Bafflingly, a Manager at a Top 10 Firm Agreed to Work the Weekend After Her Last Day

A blind item from the front:

It has come to my attention that a manager in the [redacted] office of [redacted] is leaving the firm. Her last day is officially this Friday. The two partners have asked her to come in the Saturday and Sunday after her official last day, and she has agreed. I can't believe she is going to work the extra days. I am ashamed to say that I work for this firm. It's an absolute atrocity the likes of which I've never seen in public accounting before. These partners already have a reputation of being slave masters. They have never been able to keep people for very long because of the way they abuse and mistreat them. This is just another extreme example of their mistreatment of employees. I have seen many people leave the firm over the years. I have never seen someone work the weekend after their official end date. I don't even think she is going to get paid for the two extra days. I do understand that it is the middle of busy season, but I also know that there are people in the same office not working Saturdays and Sundays. The partners are showing everyone in the firm how little they respect their employees. They are rubbing our faces in it. All the garbage about work life balance and the firms most important asset (their people) is a lie. I've known this all along, but I think this case crosses a line that shouldn't be crossed. The manager should leave the firm on Friday and enjoy her two days off before she starts her new industry job on Monday. I don't know if the other partners or the HR manager in the office are aware of this horrible situation. If they are, they are letting everyone down, and they are no better than the partners.

Not long after receiving the initial email, the tipster frantically emailed again to say that (s)he didn't want the office location and firm to be known because "I think it would be too easy to figure out who wrote this." (S)he also admitted to being "pissed" when the email was written due to "all the busy season stress" and "If there are too many details, things will get bad for a lot of people in the office." As you can see, I've accomodated the requests although we do like details around here, it still seemed worthy of a post/blind item. And btw, emotional emails make for good reading so send them in.

But as for this particular situation, I can't feel sorry for this manager. Yes, these partners sound like typical dicks that would would ask you to work the weekend after your last day but no one is putting a gun to this manager's head. By all accounts, this person made the decision by her own free will and while I don't understand the decision, I do know that she could have told the partners that she was spending the weekend preparing for her new job or washing her hair or simply telling them to fuck off were also options.

Why would an otherwise rational person choose to do this? She already has a new job, so what's the point of going above and beyond the call of duty? Maybe she's spineless. Maybe the partners are extremely convincing. Maybe she actually like these two pricks and doesn't mind helping them out before she leaves them high and dry. Maybe she's a cyborg and the two extra days of work will simply require an extra re-charge. Who the hell knows? I, for one, have stopped trying to figure out why accountants do the strange things that they do and it's pretty ridiculous to state that this the "another extreme example of their mistreatment of employees," and is another example of bizarre accountant behavior.


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