fired dozens of employees for simultaneously running two online courses

Productivity experts have long warned about the dangers of multitasking at work, but they add one more: Doing two things at once can cost you your job. At least, this is what happened with dozens of employees of the consulting firm EY (Ernest & Young) in the United States, who, according to Financial Timesit would be discovered that he was conducting two online trainings at the same time.

Fired for multitasking. According to Economic Digital, several employees of the consulting firm were fired without notice due to what they consider to be serious violations of work ethics. “Our core values ​​of integrity and ethics underpin everything we do. Appropriate disciplinary action has recently been taken in a small number of cases where individuals were found to have violated our global code of conduct and US study policies.” – EY explained in a statement sent to Financial Times.

Apparently, the consultants attended two online training sessions at the same time. The fired employees claimed that no one told them they weren’t allowed to do this and that they were simply trying to take advantage of two interesting classes that were being offered.

Courses one after another. The consultants assured that Financial Times They did this with the intention of getting the most out of the training. “The EY Ignite marketing emails actually encouraged us to participate in as many classes as our schedule allowed. We all worked with three instructors. I was hoping to hear new ideas that could help differentiate me from others,” he said. Financial Times one of the employees was fired from the consulting firm.

However, according to the American newspaper, EY included a very clear warning at the end of those emails referred to by the terminated employees: “(…) complete this training activity in good faith, including your presence throughout all content and interactions with the class. You are not expected to acquire any other knowledge while completing this assignment,” the email reads.

Training is required. Consulting firm EY requires its employees to complete a number of courses and training to keep their skills and knowledge up to date. Trainings are held annually as part of the program “EY Ignite training week“, a week dedicated exclusively to this task.

Training is based on a credit system, in which each course counts towards 40 training credits that each employee must complete. And all this during your working hours. Doing two workouts at the same time allowed them to save time on getting those credits, but they weren’t actually training.

Multitasking is our daily bread. As the sanctioned employees explained, the high speed of work of the consulting firm promotes multitasking. “If you are forced to bill for 45 hours a week and do many more hours of internal work, how can you not do it?” said one laid-off employee.

Another of the victims expressed surprise at the reason for the dismissal. “The colleague called (the client) twice and turned the camera on and off depending on who he was talking to. If that’s unethical, then so is this,” he complained in statements to the American newspaper.

The real reason: to avoid another fine. In 2022, consulting firm EY had to accept a $100 million sanction imposed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) when company employees were found to have cheated on ethics reviews conducted by consulting firms to maintain your privacy. Certified Public Accountant (CPA) license. Since then, to prevent a recurrence of the incidents, the consulting firm has tightened ethical standards for its employees regarding training and examinations.

“These actions involve a breach of trust by supervisors within the oversight body tasked with auditing many of our nation’s public companies. It is simply outrageous that the same professionals responsible for detecting customer fraud cheated on, among other things, ethics exams,” Gurbir said. S. Grewal, director of the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, in a statement.

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