I need survey responses for a statistics paper on work life balance in public accounting. Can you help me by doing a quick survey?

EY
Born in 1969
Important to me are varied leadership opportunities, flexibility, ability to work with good, smart, fun, nice professionals, and help them achieve what I have

Work/Life Balance - I am a senior partner. I have tons of it. It is why I stay at EY. I make it to the gym, I cook for my family most nights, I see my kids sporting events. I am a Class Rep for my kids classes. I serve on the Board of a couple of a charity.

I am too close to retirement to leave PA

We expect about 15-20% turnover. The bigger problem for me is that more of that turnover is women. We lose too many good female professionals because they don’t see enough successful women with families. Btw I am a man.

I think data automation will have a small positive effect on work life balance. It will eliminate a lot of the grunt work that often needs to be performed in an office. It will free people up to do more of the bigger thinking that needs to be done and done anywhere.

I wish everyone at EY had the same view about the importance of flexibility that I have. Generally so long as the work gets done, gets done right, gets done on time - I am flexible as to where and when it gets done. We do need to meet as a team from time to time but not all the time

Why would I leave PA-people like pwc2

1) EY
2) Millenial
3) Primarily work-life balance, but also a sense of accomplishment and appreciation from superiors
4) Lack of coaching, teams that don’t support work flexibility
5) I go to the gym 3-4 times a week and try to cook most of my meals. Most importantly I don’t check e-mails after work or on the weekends.
6) As a staff 2, the high turnover and overall unhappy seniors makes me seriously question how long I want to stay in PA as well. Also, it seems that the best people tend to be the ones that leave.
7) I don’t think so. I think data automation will lead to less campus hires, and higher expectations/same if not increased workload for experienced employees
8) If work-life balance were more of a priority for PA, this would greatly help the turnover issue. Yes, I understand busy season and deadlines are a part of the job, but being able to leave on Fridays at 4pm or WFH honestly isn’t too much to ask for.

PwC. Old millennial. Important in my career is advancement opportunities, a challenge, good coworkers, and work life balance. It’s always tempting to leave for a more predictable 9-5 rather than unpredictable client service hours. Maintain balance by working from home when I can, delegating when I can, and not committing to unrealistic deadlines. Turnover - most people want to find a lot of meaning in their work, and it’s hard to articulate the meaning in accounting work. Data automation will help lower time spent on admin (time and expenses, billing clients, scheduling meetings, etc.) advice for work life balance - realistic deadlines and staffing appropriately accordingly.

PwC2 Your entire comment demonstrates how your ego has clouded your judgment of millenials. You don't know my story yet you're implying I can't handle the heat insinuating that you have a strength which I am lacking. You shared snippets of your life acting like that some how means you've worked harder than the millenials around you but you honestly dont know people's whole story. So enjoy your pride and your health. Hopefully it makes up for your lack of empathy and understanding. Also, family is the life part so if you had time for your kids then you had work life balance.

1) EY
2) Millenial
3) Importance in a career is being able to make an impact in the lives of people
4) I would leave public accounting if it took too much time away from my personal and family life
5) I maintain work life balance by getting outdoors and trying to find time to see friends at least once a week. Doesn't always work in busy season.
6) challenges with turnover is losing good talent. Firms spend lots of money on training and development and then employees go elsewhere. Retraining new hires to replace employees is lost time and resources.
7) data automation could help work life balance, but in my experience there is always something else to do. You may take away some work on one end, but then something pops up on the other.
8) EY has just implemented this but I think the summer break and winter break holidays are good for employees - gives them something to look forward to and gives them needed rest.

1) EY
2) Millennial
3) Growth
4) Work/life balance
5) try to go to the gym at least three or 4 times a week, I try to work half a day on Sunday to free up my evenings during the week while in busy season.
6) Not a bad thing. Means I’ll get promoted to manager easily.
7) No. more automation will cause decreases in hiring, leading to same workload per person
8) not sure if they’d care. The business model is up or out

@pwc3.. don't let the door hit you on the way out.

-EY
-1988
-Growth, opportunity, flexibility
-When I feel ur gets in the way more often than not of me being the involved parent I want to be.
-work remotely when I can, leave early to beat traffic.
- have not seen too many challenges with turnover personally.
-not sure.
-tone at the top has to actively practice it for it to come to fruition.

Lol what balance

EY
Late Millennial/Early Generation Z
People. Simply put, I believe that if we focus on the professional progression and happiness of people, we would be a more successful company.
The hours and superiors who demand unrealistic ideals and goals.
It’s hard to maintain, year after year. Right now, I have none.
The turnover has been fairly bad over the past 2 years, so right now I’m suffering. I foresee the same challenges, whereby those who stay with the firm will have to work more hours and on more clients to meet deadlines.
I hope so. I’m currently working on a innovation project, so I hope the hell I’m putting myself through right now will pay off in the future.
Throwing more money at employees won’t solve any issues. It may temporarily ease everyone’s frustration, but the underlying issues still remain

PwC2, I tried to not have work life balance & ended up with 2 psychotic breaks within three months of eachother with no prior significant MI symptoms. Resulted in being on medical leave for 18 months. News flash, millenials work harder than your ego thinks we do.

1) EY
2) 1989
3) oportunity to grow and learn and being surrounded by the right people with the right tone at the top to promote a healthy culture
4) hard one, I’ve been wanting to leave since my staff year yet I’m still here. Learning is endless in PA, but I would leave PA for better work/life balance and probably better compensation
5) try to have dinner with family almost every night (besides busy season), not checking emails at night or on the weekend
6) i think turnover is needed especially in PA, it’s the business model otherwise nobody will get promoted to manager that easily and less than nobody will make to partner. The challenge though is to keep talent, and high turnover is not motivating the young people.
7) data automation could help in some way (billing, admin stuff), but for it to improve work life balance it still has a long way to go. You can’t just not hire staff 1s and expects robots to do boring tasks, then you would have no seniors and so on. Hard to say at this point.
8) major change in scheduling model, the current system simply does not work, nobody is happy with the way their engagements are staffed. Forecast / demands need to be much much better to match hiring needs.

Agree with the previous post saying money won’t resolve the underlying issue. Soon enough people will still leave regardless. The underlying issues is how teams function and the amount of work everybody has. I am sure people will actually be a little happier with less work instead of more money.

I get it most people put the blame on millenials being “lazy” and such, but they have to realize millenians are also the future. If so many companies are changing their culture in response to the generation style change, it is beyond me why PAs are so resistent for a change. Soon enough PAs will realize this business model doesn’t work anymore and it’ll be time for a change.

To an earlier post’s point, a lot of people quit because they don’t see any role model staying and the people who do end up staying are (insert blank). I can’t tell you how many people have told me I should stick around to be that role model for people to see differently, but the reality is at some point you just lose faith in the firm, its people, the messages people are sending to “succeed”, which isn’t who I am.

Kpmg 1, as much as I don't like to hear about people having phycotic breaks... you know what they say .. if you can't handle the heat.

I've worked 60 to 84 hour weeks since I graduated college in 1983. Over the years I've earned 3 additional degrees. I raised my children as a single mother and owned a business.
As much as I woukd have liked to have a break, I couldn't. I will when I retire.

So not having a work life balance does not end in psychosis.

Wow PwC2, I have to say this is quite impressive. Having accomplished what you did is definitely something majority of “younger” generation can never relate. However, it’s also fair to say that we must admit the generation has changed, so did companies and firms. There are definitely a big expectation gap between a senior partner and a staff nowadays, but the younger generation is our future partner group. What’s important is to still achieve the same goal, having different mentality.

What do you mean by generation? How long the family has been in America?

Generation - aka baby boomer, gen X, millenial. Its more to see personal/work values across different age ranges

Thanks. What’s pre-baby boomer? The Greatest Generation?

Thank you everyone for your feedback. Please keep them coming I need at least 50 responses to make the data relevant