Curious what others think about this: a friend of mine has a couple of months of leave this fall to study for the CPA exam (they’ll be paid a reduced salary during their leave), but they mentioned they have no intention of studying for the exam, and instead plan to use that time to look for another job. This rubs me the wrong way, but wanted to hear what others think…

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Posting as :
works at
You are currently posting as works at

Its a bit dishonest true. But in grand scheme of things I can't fault him. Our firms wait until the end of busy season to do lay offa or even performance terminations. Which imo is no different to what your friend is doing from moral perspective. Putting yourself and your interests ahead of the interests of your employer.

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I’m fine with ppl taking advantage of their employer lol. Will they pass the cpa exam/are they making the best move? Who knows.

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I think that he won’t pass the CPA with that mentality.

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Why not work FT and job search during lunch and get paid your 100%? However, yeah lying isn’t the right thing to do, cpa exam is very important. Just study 😂

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Surprised everyone thinks this is weird, I feel like that’s totally fair. It’s up to them how they want to spend their leave time, they’re an adult.

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When you take a sabbatical, generally you are expected to work full time for at least the amount of time you were away. If you leave the company, you have to pay back the salary you earned while on leave.

OP your friend might want to read the fine print. I know this is the reason I didn't take a sabbatical a few years back, and took extended PTO instead.

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That is not the case for PwC. There is no rule about working after a sabbatical.

Who cares, firms take advantage of us everyday. And it’s not like they’re getting paid 100%, they took a pay cut.

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Genius 🤣

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I agree this feels dishonest, but also don’t see why he can’t study for the CPA exam and put out feelers for a new job, therefore still sticking to the CPA study plan story. No one I’ve known has spent 24 hours a day for months searching for a job so he should still have plenty of time to study. 

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The is a classic example something that if everyone did, it would ruin a good thing. Seems like a good program offered by the firm to help give young employees some income while they study. Obviously one person taking advantage of this won’t ruin a firm, but if anyone starts doing it the firms will probably have to alter their program.

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As long as employment is at-will, what's stopping them? Is it that much different from someone taking PTO right before they leave or going on parenting leave and not coming back? Personally, I would feel bad outright lying, but as someone else said, the firms often don't hesitate to wait until after a deadline to let someone go, so I'm not sure the level of dishonesty is much different.

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Sounds like they are taking a sabbatical, which is ok to do, and likely because they are burned out. It can be very scary to tell the firm that you are in such a bad spot that you need an extended amount of time off (I know, I have done it). I don’t fault them for using the CPA as an excuse to avoid an uncomfortable discussion and look for another job. At the end of the day, we owe the firms we work for NOTHING. We owe ourselves everything. If this person thinks that this is the best move for themselves both professionally and mentally, then I’m happy that they have the opportunity to do it. Try not to overthink and let someone else’s decisions bother you. We are all just trying to stay afloat in our own ways.

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I did the same thing sort of? I studied and also did interviews. Put my two weeks in to align with exam day.

They could’ve just stayed full-time and then spend most of the day job searching instead of actually working like I’m doing💀

Whether they explain the reason for taking a sabbatical or for vacation or for whatever reason it was likely to be granted regardless. I took extended sabbaticals 3 years in a row just to travel so from that perspective it doesn’t really matter the reason

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