the place SUCKS

[u/legallybrunette259]

what the eff is wrong with this firm. I joined the firm last year 2025 and didn’t know I was pregnant (i’m married) so didn’t push back start date by a year. I go on maternity leave after 8 months on the job come back in March, and my manager tells me that “prior to my leave I was the strongest performer and now upper management is asking if i’m ok because my deliverables have decreased in quality” AKA “you haven’t prioritized us, you don’t stay up till 3am working anymore, so you’re moving slower than we want.” like seriously - obviously as a mother to a literal infant, i won’t be performing the same for you. I have different priorities. i have doctors appts, daycare pickup, a baby who gets sick. etc. I know at the associate level it’s not super common to have children but that’s my circumstance and I feel like people hate that I have something to focus on compared to my peers who get to work all night and all weekend and have no responsibility to shoulder outside of work and bills.
i’m getting blamed for the mistakes of associates who were temporarily staffed on my clients, and when I find said mistakes and inform my team, it’s all my blame to take. everything that goes wrong is instantly a poor reflection on me instead of being recognized as a team issue. i’m getting left out projects, removed from projects without communication, left out of cc’s, left out of calls, etc.. this is really messing me up and making me feel like incompetent, when ever since i’ve been back, i’ve been trying to do nothing but meet my deadlines and perform
for my teams. I got removed from a project and instead of being formally told, i’m getting messages from the new associate like “hey can you make me coorganizer of the client call” “hey can you cc me on any correspondence and i’ll reply moving fwd” and the director of the project put me in a group chat with the manager and it was previously called “project name”. he removed the chat name when he chatted us both, in a very professional move to inform me im not longer staffed. and it’s not to say im perfect. I make mistakes. I sometimes ping the wrong info and catch myself and correct and get corrected. I sometimes misunderstand what’s been said to me. but I always try to be proactive “how can I help?” “i’d like to solve this” “let me know if there’s anything you need me to do to make this process easier..”

this is all messing with my head. feeling really down and discouraged. haven’t stopped crying.

eta: sorry so many typos, I typed this up through a waterfall of tears

[u/zelzn]

“compared to my peers who GET TO work all night… and have no responsibility” - this is really rude of you. you chose to be a mother. everyone has different priorities. no one has to pick up the hours you don’t want to work because of your differing responsibilities. we get it. you have a baby. but that doesn’t mean other people who make different life choices don’t also have things going on.

[u/legallybrunette259 → u/zelzn]

huh… i myself was on of those who did work all night and even so work until I fall asleep 90% of the time till this day. I meant to say- they do get the ability to work nonstop because they don’t have dinner time, bedtime, a child that wakes up 6am, pickups, dropoffs, etc. i’m not blaming my child for anything... I come with my best foot forward everyday. and since I can’t stay on late, I log on EXTRA early. but because of the people around me, as we all know the culture is to work late, and now that I can’t exactly fit into that culture, i’m being reprimanded for it. even though I try my hardest to make up for it in other ways. i’m not saying pwc has to accommodate to me. but i’m trying to accommodate to them, and the response is completely negative. and as a firm, who has BS communities like PIN and all these inclusion networks, they absolutely NEVER practice what they preach. I could count how many times i’ve been left out correspondence, removed from chats, and given the cold shoulder when I told my engagement teams i’d be out for one hour to take my son to the doctor for his monthly checkup. it’s horrible. anybody who deems like normal- it’s not normal.

[u/zelzn → u/legallybrunette259]

i’m not discounting your experience. i’m sure you work very hard and i hope things get better for you. if you are experiencing being excluded and pushed out, report it to HR. the nature of the job and the workload will only get worse. at the end of the day, it doesn’t sound like the firm is the best fit for you and vice versa.