{"id":199,"date":"2005-09-22t11:15:12","date_gmt":"2005-09-22t16:15:12","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30t00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30t04:00:00","slug":"cpas-mull-worklife-balance-on-eve-of-busy-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2005\/09\/22\/cpas-mull-worklife-balance-on-eve-of-busy-season\/","title":{"rendered":"cpas mull work\/life balance on eve of busy season"},"content":{"rendered":"

how do you cope with your busy season?<\/i><\/p>\n

by rick telberg<\/b>
\non management for aicpa career insider<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

it’s no secret that cpas from all walks of the profession struggle with work\/life balance. but you don’t need to take my word for it. just ask helen lam of holmdel, n.j. <\/p>\n

lam says she left a job as an audit manager to go to private industry because “i don’t see how firms can better manage year-end reporting workload without asking their employees to work 80-hour weeks for two straight months.”<\/p>\n

work\/life balance rates as a top concern for fully 90 percent of accountants. and with busy season looming for accountants from private industry to public, the topic is particularly acute today.
\nto be sure, the aicpa, state societies, cpa firms and financial executives up and down the line are seeking – and often finding – innovative ways of ameliorating the situation. in fact, leslie murphy, who takes over as the aicpa 2005-2006 chair in october, is expected to make work\/life balance a key theme of her term.<\/p>\n

if you have a success story, please tell us <\/a>and we’ll share it with the profession. or you can go straight to our current study, “surviving busy season<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

but work\/life balance becomes a greater concern the further you go down the corporate totem pole. nearly 85 percent of chief executives and managing partners surveyed said work\/life balance is either a highly important or very important concern, compared to 93 percent of surveyed staff people and 90 percent of surveyed middle managers.<\/p>\n

joan zawaski, a middle manager in a small cpa firm in san francisco, says the issue hits especially hard at smaller firms, which have enough trouble competing for talent with bigger firms. she noted that all of her firm’s hires last year either did not work out or left because of personal family issues, including three who departed for other firms.<\/p>\n

one middle manager in a public practice firm, who asked to remain anonymous, noted that increasing workloads amid a reduced number of new applicants complicates firms’ attempts to meet employees’ personal life requirements. “no one wants to let others down, but we also need a life outside of work,” he lamented.<\/p>\n

one public practice staff cpa said that his chargeable hours are being increased by 50 percent this year, adding, “my workload will be unpleasant even in the summer if hiring does not increase.”<\/p>\n

the balance issue may weigh especially heavy on women. “as much as the profession tries to be family-friendly, its member firms are still very inflexible in working with women accountants who feel strongly about their commitment to the family and kids,” lam said.<\/p>\n

“women who are talented need to be granted more flexibility to manage their work and home life,” added dolly rios, a staff cpa at a public firm in oakland gardens, ny.<\/p>\n

meanwhile, public practice firms seem more receptive to women in all ranks in order to fight staffing shortages and because of the unique perspective women bring to accounting. <\/p>\n

harley w. pottroff, president of an accounting firm that bears his name in manhattan, kans., noted that women are needed because they “are more empathetic than men and this profession is moving to understanding and away from the technical issues.”<\/p>\n

the message to firms is becoming increasingly vivid: if you want talent people, you need to offer them some work\/life balance.<\/p>\n

now it’s your turn: <\/b>surviving busy season: how the profession copes. join the study to find out.<\/a><\/p>\n