timesheets: the nuclear option

lamentations on the billable hour: jamey johnson’s “the dollar.”

nuke ’em: kill timesheets before they kill the profession.

by ed kless

the litany of “challenges for the profession” repeats the narrative that has been well documented and continues to grow for over the last decade:

• while there are more people graduating with degrees in accounting, fewer of them are sitting for the cpa exam. this is leading to fewer new hires for firms.
• the new hires they do have are “millennials” who desire a challenge and think they should be made partner sooner rather than later.
• attrition, especially at the mid-career level, is over 10 percent and is mostly initiated by the professional, not the firm.
• the loss of people in the middle and bottom of the pyramid is eroding the traditional economic model. non-equity partners are increasing and funding for partner buyouts is disappearing.
• cries of “we must become more efficient,” and/or, “we must embrace new technology,” and/or “we must hold people more accountable,” reverberate in meetings.
• compliance work continues to flatline and while new offerings are growing revenue, they are not growing fast enough. worse still those that do this work are often not even cpas!

more ed kless at 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间: your time has no inherent value  |  ed kless: what is strategic pricing?  |  ed kless on factors affecting price sensitivity  |  a radical close look at value pricing  |  billable hour in the extreme  |  the four factors for fixed pricing

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presentation after presentation is viewed on the modern equivalent of the campfire, the conference room projector. “our profession is sick, even dying. we might have cancer. we really don’t know, but it is bad.” it’s true, the profession does have cancer. the good news is, we know the cause and it is curable.

it is called “a timesheet.” it be must cut it out completely before it kills.

to demonstrate the absurdity of this disease, i have developed a brief, but powerful exercise that i have conducted around the world. the exercise is so stinging, so devastating to the timesheet argument that i fear that it could cause emotional damage to everyone in the room. because of this i usually reserve it for online anonymous events so that folks have some time to themselves to recover.

the exercise

“how many of you have ever filled out a timesheet?” i boom as i raise my hand in the air with the audience. all hands join mine in pointing heavenward.

“how many of you have put down on your timesheet the incorrect number of hours you worked on something, be that too many hours or too few hours with full knowledge that it was incorrect?” all hands remain with mine in the air. some participants chuckle then remember that their boss or managing partner is in the room. some meekly mumble, “every week,” under their breath but audible to all.

i pause then quip softly, my hand still in the air, “the ethics session begins later today,” trying to make a bit of joke to relive their inner guilt.

why is this?

why, in one of the most ethical and honored of professions, is this not only the norm but ubiquitous? why are these good people, moral and upright members of the community, whose commission is, in part, to identify, correct, and in some cases, prosecute financial wrongdoing, sitting before me all guilty of that same crime?

the answer, again, is the timesheet.

in my session on trashing the timesheet, i speak mostly of how the timesheet is suboptimal as a pricing mechanism. there is no doubt about this, it is beyond dispute. however, my argument goes beyond this mere deficiency in pricing. the timesheet, not the people who fill them out, is immoral and unethical.

why? because it – the idea of a timesheet – is based on a falsified idea known as the labor theory of value which was developed in part by karl marx. time/value equivalency is a false notion that causes bad things to happen. as explained by my “nuclear” exercise, it is the timesheet causes otherwise moral people to do immoral things; it is the timesheet causes people in a highly ethical profession to do unethical things.

i realize this is a dramatic statement, but it is nonetheless true. think about it, no one has ever said they have behaved completely honestly. in addition to this reason, my disdain for the timesheet and belief it is immoral expands when it is applied inside the organization to judge individuals.

people come to believe that their worth is actually in their hours they “bill.” they start to believe their hours have a specific “worth” not only to the firm but to them as if hours “spent” with children or aging parents must be evaluated against the hours “spent” at work.

“they pay him for his time.”

county singer jamey johnson recorded a great song a few years back entitled the dollar. in the video for the song, scenes cut back and forth between a little boy and his father. when the boy asks his mother, “why does daddy go to work?” the mom replies, “your daddy’s got a job, and when he goes to work, they pay him for his time.” the child then goes to his piggy bank and returns to his mom and in the chorus of the song, the boy asks:

how much time with this buy me?

is it enough to take me camping in a tent down by the stream?

if i’m a little short, then how much more does daddy need,

to spend some time with me?

cue weeping.

it is my contention that this song illustrates what happens to people who record their time. over the years, indeed decades, it affects their internal belief system about who they are in essence as people. it robs them of their humanity. this is evil and it must be destroyed.

it is time the profession rid itself of this meddlesome method of malevolence.

posted on september 23, 2019