An Allens partner failing his employee

First, Allens terminated the office tea-ladies. Second, the partners decided to cancel the Christmas party. Then, to compound firm disillusionment even further, the Melbourne office decided to shelve plans to relocate offices to the opulent development at 567 Collins Street in preference for the lousy offices vacated by Blake Dawson at 101 Collins.

But it appears that all of these cost-cutting measures have not been enough.  Managing partner Michael Rose has today annouced a raft of new measures attempting to cut costs further. These measures include offering voluntary redundancies, widening flexible working arrangements and enforcing a now-familiar pay-freeze.

Incredibly, in explaining the move to freeze pay, Rose commented:

We have had a very strong year. We think we have outperformed the market… [and] there has been a flight to quality… in areas like insolvency and litigation, we anticipate there will be more activity …

These comments aroused several critical responses forwarded yesterday to the Firm Spy, including the following from an AAR spy:

The fact that the firm has had a strong year suggests to me that the partners are taking an irresponsibly conservative view to the financial climate. People, myself included, have calculated a pay-rise into their personal budget… In my view, the partners should actually wait to see a drop in their personal revenue before taking such drastic measures which affect the lives of all staff.

Do you believe partners should ‘wait and see’? Or should partners cut back first and ask questions later? Do you believe Allens staff are being short-changed, given the predictions for increased work-flows and the ‘strong year’ it has just achieved?

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