Corporate University

As submitted to the Company's Internal Employee Newsletter I have a significant other of sorts. The term sounds a bit too serious, so I typically call him my manpanion. My manpanion used to work at a company that Deloitte audits. At dinner one night, he chuckles to himself. I inquire about what is so funny. He says, “We had an audit kickoff meeting today, and your Deloitte guy introduces himself as a senior.” He is waiting for me to laugh with him, but I don’t understand the punch line. Manpanion explains, “We were like - Senior? Senior what? Like you used to be a junior, but now you’re a senior?” Manpanion continues, “What like you have a campus (1) and your soccer team (2) is playing against KPMG for the state title? No, you guys probably have like Math competitions or chess tournaments with them. You race to look up accounting references (3). Beat PWC in the semifinals. Haha, you sign each others’ yearbooks (4)? You write ‘Freshmen suck. Class of ’06 rules. Keep in touch’?” I didn’t really know how to respond to this exaggerated imagination my manpanion had of Deloitte, but then the more I thought about it, when I diagrammed his diatribe, I realized,

1. They were building a Deloitte University campus.


2. One year, I did play on a volleyball team against other accounting firms. Also, I once knew a guy who played on an international Deloitte soccer team.


3. In college, I participated in the Deloitte tax case competition, where you do a mock tax case and research the Internal Revenue Code.


4. When I left one engagement, I received a yearbook of sorts made out of the 10-K for the client, filled with pictures and yearbook-like personal notes. So for all his fanciful imaginations and jokes, his perception may have been more accurate than he realized. Well, I am off to finish up the rest of my finals projects… er um… audit workpapers for my busy season clients.