Right, I've had enough of this! Why is there such excessive EY-bashing on this thread? What makes everyone claim they apparently going bust / horrible to work for / generally responsible for all of the world's ills?I work at EY. I quite like it. Sometimes it is rubbish, sometimes it is great. This is no different from the experiences of my friends at other Big 4 firms.So there.

Correction: meant "on this forum" not "on this thread". Though it may well start soon

Looks like someone's cracking.I've heard they sniff out the weak ones first, easy targets for VR.

Excessive is a relative term. Given that most EY BAS-bashing on this forum is done by EY employees*, it seems that not everyone is so happy. Anecdotally, three friends who left ACN (no hive of great minds itself) to go to BAS back in 2005/6 have all now left, citing the low calibre of consultants and the "nasty" (I quote) culture. By their accounts, putting up with these downsides does not bring any benefits - recruitment consultants treat time spent at EY as a CV blemish and actually encouraged one to "de-emphasise" (i.e. pretend it was a three year career break) it when interviewing for other consulting jobs.* random sample of 10 EY-bashing threads, just over 65% of posters ID'd themselves as EY

I've always taken the EY-bashing threads with a significant pinch of salt, since these rarely represent what I've experienced here.For example, I really dispute the "nasty" culture criticism. I may have been incredibly lucky, but in the last 2.5 years I’ve only had good experiences, still genuinely enjoy working here and have not been aware of any of the nepotism often levelled at BAS on the forum. I also think it's significant that BAS is still investing in building a strong culture though their regular BAS-wide “Timeout” events.There. I’ve said it. I’m a BAS lover.

Perhaps someone should start a "BAS lovers" self-help group here.

Not many BAS lovers in F&PM, unless you’re a failed IBM employee, in which case you’ll have a long and illustrious career.As for the Timeout events, these “enforced fun” occasions are so painful they could make David Brent cringe.

If you hate it so much then stop spending your time on the forum whining and do something more productive like getting a new job. If an away-day and an opportunity to have some beers with colleagues is really such a painful event then you're in the wrong place.And the IBM thing is a bit of a red herring. We all have our views on the current leadership (good and not so good) and that's normal. Also no arguments that there have clearly been a couple of seriously dud IBM recruits at the senior end of things. However, there is no evidence at all that not coming from IBM is any impediment to getting promoted and doing well or equally that coming from IBM gives you any kind of golden pass. Stop perpetuating a myth ...

Agree with the comment about the dud hires from IBM. Very few of the ex-IBMers are any good.Hopefully the redundancies will see some of them leave quickly.

" Looks like someone's cracking. I've heard they sniff out the weak ones first, easy targets for VR. "Particularly the ones that think that figures of speech they learned watching Friends are useful on this side of the Atlantic. Enough...already - P45 worthy.

What is the deal with all the IBM bashing on this thread? If you don’t like it in BAS, you can “Fit in, or Frog off”!Some of our best people and methodologies came from IBM. There is no shame in this.

Actually I reckon there is too much E&Y bashing on this forum.If faced with the dilemna (pleased to say I'm not), I'd rather work at E&Y than at KPMG. That said the 4 day week thing at KPMG appeals to me).In fact I'm very content doing a 0 day week at KPMG. Perhaps if I send them an invoice on either a Mon, Tues, Weds or Thurs it might be possible to convince them to pay it. When asked 'Which days did you work' the answer will be simple 'Fridays!'