"Come on, Brian. You don't mean that."
"I meant every word of it, Elise. Here, let me repeat it for you: My career will be a total failure if I don't make audit partner. A complete bust, an absolute waste of time even if I wind up as the chief financial officer of a Fortune 500 company. Since I was twelve, all I ever wanted to be was a partner of a Big Four firm."
"Wait a minute, wait a minute. How could you have had that goal when you were twelve?" Elise Winkler asked skeptically. "Most kids that age want to be president or play left field for the Dodgers or be in a punk rock bank. They don't have any idea what a Big Four firm is. How did you know?"
"Because my great uncle-my mom's only uncle on her father's side-was a Deloitte partner. Unfortunately, he died of a massive heart attack just a few weeks before I graduated from college." Brian paused to reflect for a few moments before continuing. "Uncle Bing was big time. Lived in a huge house on a private golf course, drove a Jag, vacationed in Europe, dressed like a million bucks. But the most important thing about him was how cool he was. He had that swagger you only see in someone who is self-made." Brian Reynolds, the senior on the Shapiro Fashions audit engagement, and his three subordinates were having lunch a few blocks from their client's corporate headquarters.
A little more than two weeks remained before the sign-off date for the audit, and Brian insisted each day that the four of them have lunch at a nearby fast-food restaurant to save time. Brian was completing his fourth season as a Big Four auditor while Elise, a staff accountant, was completing her second busy season. The two rookie staff accountants assigned to the audit team, Madeline Bibby and Garrett Burgin, had begun their public accounting careers a few months earlier in mid-September.
"Hey, I'm not suggesting that making partner wouldn't be a great accomplishment, Brian. But, come on. There are a lot of downsides to making partner too."
"Okay, now you're just talking nonsense, Elise. Downsides to being a Big Four partner? Yeah, right!" Brian shook his head disdainfully before taking the final bite of his double cheeseburger.
"I kind of agree with Elise," Madeline said timidly. "Long hours, quite a bit of travel . . . legal liability."
"Okay. That's it. We're done," Brian snapped at no one in particular. The frustrated audit senior reached into his pocket and retrieved his cell phone. "We need to get back because we've already been gone 40 minutes." As Brian began quickly scrolling through his text messages on his cell phone, Madeline glanced at Elise, who shrugged her shoulders. Brian was a gold star member of the "fast track club," a small clique of audit seniors who hung out together after work and during office social engagements. The fast trackers lacked a sense of humor, underreported the hours they worked on their assignments, took work home with them each evening, and shamelessly kowtowed to their superiors while treating their subordinates with thinly veiled indifference.

Questions
1. Should Elise Winkler have reported Brian Reynolds’ dishonesty to Bailey Blanks or Adam Hoban? Why or why not? Place yourself in Elise’s position. How would you have dealt with this matter?
2. Brian Reynolds told Bailey Blanks that he didn’t document certain audit issues in the Shapiro workpapers because he didn’t want to provide a “roadmap” for third parties to criticize decisions made by the Shapiro audit team. Is that a reasonable strategy? Is that strategy consistent with the PCAOB’s auditing standards?
3. On multiple occasions, Brian Reynolds suggested that audit evidence should rise to the level of “fact.” Do you agree? Defend your answer.
4. List, in descending order of importance, the factors you believe, account for the high turnover rates experienced by major accounting firms among their professional employees. What measures can those firms take to mitigate the impact of the factors you identified?