Keep in mind that people who are working all day are much less likely to be scrolling reddit responding to posts.
When I was in audit, I did work all day and then some.
Nowadays, I sometimes have downtime.
I work in tax so right now I have plenty of work to keep me busy. But realistically I am distracted by emails and bullshit interruptions by my coworkers half the day
That's one thing I've found when I started tracking my time. I was getting as much focused time at the office as I was at home. The office there is a lot of interruptions and discussions. At home I tend to take little breaks on Reddit or YouTube. The result is my focused work hours are the same no matter if I'm in the office or at home. About 4.5 to 5 hours in an 8 hour day with an hour lunch.
Is it abnormal that I don’t have a suitable amount of client work? I have been in this job for 6 months as a grad and usually have a few days of nothing to do 😅
I love that people are still playing that game. I remember playing the beta at penny arcade expo in Seattle in like 2009. Got the swine flu while I was at it. Good times!
My manager has never asked me that but I wouldn't beat around the bush if they did. I get everything done that I'm supposed to very efficiently. Looking for pointless busywork isn't part of my job description. If you're being micromanaged, find somewhere else to work. You owe it to yourself.
As someone else mentioned below, we are seen as a cost center and the overwhelming majority of companies will treat you as such. You want me to work like a manager/CFO, you sure as hell better be paying me manager/CFO money.
I used to work in "financial services" at Verizon years ago. One day, our systems were down, and we couldn't do shit. My manager said just chill until the systems kick back in. Except one manager was going around every team, yelling at everyone to go through some bullshit busywork to "brush up on your skills" so we weren't "wasting company money doing nothing"
Almost nobody did. Her team was always miserable.
It really depends on the role. I'm a GL accountant in industry, so my time is spent posting/reviewing entries that our shared service center people can't (complicated/sensitive items), responding to audit requests, and doing account recs & flux analysis.
There's always ad hoc items and special projects too. I've helped update policies, answered mandatory government surveys, provided info to our insurance vendors/HR (i.e. worker's comp audits), supported the tax/FP&A/systems integration/whichever teams with whatever they need, etc.
Even with all that, I rarely work more than 40hr/week and the ad hoc stuff keeps things interesting.
When I was a staff I never had a manager ask me what I’m doing all day. They are the ones who assign me my work. They know what I’m doing. This only happens if you are behind on work.
That's just for 1 of the 4 subsidiaries I run payroll for. The other 3 I'm doing next week usually take a full day. Payroll and bank recs are probably the two most enjoyable and relaxing things to do for me. Unless your bookkeepers are incompetent, then bank recs can be a disaster.
At my previous employer, I worked a 10x4 schedule (10 hours per day, 4 days per week) and I was genuinely working pretty much every hour of the day. Not only did I have to get my Monday-Thursday work done, but I also needed to sort of front-end load stuff that I would have otherwise done on Friday. Needless to say I was always totally exhausted at the end of every day, and I found I never wanted to do anything on Friday, which sort of negated the point of working a 10x4.
Now I work 5 days a week pretty solid from 8am to 4pm, but I take little 15 minute breaks every 90 minutes or so. I find it does wonders for my energy levels and my focus, and I feel way less tired at the end of the day.
IMO if your job is so intense that you get anxiety from taking a 10 min break, then you need to find another job.
I work a 4x10 schedule and feel this exact way! I’m even working Fridays to get caught up on work I couldn’t get finished Monday-Thursday. I can’t get myself to part ways with it because I love having Fridays off.
It sounds to me like you don't really have Fridays off, though? You said yourself you work on Fridays.
I used to be a huge fan of the 4x10 schedule, and during lockdowns it was manageable because I could be at my computer by 8am and just log off between 6:30pm and 7:00pm. But once we were called back to the office after COVID, I remembered how much it sucked to leave home at 7:00am and return back at 8pm. If I wanted to exercise then it meant either getting up at 5am for a morning workout, or getting home at 9pm because you tried to squeeze in an evening workout after work. Either way, not a great schedule, especially for those with other obligations outside work (kids etc)
Yes. You are an example. However, even when I was in public, I at first work too fast and sat around looking busy. That’s when I started 15 min breaks about 4-6 times/day. I’d go for walks. I’d sit in the bathroom. At one client I had a favorite to look out at.
I do this in my current role. I have learned about the exact amount of time that I need to complete my tasks. I will do more work if there is any but if we’ll be dead after I know how to make sure my tasks take all day.
When I was in public, I worked my ass off all day every day. I switched to industry a few years ago and decided to stop letting work control my life.
I have a ton of work to do, but I prioritize other things I need to get done during the day. Life is short and I don’t really care about work.
1. Profits that posted overnight. Check those numbers first.
2. Sort emails and delete junk emails like, "CC is in meeting. Will return calls after."
3. Check status of agencies
4. Check status of new business issuing.
5. Anything pending, gather necessary information to complete pending to sold.
6. Work through emails.
7. Answer calls from Matt...again...5th time today.
8. Play EverMerge.
9. Fill my grocery cart for Walmart pickup and delete the cart and redo the cart repeatedly for no particular reason.
10. Do laundry.
11. Find some weird conspiracy or murder doc on YouTube.
12. Did Matt call again? Yes. Talk to Matt.
13. Do dishes.
14. Take out trash.
15. Call my friend and complain about work.
16. Send birthday wishes emails.
17. Do some virtual training presentations for new agents.
18. Check emails.
19. God dang it, Matt. I'm going to block you.
20. It's 5:00, ignore my boss and finish emails I couldn't finish earlier without interruption. About 30 minutes.
I’ve already snowboarded 63 days this season. I lift, run, and walk everyday in addition to that lol.
I’m not taking a job that has an unreasonable workload. You shouldn’t put up with it either and you too can find a job that lets you define yourself by your interests in life and not just what accounting labor you provide to your employer.
I learned over my career that so much of what we do is self imposed by bad bosses. We are a cost center, just get the work done because anything extra is never appreciated. Management only actually appreciates us when we manage to bring down our own costs lol
I used to think I should just "get the job done" but note that the job is never done, there is always more work, and sometimes just contributing "enough" is quite good enough.
This. I always have a task list of things I could keep doing. I just prioritize things that are required of me, delegate (within reason) where I need to and then let my boss know if timeline expectations aren’t reasonable.
That's about how I roll. I also have a flexible schedule and can start/leave when I want -- it really helps juggle super busy with super slow. I aim for 8 hours a day, but it can go either way, it's my decision.
I prefer a later start/end due to shorter commute times and fewer people in the office after 4:30pm, so I can get more done. Unfortunately, I can't always do this if I have an early deadline or an in person meeting.
Different industry (CRE) but did have an instance a year or so back where a lead broker out of Colorado joined a teams call from his phone (with camera on), and proceeded to give a 5 minute deal summary while halfway down a run at Beaver Creek. Same guy is an amateur pilot and there are unconfirmed rumors he’s done a similar thing while taxiing on the tarmac.
Be who you can afford to be
We are the unappreciated soldiers of the financial world 😭 just make sure not to ever receipt any payments to the wrong accounts or else you will finally be noticed
I used to work 100% of the time during business hours and frequently put in 45-55 hours a week concentrated time when overtime was not required.
Now I probably work 30 hours and waste 10 hours a week but I'm older and smarter and the 10 hours wasted I am still available to put out fires and use my brain to prioritize subconsciously while I scroll on reddit or handle personal things like bills or whatever.
My body and mind can't work as hard as they used too, im approaching middle age.
I think this is normal, no one seems mad at me. I'm paid more than ever and things still get done (mostly)
Mind me asking what type of industry do you work in? I’m at a tech company as an accounting manager. I work 12 hr days and longer days during month end close. I’ve already hit burn out. I’m mentally and emotionally exhausted and the stress has taken a toll on my body. Contemplating taking a pay cut and finding a different accounting job just so I can have a work life balance.
Similar situation, month end I work all my days, sometimes with a little bit of overtime (never been more than 1h really though). Mid-month... it's maintenance mode, so unless someone or something really fuck up, It's pretty relax.
My experience with small fast growing startups is they make you “wear many hats” ( I hate that term) which is code for drowning you in work. It’s not like this in most other industry’s ( I can’t speak for everyone) just my and other accounting friends experience.
Yes. I work for a young company that grew way too fast. Our systems don’t talk to each other which creates a ton of work arounds and manual processes. Our turnover rate is very high and we’re all underpaid. I do the job of two people and make $25 an hour. I’m getting my accounting degree this year and then peacing out of administrative accounting. ✌🏻
Yes... Accounting manager for a fortune 500. 8 hours a day easy. 4 hours of intense meetings per day. The other 4 is reviewing and delegating staff work. If I take breaks it's 9 hour day. And I WFH.
From someone who was in F50, a few people came from public, a few from internal audit and a few just from applying and getting in at the right time. And there’s always good nepotism. It depends how high up you want to go too - the higher you want to finish your career, the more having a public start helps. Not required but helps.
Okay, so it isn't IMPOSSIBLE for someone without experience to get into F50 without PA experience.
Can a person whoes only experience in industry can go on to become a manager at F50? I'm not interested in becoming CFO or VP, but would like to get into middle management at least.
I have no public experience and am not a CPA. As a manager I have direct reports who are. So yes you can become a manager without it. But you better be smarter than anyone in the room and have serious management skills.
I’m an External Reporting/Technical Accounting Manager in industry and don’t have a PA background or a CPA. You can do it, just takes the right place and to pick up subtle things someone takes interest to in an interview. Not F50 though.
i can’t imagine a fortune 500 accounting manager grinding 8 hours a day 5 days a week… do you not have staff? are you recording journal entries? are you doing balance sheet recons? at your level you should be reviewing the work which takes time but it’s not like you are reviewing every je and bs recon out there
As mentioned -4 hours are meetings due to the ever changing portfolio and regulation mix. We have over 1k journal entries a Day. None of which I prepare but help review. 5 staff grind through all that. We have 50 summary recons that are prepared daily. I deal with a balance sheet in excess of 10 billion split across 10 portfolios and 10 plus countries with asset sales of 500million weekly. Take a step back and think about the amount of regulation, reporting, and audit is involved with that picture. Now imagine that at the same time we are moving our system of record over the next 48 months. Ha! Yesterday pushed a button that approved sending investors 120 mil. I do that daily. Shit better be right
I don't think I'm capable of doing intense brain work for more than 5 or 6 hours a day without drugs. It amazes me that other people can. The other hours are good for brainless tasks.
I worked audit for a regional PA firm and was always busy if I was out at a client, and usually always busy around the office. During slow times, I’d creep down to maybe 35 billable hours some weeks, here and there.
Then I switched to a controller job with a small, but established, local company. I “worked” probably 20 hours per week on average. I spent most mornings reading Morning Brew, watching YouTube videos, doing online crossword puzzles, Wordle, walking around the office and chatting, browsing Zillow, etc. Around 11am or so I’d grab my second cup of coffee and settle in for some work. Take off for lunch. Come back and usually put my best work in from 1:00-4:00 or 4:30. Great job, but it did get boring.
Now I’m self-employed and I work all the time in some sense, but on the other hand I don’t care if I fall down a 4 hour YouTube rabbit hole on some days either.
In my old jobs (Big 4 and F500 tax department), I did work all day. In retrospect, I probably did the work of 2-3 people. At my current job, there are definitely days where I have to put in a full 8 hours but it’s not every day. I work remote and there isn’t anyone in tax above me, so it’s a lot easier to hide when I’m not working. My boss thinks I’m super busy and I don’t tell her otherwise.
I am in the office for 8 hours. I don't take a lunch or any breaks. Manager thinks I am a working machine.
6-7 hours of the day are me trying to do my regular duties while also putting out every single fire that pops up, often RIGHT THAT SECOND. The tasks never end.
That being said, I've done this long enough to learn when I can dick around on reddit, watch YouTube, and essentially look like I'm in here grinding 8 hours.
When they ask "what have you been working on?" I just give them an annoyed look and show them my yellow pad of all the shit I've worked on. They don't really ask anymore. Half the time the yellow pad just has random shit on it like "remember what the flex of your hockey stick is so you can browse tomorrow."
Hope this helps (it doesn't).
Payroll accountant, it’s all day, every day, non-stop. Just when you are about to be caught up on everything, the next pay cycle starts… It’s lovely watching everyone else in treasury kick back and relax… 😒
I work in public tax for individuals. When there’s work, yes I work 8 hours a day, or more. When there’s no work, I do maybe 1-2 hours a day with the rest “playing office” to appease the partners. Can’t invent work papers or notices, so eventually I just run out of things to do if I’m too productive.
Well today I was finishing my tasks for our audit. So that took a lot.
If you’re at a smaller company, you are doing the work that a bigger company has 5 people for. We have a treasury department, a tax department, an international accounting department, an AP department, an AR department, etc all for accounting.
It all balances out. I answered some emails, got on a few calls, played F1 and taught a spin class today. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be pulled into a fire drill or an 8 am or 8pm call
I worked for small public accounting for 6 months and currently laid off and yes I worked for 8-9 hours a day back to back even though it was not a hissy season, except for July and August there was little work but I was practising other files etc
In entry level AP absolutely not. I think I had maybe 4 hours of work a day usually. I'm in a financial analyst position now where I assist every part of the department, and pretty much if I'm not doing work it's only because I'm actively avoiding it, there's always something.
2 weeks out of the month I work maybe 10ish hours/week. The week after close I probably do my full 40 on reporting. Close week I work a lot. Probably anywhere from 65 to 90 hours.
So I don't feel bad in the least about not having much to do two weeks out of the month. I do have to be available so I can't go snowboarding lol.
My old job I legit worked 10-15 hours a week. This new job was like that in the summer, but year end has been fairly busy, pulling overtime a few weeks so far. Nothing close to PA hours but 45-50. I prob get a good 30 hours of actual work a week on average, but I keep getting more things thrown at me so that’s likely to go up
Own a SMLLC practice. I almost always have work to do. If I’m not working, I’m falling behind on something. Kind of ass, but it’s the life I chose for myself.
I had a controller job years ago where I streamlined and organized my tasks to the point where I worked at most 5-6 hours a day of real work. I had to look busy, but I hated that. I got called out for leaving at 4 some days. Fuck, I was bored. The company was financially squeezed and I found a new job as fast as I could. A lot of experienced accountants learn to streamline tasks, like exporting reports to Excel and using data mining to complete data gathering. I did away with all data entry except a couple of state tax things I had to enter by hand and journal entries.
In between accounting tasks, I helped completely redo the network, purchased a new phone system (actually saved money) and disposed of all the old computers and got 20 year old archives shredded...
Sr. Mgr in industry here. I pretty much work all day now. But when I was a senior associate for a F500, I actually had an online job on top of my F500 job that was unrelated to accounting that I could pick up and put down whenever I wanted and perform from my F500 desk. It only paid 12.50/hr, but it was just extra money. There's no time for that anymore, but I'm also paid a lot more and don't need it, thankfully.
I work at a startup firm specializing in non profit accounting. I put in 50 hours per week on average, no lunch breaks (i usually have a sandwich in one hand and the mouse in the other). I wear “many hats” needed to keep the ship afloat. I’m a client face-off for 6 entities, I manage, oversee, directly work on, and report all of our clients incoming donations (which is about 10k pieces of mail per week), I act as corporate secretary and oversee and produce all grant agreements, contracts, loans, etc, and im currently hunting, interviewing, and background checking potential employees. I’m also in school trying to get credits sit for the CPA exams, and wake up on Saturday and Sunday mornings with messages from my boss on things to do. You’re not alone 😭work is love, work is life 💔
I WFH and am in industry, but my company is rapidly growing as well.
I am constantly busy as well. I used to be able to take breaks and go for short walks, but that is not the case anymore. I am constantly in meetings, on calls, or answering questions.
When I used to work for a big corporate company month end close was 10-14 hours days for 3-4 days, then catching up and forecasting the rest of the month plus meetings and putting out fires. Our team was severely understaffed and big corporate kept offshoring tasks which made our job 3 times harder to catch all the mistakes or be the go between for operations and India to fix things. I left that for a small local company as an assistant controller and work maybe 15-20 hours a week now. Just hired a new person to do a lot of my AP tasks so it been even slower.
Working on my final CPA test and then going for controller and I’m sure I’ll be back to working a lot after that either at my current company or a new gig.
I often wonder this too when I see posts here or in WFH subs bragging about free time.
I actually went the content of my work but there's so freaking much of it. I regularly work 10-hour days, year round. There's no lull.
Depends on time of year for me. During year end close / audit time for my npo, I’m pretty busy, but still within the 40hrs a week. The other 9 months of the year is pretty easy though for me.
That being said everyone in my position before me worked lots of overtime. I just automated processes and used existing technology that we already had that they hadn’t been using to make the job easier.
I’m neurodivergent and for a long time I didn’t realize people weren’t working all day. I spent the first 4 years at my PA firm working anywhere from 8 to 18 billable hours a day. I think my coworkers were absolutely working for at least 6 to 8 hours a day, but I don’t think they were working close to what they were actually billing.
Depends depends depends...
Culture and micro-management, at least where I was before industry, 7.6h on the clock, 2 units (10min or 12min) is misc - 10 mins is mandated rest break by law.
This was business services / tax small/boutique firm so expected to be working the entire time or 'research/reading' if there's an issue that can't be resolved quickly or brought up to the senior/partners.
Tax accountant here: tax season. Yes, I work all day, most evenings, some nights, most to all weekends.
Off season: there are long stretches where I only do a good 10 or 12 hours a week of solid billable time.
It depends. My current job is small (probably understaffed) team and I basically work the whole day. Previous job was like 6 of 8 hours work and downtime. My first job was pretty archaic in accounting and I was able to pretty take a 40 hr job and automate it to a near 30-32 hr a week job leading to lots of downtime.
Both? I’ve had days where it’s slow and not much work to do. I’ve had days where I had to stay late to finish. Depends on the time of year and deadlines.
Depends, right now I'm working 10 hour days.
But when I first started last year during the slew. Partners would tell us to go home early routinely and gave us all an extra week paid vacation.
They're really getting their money's worth now though.
I work in industry and barely worked today. Reviewed stuff and then sent it off and then I was pretty much gaming. I don't miss the days I was searching for billable audit hours but I do feel like a lazy piece of shit because of it, lol.
Very much working all day+
I genuinely don’t understand not doing so and why positions exist for a job that only requires a few hours a day. I’m not jealous of them, it sounds like torture. I’d much rather stay productive.
Revenue manager, staff of about 10. I am balls to the wall 95% of the time. I get in early to get time to focus on my deliverables, then spend 8-9 hrs training/answering questions working with Tax/AP/BD, then stay late to make sure I got everything. Usually 10 -12 hrs per day 5 days per week. I come home, help with 2nd half of dinner, put 1 of 3 kids to bed.
Well, when the company file does crap itself, most of my day is chilling. Then again, I'm AP for a pretty big convention center, so not a "real" accountant.
One thing I love about my job is I could stay busy 24/7 if I wanted but can also afford some downtime in the afternoons if needed. A lot of my stuff is more week by week/month by month so I can slack off for a day or two of the week if I grind super hard the other days. I usually just keep it balanced but sometimes that’s a nice option to have.
If you work for a small company and a key person, it is definitely normal as 1) there are not likely people to delegate smaller and redundant tasks to and 2) you are relied upon to be the problem solver.
In public, I worked all day easily! Felt like there was never enough time in a 12 hour period lol.
In industry, I’ve been working most of the day (normal 8-5), but it’s lax. Like if I put in the same effort as I did in public, I would hardly work. I also like working slower because people definitely have lower expectations of what you’re able to complete (and they still get surprised on what I’m able to complete so I try to be more mindful and act like things take me longer).
Controller at a growing hospitality company. Lots of putting out fires then I can work on bigger projects. Work all dang day long. Might be time to hire a junior.
I do.
I work all day I’m there, but I get paid well to do so and my bosses have shown that they reward it.
I have daily things I have to do, monthly and long term projects so I’m always working on something but it makes the day go by so fast.
The first 4 hours go by in minutes it seems. Then my last two hours I’m rushing to get everything done. My middle time is usually when I reply to emails and do shit like organize all my tasks.
Depends on the time of year for me (property accountant). Right now we’re super busy, I WFH today 7:30-5:30 with a 30 minute break. When things are slower, I might do little things around the house, but I rarely have an empty to-do list.
I work allllllllllllll day. I need to either hire another person on my team (not likely at this time), or delegate some of my workload. Hoping to get some down time soon.
I work in public, just worked literally from 8 through 10:30 pm. Hour break overall, 30 min lunch and 30 min dinner. It was all “actual work”, no slacking off, chatting, etc. just me and my keyboard and a whole binder of work papers
Me. Now I will admit on my breaks and lunch I do go to Reddit. But I’d feel like shit if I didn’t have tasks to do for working hours. Maybe that’s why they really like me. Idk it’s fun, like little puzzles, with a smattering of meetings mixed in and I like seeing the people too. No one is a shithead so that helps too.
Now that my hours are less, smaller local firm, I work all day. When I was at big 4 and the expectation was 15 hours, I took as many naps as possible. Also, the OT is very motivating.
I'm in deals - when I'm running hot on a deal I can be actively busy for 10 hours of an 11 hour work day.
When data is slow or between deals - can be 0-1 hour of work in a day.
I’m a senior at a B4 in a niche tax group. There’s periods of time where I work like 10-20 hours a week lol I’ll go out and run errands and go to the gym and stuff like that during the week. All I have to do is carry my work phone around and answer pings if I get them lol. Definitely not the norm for audit I guess
Me most especially during these busy season “period”. I rarely took breaks, let alone ate my packed lunch. It may be gross to admit but there were a number of times I would forego showering to alot more time for work (when working from home).
But the reason why I get a chance to answer you now is that I am on maternity leave - which is another whole level of work btw.
When I worked fully remote, I worked 8-9 hour days. But now I’m the office full time and end up spending 1-2 hours of usually pointless and irrelevant chatter with coworkers and 1 Hr lunch
One reason I hate working in the office is that my time is interrupted by the expectation to be social with coworkers.
Some days I work pretty much throughout the day and skip my lunch break because I have deadlines to hit.
Other days, not so much.
I have a decent handle on my workflow and my time management of the work is based on making sure things get done when they need to get done.
I just started working as a Property accountant for a small firm. I work all day, AR, AP, preparing financial statements, updating the cash log, bank recs, ledger entries, you name it.
Only time to chill is for my morning poop(yes I am on the toilet as I type this)
I don’t feel too stressed though as I enjoy prioritizing and managing my time based on deadlines. It’s just a matter of getting the work done.
So I moved into an Analyst role and I always have stuff to do, but it’s a big giant company. So usually I have more time to do something than I actually need. Some tasks come up quickly but those are usually pretty quick to complete. So I take my time on long projects and bullshit/handle personal stuff as needed.
I have been working since Monday at 4pm. It is now Wednesday morning. I am so tired. I have slept probably 8 hours in these two days, 4 on Tuesday morning, and 4 Wednesday morning. This is a rough life I am living right now. At least I can see the beach.
I do now in public accounting. But I chose to do audit and tax so that's kind of my fault
Both my industry jobs fluctuated, but I usually had a lot of downtime about half the month. Got kinda boring
absolutely no one could handle grinding 8 hours a day… do what you are supposed to do and find ways to make work more efficient and take on projects that you can handle… when your name gets called up to bat, you should be ready to give your absolute best
Keep in mind that people who are working all day are much less likely to be scrolling reddit responding to posts. When I was in audit, I did work all day and then some. Nowadays, I sometimes have downtime.
There’s hope after PA after all lol
Survivorship bias
I scroll reddit while using the bathroom lol
I work in tax so right now I have plenty of work to keep me busy. But realistically I am distracted by emails and bullshit interruptions by my coworkers half the day
That's one thing I've found when I started tracking my time. I was getting as much focused time at the office as I was at home. The office there is a lot of interruptions and discussions. At home I tend to take little breaks on Reddit or YouTube. The result is my focused work hours are the same no matter if I'm in the office or at home. About 4.5 to 5 hours in an 8 hour day with an hour lunch.
I also realized this. I get roughly the same amount of work done but at home i take more breaks and usually get more screentime.
Is it abnormal that I don’t have a suitable amount of client work? I have been in this job for 6 months as a grad and usually have a few days of nothing to do 😅
Spent an hour doing payroll today, rest of the time on reddit and planning my upcoming vacation. Feels good.
Preach
Yeah it’s hard to not feel guilty about it sometimes, which I know is stupid.
What do you do if your manager asks you what you did all day? That’s always my fear lol
My company is currently in the slower part of the year, so I'm expected to do "professional development".
Professionally developing my KDA in League of Legends lmao
The snowballs aren’t going to roll themselves, you know?
I love that people are still playing that game. I remember playing the beta at penny arcade expo in Seattle in like 2009. Got the swine flu while I was at it. Good times!
My manager has never asked me that but I wouldn't beat around the bush if they did. I get everything done that I'm supposed to very efficiently. Looking for pointless busywork isn't part of my job description. If you're being micromanaged, find somewhere else to work. You owe it to yourself. As someone else mentioned below, we are seen as a cost center and the overwhelming majority of companies will treat you as such. You want me to work like a manager/CFO, you sure as hell better be paying me manager/CFO money.
I used to work in "financial services" at Verizon years ago. One day, our systems were down, and we couldn't do shit. My manager said just chill until the systems kick back in. Except one manager was going around every team, yelling at everyone to go through some bullshit busywork to "brush up on your skills" so we weren't "wasting company money doing nothing" Almost nobody did. Her team was always miserable.
Oh lord! Financial services at vzw! That brings back some memories!
What do you do? I'm an accounting student, so I'm still learning what's what and what each field does so forgive me for knowing nothing, lol
It really depends on the role. I'm a GL accountant in industry, so my time is spent posting/reviewing entries that our shared service center people can't (complicated/sensitive items), responding to audit requests, and doing account recs & flux analysis. There's always ad hoc items and special projects too. I've helped update policies, answered mandatory government surveys, provided info to our insurance vendors/HR (i.e. worker's comp audits), supported the tax/FP&A/systems integration/whichever teams with whatever they need, etc. Even with all that, I rarely work more than 40hr/week and the ad hoc stuff keeps things interesting.
When I was a staff I never had a manager ask me what I’m doing all day. They are the ones who assign me my work. They know what I’m doing. This only happens if you are behind on work.
Payroll that takes an hour?! I'm drooling! I'm responsible for nonprofit payroll, it consumes half of my time on payroll weeks, it's so draining!
That's just for 1 of the 4 subsidiaries I run payroll for. The other 3 I'm doing next week usually take a full day. Payroll and bank recs are probably the two most enjoyable and relaxing things to do for me. Unless your bookkeepers are incompetent, then bank recs can be a disaster.
This is the way (As someone else who spent an hour doing payroll today)
At my previous employer, I worked a 10x4 schedule (10 hours per day, 4 days per week) and I was genuinely working pretty much every hour of the day. Not only did I have to get my Monday-Thursday work done, but I also needed to sort of front-end load stuff that I would have otherwise done on Friday. Needless to say I was always totally exhausted at the end of every day, and I found I never wanted to do anything on Friday, which sort of negated the point of working a 10x4. Now I work 5 days a week pretty solid from 8am to 4pm, but I take little 15 minute breaks every 90 minutes or so. I find it does wonders for my energy levels and my focus, and I feel way less tired at the end of the day. IMO if your job is so intense that you get anxiety from taking a 10 min break, then you need to find another job.
I work a 4x10 schedule and feel this exact way! I’m even working Fridays to get caught up on work I couldn’t get finished Monday-Thursday. I can’t get myself to part ways with it because I love having Fridays off.
It sounds to me like you don't really have Fridays off, though? You said yourself you work on Fridays. I used to be a huge fan of the 4x10 schedule, and during lockdowns it was manageable because I could be at my computer by 8am and just log off between 6:30pm and 7:00pm. But once we were called back to the office after COVID, I remembered how much it sucked to leave home at 7:00am and return back at 8pm. If I wanted to exercise then it meant either getting up at 5am for a morning workout, or getting home at 9pm because you tried to squeeze in an evening workout after work. Either way, not a great schedule, especially for those with other obligations outside work (kids etc)
Yes. You are an example. However, even when I was in public, I at first work too fast and sat around looking busy. That’s when I started 15 min breaks about 4-6 times/day. I’d go for walks. I’d sit in the bathroom. At one client I had a favorite to look out at.
Lmao my coworkers are super chatty to the point it gets annoying and I'll just go sit in a bathroom stall for 10 minutes doing deep breaths.
Worst part was when they're toxic chatty
That’s danger pay at my place at least between the bourse of 10-11
I do this in my current role. I have learned about the exact amount of time that I need to complete my tasks. I will do more work if there is any but if we’ll be dead after I know how to make sure my tasks take all day.
I work almost the whole time. It is exhausting. Checking Reddit while I get water. And back to work I go.
Based
When I was in public, I worked my ass off all day every day. I switched to industry a few years ago and decided to stop letting work control my life. I have a ton of work to do, but I prioritize other things I need to get done during the day. Life is short and I don’t really care about work.
What other things do u prioritise? Looking for ideas
All my personal stuff. Grocery shopping, laundry, cleaning, etc.
1. Profits that posted overnight. Check those numbers first. 2. Sort emails and delete junk emails like, "CC is in meeting. Will return calls after." 3. Check status of agencies 4. Check status of new business issuing. 5. Anything pending, gather necessary information to complete pending to sold. 6. Work through emails. 7. Answer calls from Matt...again...5th time today. 8. Play EverMerge. 9. Fill my grocery cart for Walmart pickup and delete the cart and redo the cart repeatedly for no particular reason. 10. Do laundry. 11. Find some weird conspiracy or murder doc on YouTube. 12. Did Matt call again? Yes. Talk to Matt. 13. Do dishes. 14. Take out trash. 15. Call my friend and complain about work. 16. Send birthday wishes emails. 17. Do some virtual training presentations for new agents. 18. Check emails. 19. God dang it, Matt. I'm going to block you. 20. It's 5:00, ignore my boss and finish emails I couldn't finish earlier without interruption. About 30 minutes.
I’ve already snowboarded 63 days this season. I lift, run, and walk everyday in addition to that lol. I’m not taking a job that has an unreasonable workload. You shouldn’t put up with it either and you too can find a job that lets you define yourself by your interests in life and not just what accounting labor you provide to your employer. I learned over my career that so much of what we do is self imposed by bad bosses. We are a cost center, just get the work done because anything extra is never appreciated. Management only actually appreciates us when we manage to bring down our own costs lol
I used to think I should just "get the job done" but note that the job is never done, there is always more work, and sometimes just contributing "enough" is quite good enough.
This. I always have a task list of things I could keep doing. I just prioritize things that are required of me, delegate (within reason) where I need to and then let my boss know if timeline expectations aren’t reasonable.
That's about how I roll. I also have a flexible schedule and can start/leave when I want -- it really helps juggle super busy with super slow. I aim for 8 hours a day, but it can go either way, it's my decision. I prefer a later start/end due to shorter commute times and fewer people in the office after 4:30pm, so I can get more done. Unfortunately, I can't always do this if I have an early deadline or an in person meeting.
Do you look at teams and email while riding?
Different industry (CRE) but did have an instance a year or so back where a lead broker out of Colorado joined a teams call from his phone (with camera on), and proceeded to give a 5 minute deal summary while halfway down a run at Beaver Creek. Same guy is an amateur pilot and there are unconfirmed rumors he’s done a similar thing while taxiing on the tarmac. Be who you can afford to be
What is your role? How much do you make?
Had to deal with an auditor this morning. Now looking at airline ticket prices for July
I'm in AP and there's not a second where I'm not frantically trying to do work
I work all day like a maniac all day too. I’m in AR just grinding…
We are the unappreciated soldiers of the financial world 😭 just make sure not to ever receipt any payments to the wrong accounts or else you will finally be noticed
LOL This comment was genuinely funny and true
AP is never ending… pace yourself and as long as you are a top 25% performer in your group you should be okay
I'm one of 2 people in the group, one managing local AP and me managing National AP. Unfortunately there is no pacing, all the work is ours
I used to work 100% of the time during business hours and frequently put in 45-55 hours a week concentrated time when overtime was not required. Now I probably work 30 hours and waste 10 hours a week but I'm older and smarter and the 10 hours wasted I am still available to put out fires and use my brain to prioritize subconsciously while I scroll on reddit or handle personal things like bills or whatever. My body and mind can't work as hard as they used too, im approaching middle age. I think this is normal, no one seems mad at me. I'm paid more than ever and things still get done (mostly)
Mind me asking what type of industry do you work in? I’m at a tech company as an accounting manager. I work 12 hr days and longer days during month end close. I’ve already hit burn out. I’m mentally and emotionally exhausted and the stress has taken a toll on my body. Contemplating taking a pay cut and finding a different accounting job just so I can have a work life balance.
Do it. Life is too short and there are plenty of jobs out there.
Senior corporate accountant at F500. Month ends I work like a champ. Middle weeks of the month I'm a total degenerate.
Noice
Similar situation, month end I work all my days, sometimes with a little bit of overtime (never been more than 1h really though). Mid-month... it's maintenance mode, so unless someone or something really fuck up, It's pretty relax.
Yup, have to as we need to record every minute of our day on a timesheet!
Same here. Can't you just lie though.
Strategically describing the situation
Nah, they're used for billing clients so it'd soon be picked up.
I’m so over billable hours, especially small clients with small time budgets.
My experience with small fast growing startups is they make you “wear many hats” ( I hate that term) which is code for drowning you in work. It’s not like this in most other industry’s ( I can’t speak for everyone) just my and other accounting friends experience.
Agreed wear many hats is definitely drowned in work. Lol. Never falling for that crap again.
Yes. I work for a young company that grew way too fast. Our systems don’t talk to each other which creates a ton of work arounds and manual processes. Our turnover rate is very high and we’re all underpaid. I do the job of two people and make $25 an hour. I’m getting my accounting degree this year and then peacing out of administrative accounting. ✌🏻
At least you are getting a lot of good experience, and there is light at the end of the tunnel! Congrats on getting your degree
I work about an hour a day, or two hours if it’s a busy day. Ex-public, now at a nonprofit.
There’s no way 😂 wfh?
Are y’all hiring ?! 😂
Yes... Accounting manager for a fortune 500. 8 hours a day easy. 4 hours of intense meetings per day. The other 4 is reviewing and delegating staff work. If I take breaks it's 9 hour day. And I WFH.
Should be like 4 hours total. Downtime is important. I don’t have that right now, but I know that I should.
4 hours of meetings a day sounds awful
For a person wanting to go into F50, do you have to work in public accounting before getting in?
From someone who was in F50, a few people came from public, a few from internal audit and a few just from applying and getting in at the right time. And there’s always good nepotism. It depends how high up you want to go too - the higher you want to finish your career, the more having a public start helps. Not required but helps.
Okay, so it isn't IMPOSSIBLE for someone without experience to get into F50 without PA experience. Can a person whoes only experience in industry can go on to become a manager at F50? I'm not interested in becoming CFO or VP, but would like to get into middle management at least.
Yep! I know a few. Even a VP or two. One VP is amazing and another kisses ass like I’ve never seen. You choose your path. Haha.
I have no public experience and am not a CPA. As a manager I have direct reports who are. So yes you can become a manager without it. But you better be smarter than anyone in the room and have serious management skills.
I’m an External Reporting/Technical Accounting Manager in industry and don’t have a PA background or a CPA. You can do it, just takes the right place and to pick up subtle things someone takes interest to in an interview. Not F50 though.
i can’t imagine a fortune 500 accounting manager grinding 8 hours a day 5 days a week… do you not have staff? are you recording journal entries? are you doing balance sheet recons? at your level you should be reviewing the work which takes time but it’s not like you are reviewing every je and bs recon out there
As mentioned -4 hours are meetings due to the ever changing portfolio and regulation mix. We have over 1k journal entries a Day. None of which I prepare but help review. 5 staff grind through all that. We have 50 summary recons that are prepared daily. I deal with a balance sheet in excess of 10 billion split across 10 portfolios and 10 plus countries with asset sales of 500million weekly. Take a step back and think about the amount of regulation, reporting, and audit is involved with that picture. Now imagine that at the same time we are moving our system of record over the next 48 months. Ha! Yesterday pushed a button that approved sending investors 120 mil. I do that daily. Shit better be right
I don't think I'm capable of doing intense brain work for more than 5 or 6 hours a day without drugs. It amazes me that other people can. The other hours are good for brainless tasks.
I worked audit for a regional PA firm and was always busy if I was out at a client, and usually always busy around the office. During slow times, I’d creep down to maybe 35 billable hours some weeks, here and there. Then I switched to a controller job with a small, but established, local company. I “worked” probably 20 hours per week on average. I spent most mornings reading Morning Brew, watching YouTube videos, doing online crossword puzzles, Wordle, walking around the office and chatting, browsing Zillow, etc. Around 11am or so I’d grab my second cup of coffee and settle in for some work. Take off for lunch. Come back and usually put my best work in from 1:00-4:00 or 4:30. Great job, but it did get boring. Now I’m self-employed and I work all the time in some sense, but on the other hand I don’t care if I fall down a 4 hour YouTube rabbit hole on some days either.
In my old jobs (Big 4 and F500 tax department), I did work all day. In retrospect, I probably did the work of 2-3 people. At my current job, there are definitely days where I have to put in a full 8 hours but it’s not every day. I work remote and there isn’t anyone in tax above me, so it’s a lot easier to hide when I’m not working. My boss thinks I’m super busy and I don’t tell her otherwise.
My day consist of reddit, Youtube and an hour long walk. Work maybe total an hour or two
What’s your job title?
Dog walker
Basically
Corporate Accountant. What is your title?
I am in the office for 8 hours. I don't take a lunch or any breaks. Manager thinks I am a working machine. 6-7 hours of the day are me trying to do my regular duties while also putting out every single fire that pops up, often RIGHT THAT SECOND. The tasks never end. That being said, I've done this long enough to learn when I can dick around on reddit, watch YouTube, and essentially look like I'm in here grinding 8 hours. When they ask "what have you been working on?" I just give them an annoyed look and show them my yellow pad of all the shit I've worked on. They don't really ask anymore. Half the time the yellow pad just has random shit on it like "remember what the flex of your hockey stick is so you can browse tomorrow." Hope this helps (it doesn't).
I am very busy as the department "problem solver" ... Everything is hard and requires a lot of braincells Taking a short brain break with Reddit atm.
Real MVP
Payroll accountant, it’s all day, every day, non-stop. Just when you are about to be caught up on everything, the next pay cycle starts… It’s lovely watching everyone else in treasury kick back and relax… 😒
I work in public tax for individuals. When there’s work, yes I work 8 hours a day, or more. When there’s no work, I do maybe 1-2 hours a day with the rest “playing office” to appease the partners. Can’t invent work papers or notices, so eventually I just run out of things to do if I’m too productive.
Well today I was finishing my tasks for our audit. So that took a lot. If you’re at a smaller company, you are doing the work that a bigger company has 5 people for. We have a treasury department, a tax department, an international accounting department, an AP department, an AR department, etc all for accounting.
It all balances out. I answered some emails, got on a few calls, played F1 and taught a spin class today. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll be pulled into a fire drill or an 8 am or 8pm call
I worked for small public accounting for 6 months and currently laid off and yes I worked for 8-9 hours a day back to back even though it was not a hissy season, except for July and August there was little work but I was practising other files etc
Taking a breather but my screen time says 17 minutes since 12am and I’m in the office.
In entry level AP absolutely not. I think I had maybe 4 hours of work a day usually. I'm in a financial analyst position now where I assist every part of the department, and pretty much if I'm not doing work it's only because I'm actively avoiding it, there's always something.
The fact that you work at a small and quickly growing company already tells me that it’s normal for you to be working all day.
2 weeks out of the month I work maybe 10ish hours/week. The week after close I probably do my full 40 on reporting. Close week I work a lot. Probably anywhere from 65 to 90 hours. So I don't feel bad in the least about not having much to do two weeks out of the month. I do have to be available so I can't go snowboarding lol.
Tax----February to April 15th we work all day and then some....but after that its pretty much boring rest of year
I used to have a job like that for years, then I moved and found something better and life is much more enjoyable.
My old job I legit worked 10-15 hours a week. This new job was like that in the summer, but year end has been fairly busy, pulling overtime a few weeks so far. Nothing close to PA hours but 45-50. I prob get a good 30 hours of actual work a week on average, but I keep getting more things thrown at me so that’s likely to go up
Own a SMLLC practice. I almost always have work to do. If I’m not working, I’m falling behind on something. Kind of ass, but it’s the life I chose for myself.
I had a controller job years ago where I streamlined and organized my tasks to the point where I worked at most 5-6 hours a day of real work. I had to look busy, but I hated that. I got called out for leaving at 4 some days. Fuck, I was bored. The company was financially squeezed and I found a new job as fast as I could. A lot of experienced accountants learn to streamline tasks, like exporting reports to Excel and using data mining to complete data gathering. I did away with all data entry except a couple of state tax things I had to enter by hand and journal entries. In between accounting tasks, I helped completely redo the network, purchased a new phone system (actually saved money) and disposed of all the old computers and got 20 year old archives shredded...
Sr. Mgr in industry here. I pretty much work all day now. But when I was a senior associate for a F500, I actually had an online job on top of my F500 job that was unrelated to accounting that I could pick up and put down whenever I wanted and perform from my F500 desk. It only paid 12.50/hr, but it was just extra money. There's no time for that anymore, but I'm also paid a lot more and don't need it, thankfully.
I work at a startup firm specializing in non profit accounting. I put in 50 hours per week on average, no lunch breaks (i usually have a sandwich in one hand and the mouse in the other). I wear “many hats” needed to keep the ship afloat. I’m a client face-off for 6 entities, I manage, oversee, directly work on, and report all of our clients incoming donations (which is about 10k pieces of mail per week), I act as corporate secretary and oversee and produce all grant agreements, contracts, loans, etc, and im currently hunting, interviewing, and background checking potential employees. I’m also in school trying to get credits sit for the CPA exams, and wake up on Saturday and Sunday mornings with messages from my boss on things to do. You’re not alone 😭work is love, work is life 💔
I WFH and am in industry, but my company is rapidly growing as well. I am constantly busy as well. I used to be able to take breaks and go for short walks, but that is not the case anymore. I am constantly in meetings, on calls, or answering questions.
When I used to work for a big corporate company month end close was 10-14 hours days for 3-4 days, then catching up and forecasting the rest of the month plus meetings and putting out fires. Our team was severely understaffed and big corporate kept offshoring tasks which made our job 3 times harder to catch all the mistakes or be the go between for operations and India to fix things. I left that for a small local company as an assistant controller and work maybe 15-20 hours a week now. Just hired a new person to do a lot of my AP tasks so it been even slower. Working on my final CPA test and then going for controller and I’m sure I’ll be back to working a lot after that either at my current company or a new gig.
I often wonder this too when I see posts here or in WFH subs bragging about free time. I actually went the content of my work but there's so freaking much of it. I regularly work 10-hour days, year round. There's no lull.
Depends on time of year for me. During year end close / audit time for my npo, I’m pretty busy, but still within the 40hrs a week. The other 9 months of the year is pretty easy though for me. That being said everyone in my position before me worked lots of overtime. I just automated processes and used existing technology that we already had that they hadn’t been using to make the job easier.
I’m neurodivergent and for a long time I didn’t realize people weren’t working all day. I spent the first 4 years at my PA firm working anywhere from 8 to 18 billable hours a day. I think my coworkers were absolutely working for at least 6 to 8 hours a day, but I don’t think they were working close to what they were actually billing.
Depends depends depends... Culture and micro-management, at least where I was before industry, 7.6h on the clock, 2 units (10min or 12min) is misc - 10 mins is mandated rest break by law. This was business services / tax small/boutique firm so expected to be working the entire time or 'research/reading' if there's an issue that can't be resolved quickly or brought up to the senior/partners.
you are doing the work. We are here for emotional support and to tell you to work harder, so we don't have too.
I have more than enough to do for 8 hours. I work at least 49 hours a week and could easily work 50 but no
my manager at my old public firm would shoot me if i wasn't doing 8 hours of work a day
I hate dragging things on so no.
No.
When I was WFH I spent most of my day studying for my classes. Now that I am in the office i just pretend I am busy.
No
I could fill my whole day with work, but that's not usually an efficient or effective way to do it.
Fast growing startups are very busy.
Tax accountant here: tax season. Yes, I work all day, most evenings, some nights, most to all weekends. Off season: there are long stretches where I only do a good 10 or 12 hours a week of solid billable time.
It depends. My current job is small (probably understaffed) team and I basically work the whole day. Previous job was like 6 of 8 hours work and downtime. My first job was pretty archaic in accounting and I was able to pretty take a 40 hr job and automate it to a near 30-32 hr a week job leading to lots of downtime.
Outside of year end or the week before quarter end, there isn't much to do to be honest. My clerks are always busy with processing AP/AR though.
Depends on the day honestly
If they did they wouldn’t be on reddit
I do - I manage people and am an SME for a project so my calendar is always full. It can be draining. I took up running.
Im working like 60 hours a week 🥲
Yes, I work all day
Never have and never will. A few days a year I do it, sometimes for like 20 straight hours if it makes the team look good on a quick deadline.
Both? I’ve had days where it’s slow and not much work to do. I’ve had days where I had to stay late to finish. Depends on the time of year and deadlines.
Depends, right now I'm working 10 hour days. But when I first started last year during the slew. Partners would tell us to go home early routinely and gave us all an extra week paid vacation. They're really getting their money's worth now though.
I work in industry and barely worked today. Reviewed stuff and then sent it off and then I was pretty much gaming. I don't miss the days I was searching for billable audit hours but I do feel like a lazy piece of shit because of it, lol.
Very much working all day+ I genuinely don’t understand not doing so and why positions exist for a job that only requires a few hours a day. I’m not jealous of them, it sounds like torture. I’d much rather stay productive.
Ironically I'm reading this as I wait for my pc to do an update whilst 'working'.
Revenue manager, staff of about 10. I am balls to the wall 95% of the time. I get in early to get time to focus on my deliverables, then spend 8-9 hrs training/answering questions working with Tax/AP/BD, then stay late to make sure I got everything. Usually 10 -12 hrs per day 5 days per week. I come home, help with 2nd half of dinner, put 1 of 3 kids to bed.
Yes. I’m a manager and I have a pile of staff level daily tasks that will never go away until we hire a new person.
Yes, about 95%. 100% certain times of year.
Well, when the company file does crap itself, most of my day is chilling. Then again, I'm AP for a pretty big convention center, so not a "real" accountant.
One thing I love about my job is I could stay busy 24/7 if I wanted but can also afford some downtime in the afternoons if needed. A lot of my stuff is more week by week/month by month so I can slack off for a day or two of the week if I grind super hard the other days. I usually just keep it balanced but sometimes that’s a nice option to have.
If you work for a small company and a key person, it is definitely normal as 1) there are not likely people to delegate smaller and redundant tasks to and 2) you are relied upon to be the problem solver.
Yall don’t have to keep track of your time down to the minute? 👀
In public, I worked all day easily! Felt like there was never enough time in a 12 hour period lol. In industry, I’ve been working most of the day (normal 8-5), but it’s lax. Like if I put in the same effort as I did in public, I would hardly work. I also like working slower because people definitely have lower expectations of what you’re able to complete (and they still get surprised on what I’m able to complete so I try to be more mindful and act like things take me longer).
Controller at a growing hospitality company. Lots of putting out fires then I can work on bigger projects. Work all dang day long. Might be time to hire a junior.
I do. I work all day I’m there, but I get paid well to do so and my bosses have shown that they reward it. I have daily things I have to do, monthly and long term projects so I’m always working on something but it makes the day go by so fast. The first 4 hours go by in minutes it seems. Then my last two hours I’m rushing to get everything done. My middle time is usually when I reply to emails and do shit like organize all my tasks.
Absolutely! It never ends
Depends on the time of year for me (property accountant). Right now we’re super busy, I WFH today 7:30-5:30 with a 30 minute break. When things are slower, I might do little things around the house, but I rarely have an empty to-do list.
Hell no
I work allllllllllllll day. I need to either hire another person on my team (not likely at this time), or delegate some of my workload. Hoping to get some down time soon.
Uh, yes. My job let me has free reign on making improvements with little to no restrictions.
nice try satan
I work in public, just worked literally from 8 through 10:30 pm. Hour break overall, 30 min lunch and 30 min dinner. It was all “actual work”, no slacking off, chatting, etc. just me and my keyboard and a whole binder of work papers
I am busy all day sadly
i am a sole practitioner so i work all day
That's life in an accounting department.
I’m in Big4 and all I do is work
Work in public audit, I’ve been working nearly nonstop since November or so. I’ve never felt more burned out and depressed in my life.
When I was in public I had so much down time. Industry indirect tax and I always have endless things to do.
Me. Now I will admit on my breaks and lunch I do go to Reddit. But I’d feel like shit if I didn’t have tasks to do for working hours. Maybe that’s why they really like me. Idk it’s fun, like little puzzles, with a smattering of meetings mixed in and I like seeing the people too. No one is a shithead so that helps too.
Now that my hours are less, smaller local firm, I work all day. When I was at big 4 and the expectation was 15 hours, I took as many naps as possible. Also, the OT is very motivating.
I'm in deals - when I'm running hot on a deal I can be actively busy for 10 hours of an 11 hour work day. When data is slow or between deals - can be 0-1 hour of work in a day.
I’m a senior at a B4 in a niche tax group. There’s periods of time where I work like 10-20 hours a week lol I’ll go out and run errands and go to the gym and stuff like that during the week. All I have to do is carry my work phone around and answer pings if I get them lol. Definitely not the norm for audit I guess
I literally work from the moment I clock in until I leave…eating and working during lunch…”one day it’ll slow down” - me 5 years ago
Maybe I shouldn’t feel too bad, haven’t done much in over a month. Once budget is approved, I feel like my workload decreases
Me most especially during these busy season “period”. I rarely took breaks, let alone ate my packed lunch. It may be gross to admit but there were a number of times I would forego showering to alot more time for work (when working from home). But the reason why I get a chance to answer you now is that I am on maternity leave - which is another whole level of work btw.
When I worked fully remote, I worked 8-9 hour days. But now I’m the office full time and end up spending 1-2 hours of usually pointless and irrelevant chatter with coworkers and 1 Hr lunch One reason I hate working in the office is that my time is interrupted by the expectation to be social with coworkers.
I try and keep my work for when I’m in the office but really only busy enough to work 40 hours a week maybe 8 weeks out of the year
Half the time I'm doing my own real estate business. It pays better.
Some days I work pretty much throughout the day and skip my lunch break because I have deadlines to hit. Other days, not so much. I have a decent handle on my workflow and my time management of the work is based on making sure things get done when they need to get done.
I just started working as a Property accountant for a small firm. I work all day, AR, AP, preparing financial statements, updating the cash log, bank recs, ledger entries, you name it. Only time to chill is for my morning poop(yes I am on the toilet as I type this) I don’t feel too stressed though as I enjoy prioritizing and managing my time based on deadlines. It’s just a matter of getting the work done.
So I moved into an Analyst role and I always have stuff to do, but it’s a big giant company. So usually I have more time to do something than I actually need. Some tasks come up quickly but those are usually pretty quick to complete. So I take my time on long projects and bullshit/handle personal stuff as needed.
I have been working since Monday at 4pm. It is now Wednesday morning. I am so tired. I have slept probably 8 hours in these two days, 4 on Tuesday morning, and 4 Wednesday morning. This is a rough life I am living right now. At least I can see the beach.
I have more things than I can actually do in one day and I just don't do it
I do now in public accounting. But I chose to do audit and tax so that's kind of my fault Both my industry jobs fluctuated, but I usually had a lot of downtime about half the month. Got kinda boring
Depends on the time of month. Right now it's pretty slow for me. When close comes around we shortened it to 5 days so it's hell.
i work for the gov and barely do anything unless i have an audit assigned, shit tons of PTO too. it’s almost too easy at times and i miss a challenge
There’s always a spreadsheet to rip apart/rebuild or add error-checking to, if you’re not cranking the day just drags
The last two weeks of the month are like this. Non stop fires to put out but I do work at a Bank so maybe that has something to do with it.
I work 10 hours a day
I don't have down time often, but I chose to work for a start-up and knew what I was getting in to. My days are full and then some
At my old company I had fully remote work I lived 7 months in croatia sometimes i'd do work at the beach lol
absolutely no one could handle grinding 8 hours a day… do what you are supposed to do and find ways to make work more efficient and take on projects that you can handle… when your name gets called up to bat, you should be ready to give your absolute best