Deloitte U.K. CEO Says Employee Has Coronavirus

Posted on by Jason Bramwell
exterior of a Deloitte building

In an email to staff on March 3, Deloitte U.K. CEO Richard Houston said one of the firm’s London employees who recently vacationed in Asia has been hospitalized after testing positive for coronavirus, the Financial Times reported.

Deloitte said it was “deep cleaning” one floor of its offices in London but hadn’t quarantined its New Street Square office.

The firm said staff could return to work or they could work from home, according to FT:

Mr Houston said: “We’ve just received confirmation that a colleague . . . has tested positive for Covid-19. Following the diagnosis they are now in hospital and receiving good care.” He added that the news was “unsettling” but reassured staff that Deloitte was working with Public Health England on its response.

Fortune reported last week that in an internal email, EY told all employees to skip “not-client-critical” external events of more than 100 people, and the firm is requiring employees to request to attend “client-critical events” of over 100 attendees.

To boot, the company, which employs 284,000 people globally, is requesting employees cancel or postpone (until April) any internal meetings of more than 25 people (from different offices), instead requesting employees conduct meetings via video or other remote meeting channels. Ernst & Young told Fortune that while these details stand as guidelines, the company is asking employees to check with their risk managers regarding particular meetings or events of larger size.

In addition to new meeting and event protocols, EY expanded its travel ban on outward and inward travel until April 1 to or from South Korea, Japan, and areas in Northern Italy. According to the email, employees who have traveled in the aforementioned areas (plus China, Hong Kong, and Macau indefinitely) are being instructed to self-quarantine for 14 days, at least until April 1. Ernst & Young told Fortune in a statement that “The safety and wellbeing of all EY people, clients and communities remains our primary concern,” and that EY is “monitoring this situation closely and will be updating guidance as developments warrant” in accordance with local government and WHO guidelines.

Also, a Redditor posted on r/accounting today that EY has canceled all firm-wide recruiting events as a precautionary measure.

Deloitte employee in London tests positive for coronavirus [Financial Times]
Coronavirus crackdown: How companies like Ernst & Young are going to extremes to avoid infections [Fortune]

Related article:

Grant Thornton Economist Says Coronavirus Is an ‘Economic Pandemic’

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Comp Watch ’11: Happy New Year’s Eve Deloitte!

It’s the final day of fiscal 2011 in GreenDotville and it seems fitting that we have a little comp discussion:

Word is coming out of the senior manager meeting last week that raises and bonuses are going to be “very good” this year. Of course, those are just rumors, and that’s what the firm said in 2009 when comp increases averaged less than 1% across the board. Other than the mid-year salary bump last fall, there have been no raises, bonuses, or any other incentives to keep slaving away since last summer.

As you may know, Deloitte moved to a decentralized audit planning approach this year, causing hundreds (if not thousands) of additional hours to be added to each engagement. With a shortage of seniors and managers as it is, it’s been close to a breaking point for everyone in the audit function. And, of course, it’s an internal mandate, so unlike the glut of work that came as a result of SOX, Uncle-D is unable to recover any of those costs from clients. Senior management is aware of the problem (Steve VanArsdell said it was the worst busy season he’s ever seen in his 36-year career), but as yet no solutions have been offered other than to say that “year 2” of the new approach should be easier.

Interestingly, the Ivory Tower here at D&T has been suspiciously quiet regarding comp and other issues. Consensus among the employees is that they’re panicked and haven’t yet figured out how to dig out of the hole that they dug for themselves over the past few years. They’ve moved up the timetable on the compensation and rating process by a couple of weeks, which means that we’ll be getting our raise and bonus information in early August instead of mid-August this year (to which, most employees have responded with, “BFD”). To most of us working here, it feels like it’s all going to be too little, too late to win back the loyalty of the current workforce here at Uncle D.

But hey, I hear PwC is hiring!

Our tipster sounds pretty glum for a NYE celebration, so if you can cheer him up with contrary rumors, please do so. Of course, you can always corroborate his suspicions if that’s what you’re hearing as well. And don’t forget to drop all your new leaders a good luck email. Everyone deserves a little thumbs-up on the first day in a new job.