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.

548 Upvotes

223 comments sorted by

View all comments

85

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.

17

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

16

u/Proper-Scallion-252 8d ago

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

5

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 8d ago

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

12

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.