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Additional Posts in Accounting Exit Opportunities
Anyone gone from PA to CBRE ? Do you like it ?
Who has the best M&A Tax Practice ?
CMAAS Chicago Senior salary? PwC
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Godspeed, I said something along those lines once. It didn’t go over so well
Well said . You can be the change
You knew the demands of this profession, and quite literally signed up for this. If you don’t agree with it, start a firm and be the change you wish to see. Who knows, if you have great leadership and can figure out a way to counter-balance the inherent issues encountered in running a business in our field, then you will probably have some success and find many who want to join you on your quest to shift the paradigm.
To be fair, one can try to be prepared and make the effort to be aware as much as possible on what's ahead before signing up for. How one thinks that they can handle varies. But reality is, you will never know 100% what you are getting into until you are there and fully experience it.
Public acct is a game of luck. You hope to land in either an amazing engagement/team with amazing clients or a so-so one, that is at least tolerable. But it's the ones that are not that can potentially ruin you. It's very difficult to control that. But pretty much, this is what determines people's views about the industry and whether or not they find it awesome, passable or horrible.
PA is mostly a seasonal job, which means if you staff for 40 hrs during busy season, you have way too many people sitting around during the slow periods. So unless the firm brings in temp workers for busy season or conducts layoffs every summer, you’re stuck this the long hours a few months out of the year.
Everyone has choices when it comes to working . I exercised my choice many years ago to leave public accounting . No more timesheets , budgets , chargeable hours goals, 70 to 80 hours a week. We all have choices. No one is holding a gun over anyone in public accounting to stay. You stay because of your own free will.
I left and the grass is truly greener!
What’s more is if people perform well they are awarded with more work…
I’m with you OP. Be the change.
To be fair Audit and tax is tough to manage with busy seasons, but there are two ways I think this can be made better. Either you provide staff with time in lieu for ALL overtime worked, so they can enjoy some time off when busy season is over. Or you ensure the firm has ample contractors to boost number during key seasons to ensure enough headcount to reduce overtime in general (or do both, but I suspect the former would be more cost effective honestly).
For anything outside of those two field, I see no excuse. It’s either poor staffing, poor client management, or you should have turned the work down. I won’t propose on a project I know will be bad for my staff, and if any other director or partner does then they’re clearly thirst AF and need a better pipeline of clients.
Whenever someone signs a client for a project that they knew was messy (unless it’s highly strategic) then I assume you are really struggling with hitting your numbers.
I believe it is stopping in some spaces. It’s a matter of finding the right firms and thought leaders who see the insanity and desire a change.
Check out Darkhorse CPAs. Their website is inspiring. Also follow Chase Birky and Brandon Hall on LinkedIn. They’re building humane firms.
PS I wrote an article on this for CalCPA. People are waking up to the insanity. https://magazine.calcpa.org