Latest news with #BigFour
Irish Times
a day ago
- Business
- Irish Times
PwC keeps tight rein on Irish staff's office attendance
Big Four accountancy group PwC is monitoring staff attendance at its Irish offices, according to current and former staff. It comes in the wake of reports that the firm's UK office uses a traffic-light system to monitor staff compliance with an instruction to work from the office or client sites three days every week. Staff who slip below 60 per cent of required days are flagged as orange. They are moved to red if they attend for fewer than 40 per cent of mandated days. Staff who breach the policy can face formal sanctions, with their performance evaluations and bonuses potentially affected, according to guidance for staff seen by the Financial Times, which said some staff had expressed unease about the approach. PwC's Dublin staff say a similar regime operates in the Irish offices. People were required to reach their quota of in-office days each week, they said, and are not allowed flexibility to average the three days a week over, say, a month-long period. READ MORE Staff living far from Dublin under previous hybrid work arrangements were told they had no choice but to make themselves available in the office three times a week. 'It's here around a year now and is tracked incredibly closely,' said a former staff member. One current staff member confirmed the monitoring scheme was in place in the office but was observed with differing levels of diligence by different teams. A spokeswoman for PwC noted that 'working together three days a week (in the office or at a client site) has been the position for a long time'. She added: 'Coming out of last summer (2024), we did set this as an expectation for all groups. We do ask all our teams to comply with this.' The firm operates a swipe-card system, allowing it to monitor office presence. However, it was not prepared to discuss how it kept track of people using the prescribed three days a week to visit clients. [ Working from home 'trending upwards' despite moves to bring workers back to the office Opens in new window ] The UK firm traces laptop wifi connections to check whether employees are working at client sites on the days they say they are, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. The battle over office attendance in Ireland is heating up. AIB met significant staff opposition in July when it altered hybrid working arrangements. And the Financial Services Union earlier this month instructed its members in Bank of Ireland to ignore any instruction from bank bosses to increase office attendance until agreement was reached with the union.
Forbes
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Forbes
Everything To Know About Megadeth's Farewell And Final Album
The thrash metal pioneers Megadeth, announced that their upcoming LP will not only be their final studio album, but it will also kickoff their global farewell tour. For nearly four decades, Megadeth has been one of the most influential and revered bands in the genre. As a part of thrash metal's 'Big Four' (alongside Metallica, Slayer, and Anthrax), Megadeth has played a monumental role in shaping the sound of heavy music. Depsite the band going through a myriad of lineups throughout its career, Megadeth has always been the brainchild of founder and lead songwriting Dave Mustaine. Like any band that has released 17 studio ablums, there are only so many album-tour cycles one can withstand before it's just time to hang up the hat, and what better way to do that than on their own terms. Megadeth Announce 'The End Is Near' In message sent out to Megadeth's fan mailing list, Megadeth's Dave Mustaine put out the following statement: 'There's so many musicians that have come to the end of their career, whether accidental or intentional. Most of them don't get to go out on their own terms on top and that's where I'm at in my life right now. I have traveled the world and have made millions upon millions of fans and the hardest part of all of this is saying goodbye to them. We can't wait for you to hear this album and see us on tour. If there was ever a perfect time for us to put out a new album, it's now. If there was ever a perfect time to tour the world, it's now. This is also a perfect time for us to tell you that it's our last studio album. We've made a lot of friends over the years and I hope to see all of you on our global farewell tour. Don't be mad, don't be sad, be happy for us all, come celebrate with me these next few years. We have done something together that's truly wonderful and will probably never happen again. We started a musical style, we started a revolution, we changed the guitar world and how it's played and we changed the world. The bands I played in have influenced the world. I love you all for it. Thank you for everything.' Megadeth's final LP has been in production since November 2024 and in June 2025 Mustaine reported that the album was nearing it's final stages in recording. However, unlike most of Megadeth's previous LPs, The End Is Near won't be releasing via Universal Music Group, but instead will be released via a partnership with Mustaine's label Tradecraft and Frontiers Label Group. With the album likely being already finished, Megadeth are probably eyeing an early 2026 release timeline. Right now the band is gearing up for an extensive fall EU tour supporting Disturbed which will conclude October 28th. With that in mind, it doesn't seem plausible for Megadeth to drop the album in 2025, as they'll ideally want to kick off their headlining farewell tour and support the LP simultaneously. Furthermore, Megadeth has announced pre-orders for the album will be begin 42 days from now, which likely means it's releasing in early 2026. As Dave Mustaine states, Megadeth's final album-tour cycle will be over the course of multiple years. It appears this will in fact be Megadeth's final album and tour, but as other thrash metal icons have demonstrated, specifically Slayer with their mis-leading farewell in 2018-2019, a farewell tour isn't always indicative of retirement.
New Straits Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Straits Times
#SHOWBIZ: HK singer Andy Hui celebrates birthday with wife Sammi Cheng
HONG KONG: Singer Andy Hui has wrapped up his three-day 'Big Four Happy To See You All' concert series at the Hong Kong Coliseum. After the finale on Aug 11, his boy band Big Four—which also includes Dicky Cheung, William So, and Edmond Leung—announced they weren't ready to stop, revealing plans for a year-end tour. During the concert's final night, fans surprised Hui with an early birthday celebration. This left him visibly moved and momentarily speechless with joy. The celebrations continued the next day when Hui turned 58. His wife, popular artiste Sammi Cheng, hosted an intimate birthday dinner at a restaurant, with the other Big Four members and close friends in attendance. A video shared on Xiaohongshu shows Hui beaming with joy as he and Cheng, 52, held a birthday cake together, surrounded by loved ones singing 'Happy Birthday'. After the song ended, the couple, who married in 2013, shared a tender gaze before blowing out the candles together. Netizens have since flooded the comments with birthday wishes for Hui, with many also gushing over the couple's sweet interaction. Fans have noted that Hui and Cheng appear to have fully reconciled after their 2019 estrangement, which was caused by his affair with actress Jacqueline Wong. The scandal broke after Hui was caught on video kissing Wong in a taxi.
The Star
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Star
HK singer Andy Hui celebrates 58th birthday with wife Sammi Cheng and friends
Hong Kong artiste Andy Hui celebrated his 58th birthday with his wife Sammi Cheng and a few close friends on Aug 12. Photos: China Press Hong Kong singer Andy Hui recently concluded his three-day Big Four Happy To See You All concert series at the Hong Kong Coliseum. After the Aug 11 finale, Big Four – the boy band comprising Hui, Dicky Cheung, William So and Edmond Leung – said they weren't ready to call it a night, announcing plans for a year-end tour. That evening, fans surprised Hui with an early birthday celebration, leaving him visibly moved and momentarily speechless with joy. The celebrations continued on Aug 12, when Hui turned 58. His wife, renowned artiste Sammi Cheng, hosted an intimate birthday dinner at a restaurant, with the Big Four members and other close friends in attendance. A video shared on Xiaohongshu captured Hui beaming with joy as he and Cheng, 52, held the birthday cake together, surrounded by loved ones singing the birthday song. After the final note, the pair – who tied the knot in 2013 – shared a tender gaze before blowing out the candles together. Many netizens have flooded the comments with birthday wishes for Hui, while others couldn't help but gush over the couple's sweet interaction.
Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Times
PwC tracks wi-fi and passes to monitor staff office attendance
PwC, the Big Four accountant, has introduced a 'traffic light' system to ensure staff are meeting a mandate to attend the office at least three days a week. The dashboard uses pass swipes and wi-fi connections to determine whether workers are 'amber', if their office attendance falls below 60 per cent, or 'red' if it dips under 40 per cent. The attendance data, which went live for supervisors in April, can be seen by business unit leaders and chief financial, administrative and people officers. Staff can also access their own data. The firm also traces laptop wi-fi connections and cross references the information with data from the HR platform Workday and employees' time sheets to establish whether staff are working on client's sites. The policy applies to all 19 offices across the UK and Ireland run by PwC UK, which has about 23,000 employees. A senior staff member told the Financial Times, which first reported the system, that they had 'lost count' of the number of colleagues who had raised concerns. Staff whose attendance is not up to scratch can face formal sanctions, affecting their performance evaluations and bonuses, PWC confirmed. Last September, the accounting and consulting firm told staff it required them to work in the office or at a client site at least three days a week, and that they would monitor this in a way akin to billable hours. A PWC spokeswoman said: 'There are clear benefits to in-person work for both our people and clients, and we have seen these borne out since adjusting our approach to hybrid working at the beginning of this year. 'The dashboard ensures our people have easy access to their attendance data, so they can manage and plan their time in a way that works for them, our teams and our clients. We remain committed to flexibility, including the option for people to condense their usual working hours and finish early on Friday lunchtime for six weeks in the summer.' PwC said its approach was 'consistent' with other businesses. Rival EY started monitoring office attendance using swipe card data last year. Deloitte's approach is split between its UK arm, which has no minimum office attendance, and its US arm, which announced in March that swipe card data would be used to determine performance reviews and bonuses. Phillippa O'Connor, chief people officer at PwC, told the Lords committee on home-based working in April: 'We have not seen any impact on recruitment in the round. It is asked about in recruitment processes, so I think people are very alive to it as part of the contract now.'
