Those of you who have been in public accounting for a long time....how often in your PA career have you reached low lows where you can barely hang on? How did you work through them?

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10+ years (not sure if that’s considered a very long time for you) but I had a low point in my career twice. One low lasted almost a good year and a half and the other was about 4-5 months and is still lightly haunting me. During the first low, I’d spend 15-20 minutes in the parking lot crying and praying every day before walking to the office (I felt that hopeless and needed something to give me the strength to take another day of verbal abuse and 18+ hr days). I spent more time in church than what I usually do and would listen to sermons on YouTube from motivational pastors while working. A good friend of mine is more spiritual so she does meditation when she goes through her lows. Not sure if this helps but if you are religious, I recommend the above (Mike Todd from transformation church is a good go to). If not, then at least talk it out with trusted people and don’t forget to place yourself first (meaning get good rest, treat yourself well, and exercise). above all, know that you will get through it! Everything is temporary, even if it seems prolonged!

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I am so sorry you went through that. And if you are still in the same office, please make a change! It may just not be the right place for you ( or anyone, if there was verbal abuse)

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In my 4 year PA career, the feeling of a low point came ironically at a time when I am a well recognized high performer and engaged on a very prominent project. I had a rather bipolar partner on the project who would insult the team in the morning and praise us for the hard work in the afternoon. The entire experience vastly demotivated everyone involved. We ended up sending a great deliverable but the entire manager team was ready to quit, including me. I got through the experience by focusing on how fascinating the project was, ignoring the toxic negativity from the top, and starting an earnest job hunting process. From this experience, I knew that the top level ultimately do not have my best interest in mind and I'm just a cog in a big machine. I acquired wonderful skills here that I will take to another industry

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@KPMG2 that’s where I’m at too. I don’t want to be in the back crunching numbers, I want to be working in a revenue generating part of a business

Probably three major times in 15 years Once I was promoted, which made it all feel better. The second I quit PA. The third, I figured out the slump was really due to me working so hard and not feeling fulfilled. I really dug in and pushed people to involve me in projects I wanted to be a part of

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probably happens every other yesr to me. reset and push threw

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3 times in 8 years.

First was when I was just promoted to senior and got overloaded with work, there was about 6 months straight where I ate dinners with the team instead of my family. I talked to a lot of people and ended up going on an international secondment.

2nd time was just before getting promoted to manager. Again overloaded with work as about 20% of our managers had left within 2 months. The firm ended up hiring a lot more managers which helped.

3rd was recently when I realised that nothing real was being done long term to resolve the underlying issue. So I’ve quit.

Things that got me through at the time, people I worked with and lots of snacks and making sure I booked on holidays and had at least a day off each weekend.

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I feel like it was worth it, but near the end was when I started getting stressed out (unable to switch off during downtime, difficulty sleeping). I didn’t think my health was worth it and when I decided to quit was when that stress came off.

I looked for about 6 months really as I didn’t want to just get out and for all that PA is bad, it has a lot of good parts as well (flexibility, promotion path, great people to work with etc).

Not by choice, more like I’m too chicken-youknowwhat to get up and do something about it and I just trudged through the cycle

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