PricewaterhouseCoopers Colleagues Rating New Woman Hires

Accounting Firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) of Dublin had a very interesting tradition for new women hires. According to “Accountants Caught in E-mail Chain Rating Female Employees” by Mary Plummer, a few junior male staffers would email a top 10 list of the women based on their attractiveness and it included their photos. This email was then forwarded to other men in the company. The women on the list were entry-level employees.

PWC found out about the emails due to the story leak in an Irish newspaper. Unfortunately, for the women mentioned in the emails, their photos have been published in newspapers throughout Great Britain and Ireland.

The response from PWC is from spokeswoman Johanna Dehaene:

"We're taking this extremely seriously at the highest level of the firm… We obviously regret this has happened…the impact has been compounded by the printing of the photographs”… [Dehaene] adding that the company has met with the women several times. "The focus here at PricewaterhouseCoopers is on supporting the women."

This incident brings about two important topics: work environment and privacy.

Work Environment

The idea of finding a colleague attractive is part of human nature. Rating female employees and circulating this rating amongst other colleagues creates a de facto environment in which new women hires are judged solely on looks. PWC most likely didn’t advocate for these emails but new hires would have viewed the emails as a representation of the work environment. This could have been just superficiality but, as far as it has been reported, colleagues have not done this to men. If it was reported that men were also rated, then all employees were subjected to this judgment and the environment is simply superficial. But this story reports women as the subjects of the emails and judged by male colleagues; hence, most will view this as sexism. Understand that if female colleagues had done this to men, it would also be wrong.

It was reported that PWC previously had a sexual harassment case they lost, which doesn’t stop people from making obvious assumptions against the company. Either way the environment of the company is not welcoming for new hires and leaves the impression that unprofessionalism is acceptable. The company is going to have to fix their public image and convince prospective employees that rating emails will not happen and is not part of company culture.

Privacy

Company owned anything is not your property. You have no privacy using company owned communication. You use a company phone, your calls and texts can be recorded and replayed/read; Emails fall under the same guideline. Company emails can be recorded and read by anyone within the company. If you get caught doing something stupid like rating employees, bad mouthing a colleague, boss, or employer, or revealing confidential information, don't cry “how dare you look through my private emails”. And if you receive a compromising text, phone call, or email over company communication, do your career a favor and don’t respond.

This is a sad story for PWC. But it will be a good challenge for whomever they hire for crisis management. Privacy can only be reasonably expected from an employer; company communication cannot be part of that expectation. Company culture and environment affect the level of dedication, professionalism, and efficiency the company is going to receive from their employees. Hopefully, PWC will give support to the women mentioned in the emails and their employees have also learned the consequences of stupid company emails.