What should I do? Should I be worried? I am currently in tax advisory. I’d say over 1/2 of us have not been at utilization % the leaders wants us to be at. Just seems across the board billable hours are down. Some of us are getting loaned out to the tax compliance team. Yet our group is still hiring folks?! I feel as if partners/senior managers are just unhappy with the talent they do have and are fishing for better. Am I way off?

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I’m a tax manager at a top 10 and have been billing less than 10 hours per week since 10/15. No one has expressed any concern… yet.

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Haha, but everyone else ‘appears’ to be so busy, except me. I am new to this firm, but oh well, I won’t stress if it’s nothing to worry about.

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One thing we discussed on a recent tax call - hours have become less uniform with covid. Some are way up, and some are way down. So do you KNOW billables are way down, or are YOUR billables way down

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Ahh - I’d say “this month’s billables” rather than “billables” then. There is a cyclical nature to the job.

Hiring is not just a short term demand response. A lot of tax advisory was actively turning down work in 2021 because it couldn’t be staffed. No one wants that.

The only way to avoid that is to look at long term demand expectations for hiring.

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I think the real metric is how much are salaries and how much revenue is coming in. I think leaders and employees have discovered that hours are severely manipulated and does not always paint an accurate picture. I know people that eat hours that look very efficient but burned out and others that look productive but are not effective since they had no training or support.

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This job is honestly crazy. I had to talk with my senior, who is also a good friend, how we can’t work 100%+ all the time. It’s ok to not work like a dog after busy season and have a life! When I first started I complained about how slow I was, but enjoy it while it lasts - at least is what I was told- you’ll be swamped soon enough again….

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Agree. Move on to something better. A fresh start.

Are you in a unique spot as a transfer into advisory? What can you do to gain traction on advisory?

I am in advisory and being loaned out to compliance. As well as a couple other folks.

I have no idea what else to do. I participate in trainings, review past work, ask for work or if anyone needs help.

This just seems … odd

I think your rationale is off, if they had underutilized folks they didn’t like they would fire them or PIP. Not some elaborate scheme to fish for new talent

Sounds like good prospective planning. Keep people utilized while advisory projects are low and hire resources for the future when advisory inevitably picks back up. Saves playing catch up later.

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I am so glad I am not in B4 anymore. There are better to do in life than worry this kind of things. Maybe it is time to grow into another industry.

Y'all that's crazy. I'm at 128%....how are you getting away with 10 hours billable a week???

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