Toxic CA firm - Associate PKF International Employee Review

1. Toxic Work Culture: There is significant regionalism and favoritism. If you’re Tamil, you can survive, but others are often mocked. During my time, colleagues were mean, unsupportive, and unwilling to train properly. 2. Poor Work Assignment Practices: Tasks are assigned without considering education, experience, or skills. As a fresher, I was not provided proper training, yet they blamed me for poor quality. If they want high standards, why not hire experienced professionals? Freshers are pressured unnecessarily and blamed later. Colleagues deliberately withhold knowledge or skip teaching critical processes to ensure you don’t surpass them. 3. Unrealistic Expectations: They expect absurd levels of quality from freshers. If you want expertise, hire CAs or other highly qualified professionals instead of blaming freshers for falling short. 4. Constant Demotivation: Employees are demotivated with unfair, untrue negative feedback. Insults are made publicly instead of addressing concerns in private, healthy discussions. They don’t consider if employees are facing knowledge gaps, training issues, or lack of support from colleagues. 5. Unfair Appraisals: Performance appraisals are delayed and unfair. Employees have to chase them for over six months, which feels like a mental trap and adds unnecessary stress. 6. Salary Cuts During Covid: During Covid, salaries were cut drastically—up to 90%. They claimed clients weren’t paying or employees weren’t working enough hours, even though they knew the financial and mental struggles employees were facing. For two months, I received only ₹1,000 each month. 7. Negative Environment: The toxic work environment made me believe I wasn’t good enough. However, I now work at a top MNC in a good role, proving the issue wasn’t with me but with them. Their behavior impacted my mental health to the extent that I had to take a break from work to heal.