- Poor Work Culture: The firm’s culture has changed significantly, especially post-restructure. The “people-first” mindset that initially set BDO apart years ago has been replaced with what feels like a relentless focus on revenue and growth, and being competitive with the Big 4.
- High Turnover: Leadership turnover has been extremely high even at the partner level. It became so frequent that they had to develop an offboarding plan specifically for partners.
- Metric Managers, Not People Leaders: A number of leaders placed into key roles in recent years are more focused on reports and optics than people or outcomes, pushing increasingly unrealistic goals onto already overextended teams.
- Compensation: This has always been an issue. The firm expects employees to wear multiple hats but rarely pays them in line with the workload or responsibility.
- Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP): While promoted as a positive initiative, this seems to have only intensified the pressure on teams. After the firm took on $1.3 billion in private credit to fund the ESOP, it feels like everyone left is paying the price with constant budget cuts, heavier workloads, and fewer resources. The partners seem to be the only ones who benefited from its rollout as they received massive payouts.
- Low Employee Morale: Layoffs, budget cuts, and shrinking support systems have made it hard to keep up morale, especially when long-time employees are stretched to their limits.
