Fired EY employees slam company’s ‘culture of multitasking’ after training course controversy

Former EY employees are speaking out against their terminations for watching multiple training courses simultaneously, highlighting what they describe as contradictions in the company’s work culture.
“We all work with three monitors,” one dismissed employee told the Financial Times, noting that EY’s own marketing emails had encouraged staff to “join as many sessions as our schedule allowed” during the company’s Ignite Learning Week in May.
Several terminated staff members pointed to what they saw as double standards in EY’s workplace practices. One former employee revealed to the Financial Times that they knew of “a partner who will do two client calls and switch their camera on and off depending on who he is talking to,” questioning why such behaviour wasn’t considered equally unethical.
Another ex-employee criticised EY’s demanding work environment, telling the Financial Times: “If you are forced to bill 45 hours a week and do many more hours of internal work, how can it not breed a culture of multitasking?”
On Reddit, reactions to the firings were equally critical, with one user commenting they had “dodged a bullet” by not working at the firm. Other social media users criticised the company’s strict stance on the training violations in light of what they called “past ethical mishaps.”
The terminated employees maintain they received no prior warning that attending multiple courses simultaneously was prohibited. The courses, which included topics such as “How strong is your digital brand in the marketplace?” and “Conversing with AI, one prompt at a time,” were part of required professional education credits.
EY has defended its actions, describing the terminations as “appropriate disciplinary action” for violations of the company’s global code of conduct and US learning policy. The firm has since updated its guidance for training events, explicitly requiring staff to “be present for all content and class interactions.”
The dismissed employees were not provided severance packages, according to reports.