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Ramblings

And down goes the market. Again, and again, and again. Stocks are getting pulverized in the US and abroad. 401ks are going down, the populace is cutting down on spending, and retailers are closing down. So how's everything in the big 4 world?
Not so good. Not bad, but not good. A lot of clients are cutting back on fees, when at the same time, the SEC wants more auditing done around the effect of the credit crisis on companies. (Translated: More hours, less $$. ) The big 4 then turned around and laid off/counseled out/fired quite a few employees, even in the audit practice.
A partner told me that the reason for this was not enough people left this year, and so the factory model was thrown out of whack (Not in those words, but that's the essence of it). This made a lot of sense to me, and further legitimizes my audit factory theory. I noticed during the summer/early fall that not too many people left this year, and it was really intriguing given that the last few years had a decent amount of turnover. Sure, the economy was the primary factor, but I get a decent number of recruiting calls every week. Just got some last week. Everyone is still getting them. So why the heck didn't people leave this year? Oh well, thanks for messing up the model!
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