The Three People that will Kill your Public Accounting Firm Experience
Because of the excellent environment for advancement and career opportunities, public accounting firms attract all sorts of talent. If you've spent any time working in public accounting, you understand how much your co-workers contribute to your experience. While you can always learn something from your coworkers, there will always be some personalities that contribute more negative experiences than positive ones. Today, we are going to examine the three people that will probably make your public accounting experience a bad one at one point or another.
Disclaimer - Your coworkers are not bad people if they exhibit some of these personality traits from time to time. Depending on your experience, some of these characteristics will be incredibly helpful for your career growth. Everyone will come across these types of people at some point in their career, and their impact on your own career will vary depending on your circumstances. That being said, I feel that these personalities have a higher impact in public accounting firms due to the nature of their work environments.
The Micromanager
Let’s face it, at some point in their careers, some people need to be micromanaged. However, most of the time micromanagement is not an enjoyable experience to the average public accountant. I believe this is the case because after a certain level of experience and trust, micromanagement is antithetical to the public accounting model of accelerated learning and responsibility for career advancement. Someone who is actively trying to take on more responsibility to get to the next level in their career will not appreciate a manager who is dictating every little detail of their work product. In many situations, the micromanager views their input as lessons for the employee to learn at every little step and while that can be true, the method and frequency of delivery makes all the difference. A good manager will provide support and guidance to employees on a timely basis, but also trust them enough to run with things on their own to develop their confidence. A micromanager will seek to control the work upfront, which doesn’t communicate trust in the employee at all. Having worked with all different types of managers in my time, I can confidently say that working with a micromanager is one of the most exhausting aspects of public accounting if you are trying to be promoted.
The Incompetent Employee
Public accounting attracts all sorts of individuals with different skill sets and learning curves. While everyone is on their own journey, it is natural for employees (especially high performing employees) to compare themselves to their coworkers. As someone who tries to be a high performer, having an incompetent coworker is one of the most discouraging things out there. Here’s a couple reasons why incompetent coworkers are that much more impactful in the public accounting environment:
High Performance Workplace Culture - Most public accounting firms have a set of relatively standardized expectations for performance and promotions in the first few years of an employee’s career. Typically, 2 years as an associate level employee prepares someone to be a senior associate level employee, and 2-3 years as a senior associate level employee and some additional people skills training will prepare them for a manager level position. When an employee is performing below what is expected at that level, it makes others question what their hard work is for since this other employee’s performance is tolerated.
Work Spread - The old saying about public accounting is: “Your hard work will be rewarded…with more work” and it’s especially true when someone else isn’t doing their fair share. At the end of the day, the work needs to be done, and if you end up working with someone who isn’t up to par, then you will find yourself with the extra workload. People like being rewarded for their hard work and efficiency, and having to do extra work to make up for an incompetent employee is exactly the opposite of that.
The Out of Touch Boss (Partner)
The higher ups at your public accounting firm (the partners) have multiple ways to impact your experience there, for better and for worse. If you have a few years of experience in the firm, you may even get the opportunity to work directly with a partner on some projects, which can prove to be an invaluable learning experience. Regardless of the level of facetime you get with a partner, their impact on your experience can be huge. Here are some of the ways that an out of touch partner may negatively impact your own experience:
Outdated Staffing Philosophies and Expectations - Partners ultimately make the decision on how many people to hire, and what the requirements are to work at the firm. I’ve seen firms where older partners refuse to hire someone without experience, and don’t develop internship programs to support new talent. Those firms struggle to attract good talent and as a result, the existing staff don’t get an appropriate level of support for their projects or their career progression.
A Lack of Economic Empathy - Simply put, the partners progressed their career and are currently existing in a different economic reality than the reality that their staff are facing. As a result, some partners don’t keep up with market compensation and expectations. I’ve seen a number of small firms that simply refuse to compete with the prevailing market rates, and their employees are not encouraged by it to say the least.
Lack of Technology Investment - A lot of partners have a “because we have always done it this way” attitude and their firm’s processes reflect it. While it isn’t necessary to try to buy every new and shiny system that comes on the market, refusing to adapt the firm with new technology is adding unnecessary stress to employees. Not only do the employees have to deal with an older system, but they miss out on the key skills of using a more modern system, which could be essential to their professional growth.
With accountants retiring at a rate that cannot be matched by the number of new graduates, it’s critical to understand how public accounting firms can better retain the talent for a longer period of time. If you find yourself working with one or more of these types of professionals, do your best to make a change ASAP before you burn out too quickly!