@theaussiecorporate has found a newly prominent place in the hearts and minds of young corporate Aussies amid the ongoing scandals surrounding the consulting and accounting sectors.
Amidst the ongoing furore surrounding PwC’s tax leaking scandal — and the almost farcical follow-up story that the Australian government has now hired consultants to advise them on how to better employ consultants – working at one of the nation’s top-flight firms has gone from being a badge of honour to a surprisingly hard slog, especially for those at the more junior end of the foodchain.
This malaise amongst the corporate workforce has allowed one particular Instagram page — The Aussie Corporate — to rush in and fill the newly created void in the hearts and souls of flagging employees. The page acts both as a communication hub for these employees — who can air their many grievances anonymously through DMs — and a meme page whereby they can let off a little steam by laughing at the many irritating intricacies of their workplaces.
📧 Like This Story? Sign Up For Our Newsletter 📧
This can cover many dimensions of corporate life, from the cognitive dissonance of having to adopt entirely incongruous personalities in and outside of work to the harsh realities of working many a late night or even satirising the apparently endless corporate gibberish that saturates the offices of the CBD.
As well as offering a laughing cure, the page is also supported by a surprisingly comprehensive and useful website that offers profiles on all the top firms as well as detailing salaries, after-hours policies and parental leave policies used at those firms.
All this allows prospective employees a chance to really understand what they’re getting into as well as giving current inmates a better understanding of what they’re entitled to; this makes it much easier for them to avoid the potential abuses that become all too normalised in some corporate settings, having hugely detrimental effects on people’s mental health, as epitomised in the tragic EY incident last year.
Most recently, the page has really gotten its teeth into the PwC tax scandal, wherein the firm was discovered to have been leaking government tax secrets to a number of its clients in order to help them reduce tax outgoings. The resulting layoffs (which are monitored on the page’s dedicated Layoff Tracker) along with the creation of spin-off firm Scyne Advisroy have, you’ll be unsurprised to hear, provided bountiful inspiration for well-received memes.
Ultimately, what the page really offers — besides a good laugh and a chance to review your contract with newly-opened eyes — is some much-needed solidarity amongst a section of the workforce who — thanks to high-pressure work environments, questionable workplace culture, and a competitive edge that cuts through the organisation and its staff in equal measure — find themselves feeling increasingly isolated, especially after those harder days on the tools.
We spoke to a mid-level employee at one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting firms about their favourite aspects of the page:
“Some of the best things they post are the ‘feel good’ stories, explaining how despite people’s worst moments and f*ck ups at work they still hang in there and progress”
Anonymous Employee From ‘Big Four’ Accounting Firm
In an age where the presence and power of unions seem to be in a slow and almost irrecoverable decline, pages like this provide an unlikely but important outlet for employees from all walks of life to unite around the one thing they have in common: their work and the many difficulties it brings. While it may not be the key to actually changing corporate culture, it’s a hell of a tool for surviving it.