better than most people on the planet!
#firstworldproblems
Well said. Although I doubt the original poster is employed at one of these firms.
or won’t be for long with that attitude
So why does our mother country have a Modern Slavery Act and also unions to protect employee rights and the French has such laws? No you want to work off-shore in an unregulated place so you can continue to take home your disproportionally high millions tax free, while giving the workers the crumbs and zero compensation for their extra hours. You may be happy with the hours that are well known to create teetotalers which no society needs.
You’re aware that all the expats here in cayman working for these firms previously worked for the same firms in the uk, USA, or other countries and did even more hours for likely similar or less pay?
Teetotalers?
@Anonymous 19/7/2022 at 5:00 pm. You clearly don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about. “Work off-shore (sic) in an unregulated place” Are you referring to the Cayman Islands, one of the most heavily regulated financial jurisdiction on Earth? Why is that people that know the least, always want to speak the loudest?
Don’t want to work hard? Get a normal job. Most of the “fat cats” worked their way up through the same system. Thats why they are where they are and you’re on an anonymous message board writing about “modern slavery”.
I’m holding out for a job that works Fridays only.
Selling drugs is illegal.
Become a Cayman MP. You only have to work 2 or 3 times a year.
Just ask David Wight and Barbara Connolly.
Who?
They still live here??????
The ones with any sense will work the morning and then check out to a long lunch.
Early bird gets the worm. Truthfully, when you get an early start to the day, it feels like momentum builds and you get more accomplished productively.
For the first time ever, you identified something accurate — accountants drinking at Sunday brunch.
i chuckled!
Accountants work harder, albeit less ethically, than bankers and lawyers and, therefore, should be entitled to two summer months off on Fridays.
How do accountants work less ethically than bankers and lawyers (as per your comment?)
the certainly test less ethically
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/28/ey-to-pay-100-million-to-settle-us-charges-of-staff-cheating-on-accountant-exams.html
Less ethically 😳
nothing new here. When I worked at an audit firm in Cayman in the 1990’s we could bank the overtime hours in the busy season and apply it for time off in the summer.
So time in lieu then. Hardly newsworthy.
Our office lets staff take as many days off as they like, except that we don’t pay them for the work they aren’t doing anymore, and they have box up, and carry out their shit.
Our office makes them bring their own box.
Our office skips the box all together and just keeps their stuff after they walk them to the door blindfolded.
Great idea. Great that it has come to the Cayman office. Hope the idea spreads.
It initiated in London then came to cayman
That is a great place to work!
Might be. You cannot say for sure, can you?
Then why do they have so much turnover?
They hire too many job-hopping Caymanians?
You stick to your agenda and feel good bathing in your ignorance.
Job-hopping Caymanians? Funniest thing I’ve heard! Statistics do not support your comment as most of the workforce in Cayman are expatriates.
Citations required
Caymanians with university educations job hop all the time. Ask any HR professional in the financial services industry.
people job hop for better opportunities alot of the time. ask yourself what companies are doing to retain their staff, if its nothing then why would anyone stay? lol I’m sure expats would “job hop” easier too if they werent tied to a permit.
grow up and drop the stupid narrative.
And what about it? The sky is the limit for a university educated Caymanian as they are a rare breed 🙂
Not any job-hopping locals there pal. Most are South African or Philippines expats who have done so.
You do know that the majority of the job hoppers at that firm are not the locals, pal.
Majority of job-hoppers at that firm are not the locals, pal.
The Caymanian worker percentage at most of these accounting firms is probably 7% so I doubt that:)
During busy time they work 14-16-18/hr a day every day even when they aren’t in the office. Hours actually worked and billable hours aren’t the same. To produce 16 billable hours for example one might actually work 20. They don’t get overtime pay.
Auditors and accountants deserve Fridas off.
You can bet that the back office and support staff don’t do those hours – but everyone gets the option to take the Fridays.
Agreed. If you divide what they get paid by the hours they actually work, most get paid below minimum wage. It’s actually quite embarrassing because the partners and senior mgmt make off really well.
Gotta do the time…
Accountants are a dime a dozen these days
That’s $.0833 cents per accountant. However, I can move the decimal point four or five places to the right if you need me to. Do I now qualify to take Fridays off this summer?
When did you pass the CPA exam?
A lot of successful people work 14++ hours per day, not just during busy times.
I think you have a warped sense of the definition of “successful.”
Or you’re lazy
It is high time for a Modern Slavery Act to be put in place here, We also have a constitutional right to family life and privacy so an Act like the French have by preventing employees to be contacted outside of ‘normal’ working hours should now in place. The fat cats at some of these firms keep all the huge bonuses by keeping costs down i.e. limiting staff recruitment at the expense of employees wellness and family life when in fact some employees are doing at least two jobs. Why should employees have to work 14-16hrs regularly because of the absence of laws to protect them and the greedy fat cats at the top.
It feels to me like work almost never stops. That’s why, at least from my perspective, it’s important to enjoy what you do, which takes the edge off to some degree.
Hmmm, spoken like someone that doesn’t work a full time job.
Similar to other accounting firms on island and worldwide: you have to remember that us auditors at the big 4 especially between February and June 30th often work 7 days a week and 15 hours a day and we are not paid hourly – it’s a fixed salary.
Bullshit. All employees of accounting firms get paid overtime. I know I ran a big four.
No you never ran a big 4- if you did you would know that they don’t usually get overtime. I worked in an offshore bank and trust company for over 30 years and I have a good idea how it is done, Before they take up an audit appointment contract they have to lay out approximately how long the audit would take, what they will be looking at during the audit and of course an approximate fee that will be charged. There is normally no opportunity to pad their pockets by dragging out the process unnecessarily.. They do work long hours because of course time is of the essence and they need to move on to another job. The audit has to be completed in a reasonable time frame after the year end whether that is June or December.
they don’t get paid overtime… they get $10,000+ bonuses… whether you call it overtime or bonus regardless they are being compensated for their time… and might I add that’s a healthy sum of cash for a bonus.
I sincerely hope this story will now spur on some of our graduates to go to university study and qualify as an accountant, come back and work for a BIG4. Get some big bucks for their work, get the big bonus and stop being so jealous and critical of those who went ahead and done it. That was a good story and you sorry asses had to go and spoil it . There is not much hope for some of you out there who only know how to bitch about everything, even a great story. Is it lack of exposure of lack of common sense? Whatever it is it seems to be contagious.
Last time I checked GT weren’t Big 4, number 7 actually, just for clarity’s sake.
So they work hard, they are worth it!
Completely false
Talking of bullshit…..
Which one, EY?
If you did, it was 30 years ago, Boomer.
Adults need summer break too.
Apply this everywhere possible.
Do they get paid for that day???
no
Yes because they are on an annual salary not an hourly rate.
Unless they come from an island in the Pacific. Then they are lucky if the employer pays their pension and health insurance.