Working 84 hours a week for €24,000 a year: EY auditors complain

Second-year auditors at consulting firm EY's Barcelona headquarters, who are between 23 and 25 years old, have had enough of working up to 84 hours a week (the equivalent of 12 hours a day from Monday to Sunday) for €24,000 a year. According to the newspaper El País this Tuesday, about thirty auditors have informed their bosses of their fatigue and discomfort with these endless days through a collective complaint sent by email. The newspaper specifies that the message was sent last Thursday to the Barcelona office partners and exposed, in addition to fatigue, lack of staff, exaggerated staff turnover or delivery deadlines that are impossible to meet. All this for a salary of €24,000 a year.

Sources in the consultancy firm assured the same newspaper that it is the first time they receive a complaint of this type and argue that these are specific cases and attribute them to "pandemic fatigue". At the same time they say that long days are compensated with days off or overtime pay. On Friday the company called a meeting with junior auditors to discuss the issue.

Same case as Goldman Sachs

The complaint comes weeks after junior analysts at the world's largest US investment bank, Goldman Sachs, reported an even more extreme situation through a survey that went viral on Twitter. In their case they worked up to 105 hours a week (15 hours from Monday to Sunday). They denounced that they slept five hours a day and that their work was affecting their family and friendships. "It's not right for me to work 110-120 hours in a week. The maths is simple: it only leaves me four hours to sleep, eat or shower. This goes beyond the concept of working a lot: it is inhumane, it is an abuse," denounced one of those affected.