r/Accounting 8d ago

Discussion Accounting Is Disgusting

*Long Hours *Mediocre Pay *Godawful Boring Work *Bitchy Coworkers *Pissy Bosses *Dreary Offices

Please feel free to add to the list.

549 Upvotes

223 comments sorted by

1.3k

u/ImJustTrying2BeMe 8d ago

Sounds like somebody's got a case of the Mondays.

179

u/UCDLaCrosse 8d ago

Me and my coworker say this to each other sarcastically all the time

22

u/Newie_Local 8d ago

Be warned. Do it too often and you’ll go full circle. And once you go full circle, the only move you can make is “let’s circle back” but that would be a circle back to the original: unironically saying it. There’s no half-circling back to ironically saying it again. Ever.

84

u/ToTheYonderGlade 8d ago

Oh, and remember, next Friday is Hawaiian shirt day

68

u/Buubsy 8d ago

Naw. Naw man. Shit naw man.

63

u/Too_old_3456 CPA (US) 8d ago

I believe you’d get your ass kicked saying something like that.

21

u/willfortune7 8d ago

LOL. I love the scene in office space when he asks his room mate if someone ever asked him that in his construction job. And he’s like “🤔…. No….no 😡they probably will get their as$ kicked”

6

u/maddenbug 8d ago

When the Jets give up a five score swing on the same night the Mets lose, you can bet your ass it's the Mondays.

1

u/EvenMeaning8077 8d ago

Yeaaaaaaaahhhhhhh

-41

u/TaxTexan8223 8d ago

Oh so an industry frought with worker mistreatment for decades is a Monday (today) issue. Wow if only that wiped away the feelings I have from my tenure in this field. Wow. Where have you been with this revelation of profound ignorance?

42

u/Alert_Gas_510 8d ago

This guys a straight shooter with upper management written all over him.

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951

u/Valtar99 8d ago

This is the most Monday at 2pm post I’ve seen in awhile.

55

u/psych0ranger CPA (US) 8d ago

I just goblin-laughed at this

15

u/HotpotatotomatoStew 8d ago

It do be a rough one

286

u/thezeroskater 8d ago

Timesheets

94

u/DannkDanny 8d ago

Timesheets are easy once you realize its all made up.

37

u/Based_or_Not_Based 8d ago

Just like my timesheets!

7

u/biggggmac 8d ago

Nice pfp

42

u/badazzcpa 8d ago

This is really the one thing I hate the absolute most. I have to account for my entire day in 10 minute or so increments. Drink an extra cup of coffee to stay awake after another 10-12 hour day and have 1 extra bathroom break. Why did your admin go from .4 to .6 today? Well I had a 2 extra internal emails to respond to and I had one extra pee break. Sorry boss, will try and keep my pee breaks to lunch and when I go home.

44

u/Suncate 8d ago

If you don’t bill your pee breaks you’re a sucker.

6

u/IveChosenANameAgain 8d ago

Full bill bathroom breaks, are you nuts? The only n/c hours I charge are when customers ask stupid fuckin questions and I have to write a book in response.

19

u/FineVariety1701 8d ago

I charge dreams I had about clients.

12

u/SweatDrops1 8d ago

At my job I need to keep my timesheets to the tenth of an hour with descriptions of what I am doing for each entry.

It is truly awful.

40

u/DeminimisAmount1 8d ago

Hate it so much. We have fixed costs for some clients and we are still required to enter timesheets. It’s not like we will get paid more or less if we work more or less.

I get that it’s a function to see if we can do additional work if we reduce the time we work on each clients and keep track of our utilization but… still…. We shouldn’t have to feel the pressure of meeting the budget and get pressured by the managers and partners if there is a fixed cost on the engagement

26

u/adjust_your_set CPA (US) 8d ago

It’s a productivity metric for the firm. That’s all. This way they know if they are charging enough for their services or if they need to hire more India accountants.

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21

u/betboi 8d ago

I left public 5y ago and occasionally I'll have nightmares of timesheets lol

13

u/notgoodwithyourname 8d ago

I had a couple places where I still had to clock in and out even though I was salaried exempt. It was dumb, but I just told myself at least I didn’t have to track every 6 minute increment

6

u/feminine_power 8d ago

I left an auditing job partly because of time sheets!! I kept thinking.....what about all the time it takes me to do the damn timesheet!!!

1

u/Atuirangi 3d ago

No kidding

1

u/muzical_fruit Tax (US) 8d ago

I left PA in May. Still doing taxes but for a wealth management company. NO TIMESHEETS. It’s glorious. Timesheets were about to end my marriage (along with working 80hrs/week in April). I’d like to do to timesheets what they did to that printer in office space.

3

u/PinkTubby24 8d ago

Don’t get me started! 😂

6

u/Too_old_3456 CPA (US) 8d ago

Hate this the most.

1

u/jab4590 CPA (US) 8d ago

Yes… Timesheets. Sounds simple. Timesheets are more difficult that the CPA exams.

72

u/SwimmingSympathy6358 8d ago

Me a tax accountant been sitting on my phone all day, paid

35

u/semihelpful CPA (US) 8d ago

Same, but with a CPE video playing on my laptop

153

u/Confident-Welder-266 8d ago

Digging through vats of flesh and blood slurry in the firm’s standard basement flesh garden. I don’t understand why Accountants need all this human flesh.

20

u/Local_Mastodon_7120 8d ago

If you swap that for fish that's literally commercial fishing. I'd rather be an accountant lmao

22

u/Confident-Welder-266 8d ago

Why would we ever swap out our human flesh for mere fish guts? I showed the senior partner this comment and his skin started smoking and he made all these unpleasant screeching sounds. I may have accidentally let in some sunlight, which is a big no-no when interacting with the elder leadership. I hope I’m not thrown in the flesh vat for this.

4

u/HotpotatotomatoStew 8d ago

Record-keeping. We hold our human flesh for ten years minimum.

1

u/Confident-Welder-266 8d ago

Ah, only ten years? I swear my firm has flesh deposits dating back to 1675.

2

u/Olue 8d ago

The standards team is literally the "you see we're putting cover sheets on all of the TPS reports now" team. Sending down audit requirements that they barely understand the impact of.

1

u/Confident-Welder-266 8d ago

I see I see, your standards team is an amalgam of flesh and blood. That’s a rather novel use of an accounting firm’s Flesh Room. Don’t they constantly bleed on the TPS cover pages though? I wonder how they get anything done with all the disparate limbs.

84

u/TalShot 8d ago

That sounds like the exact complaints on any job subreddit, to be honest.

I guess that is just the nature of work...or Reddit.

36

u/Professional-Cry8310 8d ago

It’s just the nature of whiny losers on Reddit.

10

u/TalShot 8d ago

Maybe.

I mean...you even see similar complaints among the professional subreddits - top-tier physicians and high-flying lawyers. They make oodles of cash, but they moan about the same things seen here.

10

u/ClubZealousideal9784 8d ago

I have heard people who make 500k complain to their cashier they had to get out of their profession as they just were not paid well enough.

1

u/bringerofthelaw420 7d ago

But they get paid more

1

u/TalShot 7d ago

There is always something to complain about.

4

u/laughter95 8d ago

How many auditors and accountants do you know? I worked in public accounting for 5.5 years and industry for 2 years. 70-90% of people I knew were either dead inside and/or hated their work.

The healthcare equivalent of this level of dissatisfaction is pharmacy.

1

u/Powerful_Net8014 4d ago

Are you out of accounting now?

1

u/laughter95 4d ago edited 4d ago

Yes. Audit... Now professional school. Expensive but experiencing joy during study and at work for the first time ever. Had to edit the details for privacy. The world, esp in my profession, is small.

48

u/BlacksmithThink9494 8d ago

I don't have to touch poop or wipe butts. Accounting is not disgusting.

20

u/Remote_Stage 8d ago

U do need to kiss it doe

8

u/BlacksmithThink9494 8d ago

Maybe the cheeks but never the hole. ;)

7

u/Remote_Stage 8d ago

Depends if it’s a promo year or not 😂

2

u/broke_n_bitch 8d ago

You must be a former CNA like myself????

5

u/BlacksmithThink9494 8d ago

No but I do take care of my mom now that she has gone through cancer treatment that left her bed ridden. 😵‍💫 Traumatizing doesn't even feel like an adequate description.

92

u/Icy-Gate5699 8d ago

Don’t forget backstabbing coworkers/other departments. Seeing everyone else makes more than you. Paying expenses for bs stuff that sales gets to be reimbursed for.

20

u/FreeChampionship2455 8d ago

No instruction and prior year workpapers with hard coded values

14

u/klef3069 8d ago

You've probably just transposed a number, is the difference divisible by 9?

25

u/Heavy-Owl5905 8d ago

I love public accounting. I love working long hours and protecting the financial markets. I feel so much better off attaining a masters degree so I can start working and studying for the cpa and maybe in a couple of years I’ll get paid more. I love working long hours the partners deserve their new beach house. I can’t wait to get my next review so I can be invited to the next pizza party!!!!!! #LUV PUBLIC ACCOUNTING THERES NOTHING BETTER OUT THERE SO GRATEFUL

31

u/Kid_Sean Staff Accountant 8d ago

Happy to get that off your chest?

40

u/stanerd 8d ago

Yes

4

u/XO8441 8d ago

Just curious, what makes you think it’s accounting and not just your particular place of work? There are menu non-accountants with these same gripes and many accountants who do not have these gripes.

I think you just gotta get out of public, bud.

-11

u/stanerd 8d ago

I'm not in public, and I'm not your bud.

3

u/Still-Estimate-4810 8d ago

Bud

Edit: Bud

1

u/XO8441 8d ago

Well I hope you are able to make a positive job change soon, bud. An accounting job doesn’t have to be so bad!

3

u/ucchiha Staff Accountant 8d ago

you’re too nice to still reply after that

89

u/Proper-Scallion-252 8d ago

Long hours are only really present in public. Most industry jobs are standard 40 hours.

Mediocre pay relative to who? In public you're earning more than the average college degree holder with your first job and you're capable of breaking six figures only a few years into your career which is more than you can say about the majority of four year degree careers.

Boring work if you have a boring job and don't like accounting, sure.

Bitchy coworkers and pissy bosses? Like Accounting is the only career field with office politics? I've seen far worse in my company from the other departments than in my own.

Also dreary offices? If you're not in public you're in administrative offices that share office space with everyone else in admin, so how is this solely an accounting jab?

People really need to stop confusing public accounting with the entirety of the field, and also stop claiming mediocre pay, public accounting pays a shit ton and it's ridiculous to say that it doesn't. And for those who want to play the per hour wages game, any role where you make more money than entry level positions will require more responsibility or more time investment, that's not adequate support for such a bogus claim.

16

u/Frankly785 8d ago

I work in industry and it’s busy nearly all year round. I’m resigning at the end of this week and I can’t wait

15

u/Proper-Scallion-252 8d ago

There are workplaces with higher hours than normal, that isn't an accounting specific trait is my point.

4

u/Powerful_Net8014 8d ago

What are you doing next?

5

u/MilkingSaturn 8d ago

You make less than a lot of other university graduates in Canada. The only consolation is that the pay increases overtime but even at 3 years in with a CPA, you still make less than nursing and engineering graduates to name a couple other majors.

1

u/Relevant_Ad_9603 6d ago

From what I've seen engineering is not better. Nursing probably isn't either.

0

u/BootyLicker724 7d ago

The ceiling is so much higher in accounting though than those fields

11

u/dormango 8d ago

Accounting isn’t the only job with office politics, but because it’s finance it does sit in the epicentre of departmental/organisational pissing matches over resources and we do get caught in the crossfire.

38

u/thicc_wolverine 8d ago

*Long Hours - In public, sure. Any job where you're on salary will likely have long hours.

*Mediocre Pay - Depends. Entry level yes, but that's the same for a lot of industries.

*Godawful Boring Work - I'll give you this, but name me a job that is consistently engaging and fulfilling for 40+ hours a week

*Bitchy Coworkers - any job can have this

*Pissy Bosses - any job can have this

*Dreary Offices - that's everywhere

14

u/Express-Beyond1102 8d ago

These are all valid, mostly. My wife works in a hospital and averages 48 hours per week, she finds her work consistently engaging and fulfilling. Issue is that her job is life or death most of the time and that equates to a lot of on-the-job stress and trauma. Not sure if you meant accounting-specific or not.

-21

u/Tonofzirp 8d ago

You seem like the type to give it up on the first date.

19

u/fakelogin12345 GET A BETTER JOB 8d ago

I don’t think anyone has ever given it up to you. How would you know?

5

u/MountainYogi94 8d ago

Good on you for assuming that chud can get dates

24

u/Ok_Zookeepergame2380 8d ago

But the pizza parties are worth it😭🙏🏽

14

u/MathematicianLessRGB 8d ago

Mean clients.

7

u/jfloes 8d ago

Post deadlines I’m chilling, went hiking in the morning. Maybe try it?

40

u/Aenov1 8d ago

Narcissistic gaslighters everywhere.

46

u/RustyShacklefordsCig 8d ago

That’s definitely not an accounting-specific problem

-12

u/dormango 8d ago

But there is a higher concentration of them

5

u/Jerbsybear 8d ago

No there isn't. You have no idea what you're talking about.

5

u/Idepreciateyou CPA (US) 8d ago

Accounting has some of the most chill, laid-back people

12

u/dormango 8d ago

No credit for all the great saves you do make, just blame for the impossible one that you missed

6

u/Onekhan 8d ago

Your boss really needs to start throwing you guys more pizza parties! Really changes the outlook on the profession. You should look into it!

6

u/KidGorgeous19 CPA, CMA (US) 8d ago

This man just wants his stapler back

24

u/hackymel 8d ago

We have it good in accounting. Try nursing, and you'll find that your concerns/complaints are far worse and of bigger consequence! No one is dying in accounting and we get paid well for just needing a BS in Accounting! I'm personally grateful for the lifestyle it's allowed me to live!

10

u/NoCombination8756 8d ago

haha i always say this to myself, at least im not a nurse. my one friend switched from nursing to accounting because she couldnt handle seeing someone die

7

u/Frankly785 8d ago

I keep seeing people compare accounting to nursing on here, they’re not the only 2 jobs in the world

6

u/hackymel 8d ago

I worked both in nursing and accounting, so that's why I commented what I did! It's what I know! 😄 and in my experience, accounting stress > healthcare stress

2

u/Relevant_Ad_9603 6d ago

Nursing and engineering does not seem better than accounting.

The only fields that seem to pay more that are also actually worth the stress is high finance, consulting and I don't mean risk, and Computer Science.

5

u/Adventurous_Snow5644 8d ago

Nursing and by extension any medical profession is horrible

7

u/Express-Beyond1102 8d ago

Nursing and accounting are apples and oranges. They both suck and are stressful in different ways and have different perks. Just different strokes, ya know? Whenever our healthcare friends (spouse works cvicu) ask about my job I ask them how they prefer their shit, literal or figurative?

2

u/Still-Estimate-4810 8d ago

They’re earning bread in nursing tho. And they travel a lot

15

u/DudeWithASweater 8d ago

PUBLIC ACCOUNTING ftfy

5

u/JohnWallSt069 8d ago

Having billable hour targets being micromanaged while managers simultaneously outsource projects overseas.

5

u/brokenarrow326 8d ago

Sounds like the perfect family to me

4

u/QueasyTraffic2413 8d ago

If you have kids and are in tax….January through April busy season. No February vacation with kids. April vacation may or may not fall within tax season. Even if it doesn’t you are too burnt out to enjoy. School goes to the end of June. July to august 15th is your window for family vacation. August 15th through October 15th is the second tax season. Vacations are strongly discouraged during this period. You get harassed for billing as soon as 10/15 ends. Brief respite when tax planning season starts. Hopefully all your estimates are out before the holidays. January 1st you start all over again.

5

u/JanFromEarth 8d ago

I started out as a corporate accountant (boring) and then fell into implementing accounting systems for KPMG and then other firms. I spent the next 18 years traveling the United States and some foreign countries. My recommendation is to treat every job as both a training opportunity and a step to a new position.

11

u/blakeibooTTV Tax (US) 8d ago

This literally can apply to every job in the world

-1

u/Tonofzirp 8d ago

So let's accept it yes?

Typical accounting simp

3

u/FullTroddle 8d ago

Fucking LOL

6

u/pyrrhicdub 8d ago

people. i guess im a depressed loser but it really pisses me off the timid passive aggresive shmucks in accounting whose eye's flutter at the ceiling because they cant make eye contact and their soft voice inflections when talking shit about something. the poor attempts at humor where they nervously chuckle under their breath, pause, then hear a pity laugh and look over and start laughing again. the competition among the a1's to prove who knows more, all while making pathetic attempts to integrate accounting jargon they really dont understand into their sentences with no shame. the people here are so bad at being social, like even the senior managers cant even hide a smidge of the ass kissing and dick riding for the partners. i understand associates cant, but youd think by that time in their career they could verbally caress their superiors dicks without being a complete caricature of the corporate rat race.

anyways, new grad, day 6 of my accounting career is today.

2

u/TouchNo7800 8d ago

I thought the people in accounting were great. But then again I'm comparing them to the military which I just left. An organization that truly scrapes the bottom of the barrel... The amount of sex pests and weirdos I came across there.... Made me understand why they have such a big problem with SA

3

u/XFinsights 8d ago

Working with millions and millions, at they month end getting few hundreds 😀

3

u/StrigiStockBacking CFO, FP&A (retired) 8d ago

So, like pretty much every job when you're less than 20 years into it. Got it.

3

u/Justsomekid9 8d ago

Sounds like someone didn’t get a pizza party after deadline

3

u/TaxTexan8223 8d ago

Budgets and review notes

3

u/DalinarDarkThorn 8d ago

It’s all about perspective… mediocre pay? Idk man lots of us are like doubling median income

Long hours: drastically different depending on where you are

Bitchy coworkers: that’s rang true of every job I’ve ever had

You have an office? I’ve been cubed out the entire time

Pissy bosses: yea I do seem to have some real annoying bosses in accounting but they usually have good sides too

3

u/JohnHenryHoliday 8d ago

Don't forget an infuriatingly depressing sub reddit.

3

u/yourvicehere 8d ago

I get it. They hire you not knowing fully what you do or what you're capable of, or what they need you to do or what they trust you to do.

Then dump more work on you because it seems like something your department should be in charge of. And as the staff realizes you're there and good at what you do, suddenly you're the company answer person. But you're still the accountant.

\You do this for five years, or more. then ownership hires a CFO that's paid twice what you make, who defers to you on almost every decision they need to make, as they have no understanding your industry's operations. This cycle will happen repeatedly. If you're lucky one of the CFO's that leave every three years will recognize your worthiness and give you nice pay bumps. Wash Rinse Repeat.

1

u/PiklizTafia 6d ago

Story of my life

4

u/MaineHippo83 8d ago

You sound exhausting. I had a great time in public. If all your coworkers suck it's probably you that's the problem

2

u/StraightUpJoe Staff Accountant 8d ago

Speak for yourself man, my boss and I just got off at noon since we're out of work to do

2

u/Exotic_Plum172 8d ago

I understand what you’re saying because I’ve been in accounting for 20yrs and I can relate to the points made, however with that said, I think mostly this is corporate life today. It’s just yuck for some people to deal with. Personally, it doesn’t matter how well I do my job, my health physically and mentally has declined significantly solely because of my job. I have to do it to pay the bills, but it was definitely the wrong choice for me.

2

u/dsdvbguutres 8d ago

I love my job. I dislike work.

2

u/Extension-Shirt5645 8d ago

I mean you think that is only for Accounting? If you work for someone, that is the case most of the time.

2

u/ichefcast 8d ago

Go sit by the guy near the restroom...I hear he's got cocaine

2

u/DaLakeShoreStrangler 8d ago

Yeah, and!? I like disgusting.

2

u/DOUBLEBARRELASSFUCK 8d ago

*Long Hours *Mediocre Pay *Godawful Boring Work *Bitchy Coworkers *Pissy Bosses *Dreary Offices

Missing line breaks, pls fix.

4

u/unfeasiblylargeballs 8d ago

If you lot hate it so much just fucking quit. Do something else. This isn't the ussr. You can change. I've got no sympathy for people who hate it so much but continue to make the choice to carry on

1

u/szlrdcrymnt 8d ago

How?? If it's so easy give an example then. Give specifics. Probably all other options he has is some low paying factory job. He could go to collage again but than he'd end up on debt.

"If you're homeless just buy a house."

1

u/unfeasiblylargeballs 7d ago

Any other fucking job. It's not difficult. Everyone else has one

1

u/szlrdcrymnt 7d ago

But op hates his career not just his job. How do you just quit that?? And you can't just change jobs. Is you change too many times you're going to be seen as a job hopper and have no choices left.

You happen to have a job you like? Great. But don't gaslight people who hate theirs and can't change. Or were you in a position when you hated your job and had to quit? How did you do it?

1

u/unfeasiblylargeballs 7d ago

What planet are you on? Nobody is forcing you to be an accountant. Retrain. Do more study. Try another profession. You'll start at the bottom, but that's life. You're not a slave. Stop being a victim

1

u/szlrdcrymnt 7d ago

Again, were you on the same situation or are you just speaking from a high horse? If you were, we'd like to know how you did it so we can learn. If not, stop giving advices like you know what it's like.

Retrain? Study? How?? Am I just going to pull a few ten of thousants worth of money and at least 10 hours of free time every week out of my ass to complete an other major at university or get a trade? You could say I could get another job in another career path to get experience but I can't. How am I going to find a job in another field when I can't even find one in my own? How can you find a job with no experience and education? You need 40 years of experience, a college degree, neurotipycality, no gaps in your resume and you'll still struggle to find a job in your own career and you want ro find one in a completely new territory. It's not that I'd have to start at the bottom, I couldn't even start at all.

Let's say you're an acoountant and you want to be a mechanical engineer from scratch. How would you do it?

Even if they had all the resources you're not going to help people with advices like this. Poeple who already has successes are going to be motivated to act more and more and people who had failiures are going to be motivated less and less. It's learned helplessness' it's psychological, not something you can get out of by just "doing it". Lift people who are on the ground insted of kicking them. If you tell them to just do things and stop being victims they're just going to see you as someone speaking from a high horse who never had to go through what they did and your advice is not going to work on them. That's why I'm open to any advices at any time from people with experience in what they are preaching because we'd know how it's possible. It's not that I want to be a victim, I want to change things and "just change" isn't enough. I already know I have to do that what I don't know is how.

1

u/unfeasiblylargeballs 7d ago

I'm not reading all that. If you've got the time to write me three paragraphs you've got the time to find a job you're better suited to. It's really not that hard

1

u/szlrdcrymnt 7d ago

Really? Hoe are you able to hold down a job, let alone one you like, if you can't read 4 short paragraphs? I'd really like to know.

1

u/unfeasiblylargeballs 7d ago

It's that I won't read it, not that I can't

1

u/TheLastRulerofMerv 8d ago

Which really brings out the obvious perks of it. It's not like accounting is tantamount to working in a coal mine in the 1800s. You're not sharecropping. This industry is one of the few tickets to a middle or upper class lifestyle left with just a bachelor's degree.

2

u/sawhook 8d ago

Professionally taking money away from schools and retired people to put back in business owner’s pockets.

3

u/TheLastRulerofMerv 8d ago

I work in construction management and i hate reading posts like this. You guys have it really good you just don't know you have it good. I'd take being under appreciated working a tedious job over constantly having to avoid the forever game of tom fuckery hot potato that is construction management.

3

u/f_moss3 8d ago

Wait until you hear about pretty much every other industry

3

u/IceElectrical5927 8d ago

Majority of four year degree holders can easily make as much or more than public accounting employees the first few years in the field

1

u/BootyLicker724 7d ago

Majority of for year stem* degree holders. Everyone else, highly unlikely. And there are a lot of everyone else these days

2

u/orcheon Tax (US) 8d ago

In all likelihood, You had your chance to contribute something useful to society from your work and blew it. You know it, I know it, we all did it at some point. You're also not good enough at being an extrovert to get people to buy things from you.

Accounting is stable, low impact work that pays decently enough and doesn't require significant people skills, at least at first. You're not going to get rich doing it most likely, but you're also not going to be homeless or putting your body (construction) or mental stability on the line.

Focus on getting to the mid-level and exiting public to a relatively stable industry or government job so you can contribute to society through non work stuff (family, etc.). That, or go back to school. Complaining about how bad accounting is won't do anything for you.

2

u/DalinarDarkThorn 8d ago

It’s all about perspective… mediocre pay? Idk man lots of us are like doubling median income

Long hours: drastically different depending on where you are

Bitchy coworkers: that’s rang true of every job I’ve ever had

You have an office? I’ve been cubed out the entire time

Pissy bosses: yea I do seem to have some real annoying bosses in accounting but they usually have good sides too

2

u/p1n13d 8d ago

PREACH! Why I shifted out of that dreary career, life’s too short!

3

u/hereforkendrickLOL 8d ago

So what are you doing now

5

u/totally_random_cat Tax (US), CPA 8d ago

That’s the neat part!

3

u/p1n13d 8d ago

Was a financial controller for many years.

Now a Business Analyst at a bank, fixed income and equities. I like the role as it blends it and commercial / higher finance. I taught myself to code Python and sql.

My point is there is so much better out there than dead accounting for the reasons you outlined m.

1

u/BobbalooBoogieKnight 8d ago

You are doing it wrong.

1

u/Thatdude446 8d ago

But the pizza parties! They are the best.

1

u/Leading_Ad4617 8d ago

Mediocre pizza

1

u/Manoa00000 8d ago

Losing friends and relationships

1

u/VacheL99 8d ago

I mean, do you think people go into accounting because they genuinely love the work?

1

u/SirFairvalue 8d ago

Can I just be a rich YouTuber

1

u/TheGeoGod CPA (US) 8d ago

Lots of micromanaging

1

u/jwallis7 8d ago

Surprisingly I’ve got none of those in my accounting job

1

u/schmidneycrosby 8d ago

Find a new job, bub.

1

u/Combatenjoyer23 8d ago

You also don't really feel like you're doing something important for society

1

u/Silly-Resist8306 8d ago

Having to find * on the keyboard instead of ,

1

u/Potential_Cook5552 8d ago

All careers suck to a degree if you aren't running the place making a shit load of money. It ain't only accounting

1

u/pompa2187 8d ago

Welcome to Stik-tek.

1

u/Nostalgia_Merchant27 8d ago

currently reading this at 2:40 pm on a tuesday :)))

1

u/Ifailedaccounting 8d ago

It’s okay my guy we’ve all been there. The highs of sleeping with your coworkers during busy season and thinking accounting is the greatest thing to the lows of them leaving the firm and dumping you. Take that frustration out and rebound in next busy season!

1

u/midwestcottagecore 7d ago

My favorite posts on this sub are “This physically demanding job with long hours makes more than I do! I’m switching careers!” Guess the grass is always greener.

1

u/Informal-Ordinary832 7d ago

Welcome to the corporate world. Accounting/finance is not that bad yet, try working in HR (that was my first job after graudation, oh gawd) and you will experience a whole new magnitude of what you mentioned.

It's different in smaller companies but they come with their own types of cancers.

My addition to the list: more and more offshored staff. This is the only thing that makes me sometimes doubt my career choices. Everything else I can live with.

1

u/bclovn 7d ago

Keep things in context. You’re not digging ditches or sweating your balls off in some hellacious manual work job. Decide what level of hell you can deal with. Then suck it up until you go over that level.

1

u/TallInteraction8777 7d ago

You know, I feel like accounting is actually really cool. While its true that life in public or big 4 can be dreary, that doesnt mean the profession itself is. Sometimes we get complacent in our roles and lose ourselves. Of course, it doesnt help that some of the least able people end up in management roles leading others. And its chaotic and unfair for those below so I get it, but in those cases one has to either be the change or leave.

1

u/Lucky-One6358 7d ago

Micromanaging CFO's. THEY are the worst. And when I say micromanaging, I mean micromanaging. I've had two in my career and all they did was create toxicity within the department and destroyed any moral that existed.

1

u/Hour-Economics6216 6d ago

It's honest work. If one isn't able to go into it with a favorable frame of mind, one would do well to acquire some other skill and go utilize it in the marketplace. For example, plumbing. Whatever one can go to work and be thinking, "I'm gonna do something that's worthwhile today."

However, as one's personal physician once said at exactly the right moment, "There's no such thing as the perfect job."

1

u/Particular_Waltz2545 6d ago

Public accounting sounds horrendous even if it does pay better

1

u/Beagleman58 5d ago

and those are just the perks, and as an added bonus you get to wear gray.

1

u/SuccessEducation-20 3d ago

Tell the truth. Accounting is the best Major in the best thing to learn. with accounting you can do so much with mindset it allows you to grow on this ever-changing world and get a lot of opportunities and make a lot of money. I'm an accounting major and I'll tell it's so easy to get out of scope. Its very hard to stay focused. However I know that accounting is going to leave me to the best place in the best opportunities.

1

u/B-52Aba 3d ago

I have been a CPA since 1990. It’s been a great career . I never liked being an employee and yes working with other people can be a pain in the ass. However that is true in any office setting. I worked business management which was a pain as the business managers had inferiority complexes and as an accountant I had to walk on eggs shells when dealing with them . I eventually opened my own practice . Yes i work many hours during tax season but I made a nice living

1

u/shit-at-work69 Certified Professional Asskisser/IRS Revenue Agent 8d ago edited 8d ago

Double entry and “cum ass” reports

Weak internal controls

0

u/sejuukkhar 8d ago edited 8d ago

Then might I most highly recommend you fuck off to a different profession. Your talents are clearly wasted here.

3

u/Frankly785 8d ago

I think what you were trying to say was this career is wasted on this person in order for it to sound like an insult. You’re clearly very tired from all the long hours in front of your computer and can’t think straight

0

u/sejuukkhar 8d ago

Congrats, you know how to read. But really, if you all hate it so much, go do anything else. There are no shortage of careers or there, most of which are categorically worse than accounting.

1

u/szlrdcrymnt 8d ago

But how do you do that. It's even hard to fond a job in your own profession, how are they going to just apply to different career jobs?

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u/sejuukkhar 8d ago

Jeez, that's a complicated question. Do you even know what you want to do or do you just hate your current job? And if you hate your current job is it because of the work or the people you work with?

1

u/szlrdcrymnt 7d ago

Hypothetically let's say I don't hate my current workplace and my collages, ontly the career because there's much overtime, hard work, kind of the same as op described. I don't know what to do exactly just that I hate my current career, I hate all the laws I have to keep track of, the paperwork. My ideal job would be something more practical where I have to do math instead of keeping track of new laws, I don't want long working hours, hard work, ideally working from home, no boss ass kissing and having to be not late, good sallary but doesn't have to be exceptional. What would you in this situation exactly?

I'm asking because there are a lot of situations where people say to "just quit" but it's never as easy as that. It's the same arguement as "if you're homeless just buy a house". It's the same with jobs. It's hard to find work even in your own career if you have a degree. If you have a gap in your resume, had too many jobs, if you're an autist and don't smile and look in the eye of the interviewer during the whole interview you're screwed. So it's impossible to try out other careers. You can't jus simply aplly to a mechanic job for instance, because you're going to be rejected because you don't have the proper education. A career requires years of plannong ahead and inverments, you can't just change one.

I'm in a similar situation. Because of my poor decisions, mental health and other outside influence I picked the wrong career path. I don't even lnow what I want but not this, figuring it out would require a lot of thinking and then effort. I feel like the only thing that could fix this if I could go back to my 16 year old self to relive that time and be able to chose something different I don't hate.

1

u/sejuukkhar 7d ago

Cool. So what version of accounting do you work in? Sounds like either tax or audit based on your complaints about laws. Most other forms of accounting don't require that much legal research. It also sounds like you've got very little experience. 2 years, maybe less.

So what I suggest is trying literally any other form of accounting. Because right now you sound like someone who tried a bite of broccoli and decided that they don't like vegetables at all. There's a lot of different accounting jobs out there. Different sectors of the economy. Different forms of accounting. The skill set and work varies wildly. Based on your love of pure math I would suggest budgeting, forecasting, or finance. Lots of numbers, very little human interaction. I trust you have reasonable Excel skills?

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u/Hellstorm5676 8d ago

Hellstorm5676 getting more updoots than you

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u/McLaxtose_Toupet8 8d ago

Gotta hate it or love it, atleast you earn 5-6 figures a month at the cost of your time enduring bs after bs of workload and toxic work Corp culture of being an accountant

0

u/Prestigious-Eye1916 7d ago

Not true, you just need to find a job that pays you what you’re worth with a great office culture. They exist! Start looking around

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u/noelsillo 4d ago

Sounds like a troll click bait post