KPMG staff fired after rowdy ‘boys’ night out’ featuring binge drinking and strippers
Staff from KPMG’s private equity division in Melbourne were fired after a wild ‘boys’ night out’ that featured heavy binge drinking and strippers.
A 2015 video invitation to ‘boys’ night’, sent to 80 male employees at KPMG’s Melbourne office, with women excluded, has just recently come to light.
According to the Mail Online, the video described how one staff member had crawled through his own vomit at a previous outing, and that a stripper was allegedly paid for via KPMG expenses to stop her going public about the debauchery.
KPMG staff were fired in 2018 after the Big Four firm discovered the video invitation, an investigation then began at the firm and steps were taken in the hope of improving the company’s workplace culture, including hiring more women.
In the video, one participant claimed he had been paying a stripper’s wages via his expenses for 12 months, adding: “We had no choice, she was going to go public… We had to put [it] on the books.”
KPMG CEO Gary Wingrove told the Daily Mail Australia: “As soon as this was uncovered in 2018, I ensured it was investigated straight away and took disciplinary actions, including people exiting.
“At the time we also strongly reinforced with our partners and people that there is no tolerance for this behaviour in our organisation. The conduct was totally unaligned with our values.”
A transcript of the video seen by The Australian Financial Review revealed senior employees would buy shots for their graduate colleagues at the event, leaving them “s***faced before 6.30pm” and “vomiting through their noses”.
Another participant boasted that attendees at one ‘boys’ night’ were left so “f***ed up” they suffered from traumatic stress and had to undergo an employee assistance programme.