Ernst & Young ladies – are they good looking enough?

It just doesn’t matter how good-looking you are, if you work for Ernst & Young then you will never win this beauty competition.

So there I was spending a pleasant evening looking at the eligibility rules for people who want to enter Miss Texas, or to maybe clarify that a bit, the rules for those ladies that want to enter the Miss Texas USA beauty competition.

Now whilst this may be a prestigious beauty pageant where the winner could go on to become Miss USA and if all goes well then Miss Universe, what exactly does this have to do with finance and business? Or to be more precise, what has this got to do with Ernst & Young?

Well, if you look in the rules and regulations and look past the items which neatly ignore certain discrimination issues such as “must never have given birth to a child” and “must be a naturally born female” there is the phrase “No contestant or any member of their immediate family can be employed by ….  Ernst & Young, or any of its subsidiaries”.

There you go. It doesn’t matter if you’re the most beautiful lady in the world (or should I say most beautiful “naturally born female”), if you work for EY you’re just not going to win Miss Texas USA.

So, any ideas why EY ladies are not eligible to enter?

It’s nothing sinister and in fact it’s all very ethical. It’s down to the fact that EY are the official vote counters for the contest and to avoid any potential accusation of anything underhand such as deliberate miscounting, EY staff cannot enter the competition.

Looking on the bright side for EY staff though there must be some pretty happy gentlemen who have been selected to work on the Miss Texas USA account.