Layoff warning '24: Deloitte scares its employees with business update meetings

The following post is republished from AccountingWEB, a source for accounting news, information, tips, tools, resources and insights – everything you need to succeed and have fun in the accounting profession.

Since there was no workspace in the housing authority office of a large city, the inspection team was provided with tables and chairs in the hallway of a renovated apartment building that connected the swinging door to the elevators. In the middle of winter in a bayside city, the wind blew into the hallway, dropping the temperature to near freezing. Dressed in parkas, scarves, wool hats and gloves, the inspection team struggled through the assignment.

When auditing rural hospitals, accounting firm staff were usually assigned a patient room as a workspace because there was no room for them in the hospital office. This year, no patient rooms were available, so they were sent to the morgue! Steel tables and high stools were their quarters. Formaldehyde, corpses wrapped in sheets, and the coroner's circular saw greeted them every day.

The auditors of a plumbing company were assigned a dark, damp room in the basement as their workspace. The room was two flights of stairs and several hundred meters away from the accounting office.

Two examiners were assigned a workstation at a desk directly opposite the examiner. The examiner smoked, they did not.

I could tell more true stories and I suspect you could add your experiences to this list of inadequate fieldwork environments. Here are some obvious questions:

1. Have these scenarios led to an increase in the time fees for the missions?
2. Who was responsible for correcting or preventing these circumstances?
3. When should corrective action be taken?
4. What measures should have been taken?

Question 1: Of course, the time fees were increased! The housing authority auditors said the audit took almost twice as long as it was supposed to. The hospital auditors lost numerous hours going out for fresh air and throwing up in the toilet! Going back and forth to the accounting office wasted an enormous amount of time even though the team lost weight. Not only was the health of the non-smokers affected, they also wasted time leaving the room to discuss exam questions and securing all work papers and electronic devices every time they left the room.

Question 2: The accountants in charge of these assignments were responsible for carrying out the field work, but their influence was not great enough to persuade management to change their scope of work. It was the responsibility of the assignment managers to talk to management to correct the situation.

Question 3: If the workplace cannot be improved internally, a nearby motel room, an RV parked outside a client's building, or an electronic air cleaner could do the trick. The cost of these alternatives is likely far less than the non-billable waste of time.

Question 4: This is a planning activity! The field supervisor should set up a suitable workplace before starting field work. The operational profits can be increased significantly by foresight and setting up a suitable workplace!