Do You Play Farmville?

Are you a Farmville addict? Or are you one of those who love to update your Facebook account every hour or so? Come on now, don’t be shy.

I just came across this article where the famous Dr. Phil strongly ‘advised’ a mother to let go of her Farmville addiction because she is neglecting her real family! There’s also a video howing how the dear Dr. went about castigating the mother for failing to do her duties to her family.

And if you think this type of online gaming addiction is only present in our personal or family life, better think again. They are present even in our professional lives.

Now, I’m not a Farmville addict. I don’t really have the time to learn the ins and outs of this game. Heck, I don’t even update my Facebook account. But I have my own ‘online addictions’. And I’ve seen some of my juniors (okay not some, almost all) have their own such addictions. Plus I sometimes see them do it while working! And don’t think the busy season will deter them from doing these things (albeit the frequency will decrease), when there’s a desire to do this, there’s a will. And when there’s a will, there’s definitely a way!

Here are just some of the things they ‘do’ online:

1) Update Facebook or their other social networking site. In fact, if not for my junior, I wouldn’t have heard of Facebook or such sites! Some of them even have accounts in two or more sites!

2) Play Farmville.

3) When Farmville wasn’t around yet, play other online games (including Warcraft and the like).

4) Search youtube.com for good videos and watch them during office hours.

5) Download mp3s, pictures, videos, etc., etc. from the Internet

6) Engage in online chatting

7) Write blogs or read blogs (gotcha!)

Okay, guys, if you want to do these things in your free time, it’s really up to you. But if you do it during office hours and you think the firm’s top brass is not on to you, better think again.

Firms are definitely getting savvier when it comes to knowing who is doing what online. In fact, I’ve heard of cases when the firms ban sending or receiving emails to and from outside email addresses like yahoo.com or gmail.com. Even social networking sites and downloading pictures and music are banned. The punishment? Suspension or worse, expulsion from the firm.

Of course, the juniors and even seniors who are also tech-savvy usually find a way to circumvent these bans (don’t ask me, I won’t tell LOL). But then again, pretty soon, the firm’s I. T. people will once again catch up with them. It’s a game, one that I’m sure the staff will not win.

And really, if you think about it, why do we engage in these types of activities during office hours? Boredom? Addiction? Do we hate what we’re doing (re: auditing)?

Personally, my reason (as I said I have my own ‘online addiction’) is plain and simple boredom.

For those readers who are working (or used to work) for the Big 4 and who did these things, leave me a note why you did these stuff. I’d like to hear from you. Thanks!

Note: This blog and its writers do not, in any way, endorse these activities. Sure, I engaged in one or two of these activities but that doesn’t take out the fact that they’re simply wrong. Doing any of these activities while on your job is tantamount to stealing time from the firm (time that you are being paid for) and as I said, some of these firms have already laid down sanctions for anybody caught doing any of these activities during office hours.

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Big 4 Firms in Top 4 of Best Places to Launch a Career 2009

I just came across this Sept. 3, 2009 article (little bit late I know) in Business Week about the Best Places to Launch a Career in 2009. This is actually a poll done in U. S. colleges and undergraduates on which companies or firms the respondents think are the best places to launch a career in 2009.

Surprisingly (or not surprisingly since evidently they’ve been in the top 10 since the survey was started in 2006), the Big 4 accounting / auditing firms topped the list. Deloitte is number one (in 2008, it was number 2), dislodging EY from its previous number one rank. EY is number 2, PWC is number 3 – the same rank it held in 2008 and KPMG is number 4. KPMG was the previous number 5 and it dislodged Goldman Sachs to take over the number 4 position.

Just two things I noticed. First is why Deloitte became number one. Evidently Deloitte offers higher entry – level pay per year than the rest of the Big 4, bigger signing bonuses and better time-off policies.

Secondly, the results stated that KPMG has no management training program???? This is quite news to me since one of the incentives offered by any Big 4 is a good training program. I don’t know, is this true? Any reader here who’s from KPMG who can verify (or not verify) this?

Anyway, back to the topic. The survey is U. S. – based but can be very much applicable in any countries where the Big 4 firms are present. As a former auditor working in a big auditing firm, I agree with its results.

Auditing firms, especially the Big 4, are good starting points in one’s career. I’m not saying this because the pay is good (private companies are known to pay better) but because (for me at least) of the on-the-job trainings and the training programs that one will get when one works for a Big 4 auditing firm.

After my first busy season on the firm, I was so burnt out I wanted to resign and to transfer to another company (with better pay and better hours, mind you). When I told somebody from the other company that training season is coming up in the firm, he told me to stay put and to take advantage of the training! Evidently, they don’t have such free trainings. In fact, for each level in the firm (from junior, to senior, then to a manager), there was a corresponding training program.

And what about new tax laws, new accounting standards and new auditing standards? Again, auditing firms take the lead in giving these trainings. I mean if you want to learn about IFRS, and for free at that, the auditing firm is the place to work with to get this type of information. New auditing standards? No problem, the auditing firm has another training program dedicated to these new standards.

Or how about the on-the-job trainings that one will get from the Big 4 or other auditing firms? Okay, this may or may not happen to you but definitely you will experience one or more of these. Some of the on-the-job trainings we got include SOX application, auditor – exchange programs, comfort letters for IPOs, due diligence (acquisition) jobs, fraud audits and IFRS first – time applications. These stuff one does not get to experience that much (if at all) outside of these accounting firms. So if you go and work for a Big 4 firm and stay around for one or more years, welcome any opportunity to do non-audit related jobs and you will get good on-the-job trainings.

If you want to see the full results of this survey, go to this link.

Of course, launching a career in a Big 4 is one thing, staying for a longer period of time within a Big 4 firm is another matter and not covered by my post. Thank you very much for reading it and ciao!

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Say Goodbye the Right Way

Resign properly or don’t resign at all…

Okay, ignore the second part of the above phrase. I mean I can’t really force you not to resign if you really want to resign. But the first? Well, this is one I have puzzled about for a long time. Having experienced being an employee and now, an employer, I have seen both sides of things and sometimes, seeing a staff or a manager (or even a partner!) resign is not really a pretty sight.

If I’m not mistaken, the usual policy (correct me if I’m wrong about this) is to give a one month notice. Sometimes, even, you’re not allowed to leave until they find somebody to replace you. But lo and behold, this is not often followed. Let me just give you some instances, which, mind you, are based on actual experiences:

• Your staff or junior (who is, by the way, new to the firm) suddenly tenders his resignation because he got accepted in the job he really wants. And the effectivity? Immediately.    
   
• Or how about this one? Your junior tenders his resignation effective within a week or so. The reason? He wants to devote his time for further studies. The truth? You find out afterwards that he immediately went to work for another company. At least, in the first instance, the junior was honest. This one? Definitely, not!
   
• Your staff or junior suddenly went AWOL for a few days and then he calls you to tell you that he is resigning (also immediately) because his family is pressuring him to find another ‘easier’ (read: less overtime) and ‘less stressful’ job. Correction. Your staff is not the one who called you but his older brother. No kidding! 
   
• Your junior has a family problem and rather than face it head on, she decided to run from it (literally!). As a result, you got a call from her early one morning and she tells you that she is no longer going to work because she needs to ‘hide’ for a while until things cool down. No resignation letter, no turnover, no nothing! 
   
• This one happened when I was still a junior but it really brought hell to one of my friends who was also a junior that time. Her manager was on sick leave for two weeks (either due to measles or due to chicken pox, I can't remember now). When he got back, he was only in the office for a day. The reason? Because he was tendering his resignation and it was effective immediately! To top it all, it was the middle of the busy season! My friend, who was the manager’s junior, was traumatized and she resigned just after that season.

I can relate a lot more. The thing is, I do not know why some people will just up and leave a company or a firm where they went through the proper hiring process in the first place.

I’m not trying to lecture or anything but this is really a sad reality and as an employer and a former manager, I have experienced this several times already.

Sure, I understand that sometimes, really, unforeseen circumstances will play a hand to one’s decision to resign or not to resign. And just sometimes, you cannot really force yourself to continue working for a firm that you already hate (read: Why They Left Part II).

But then again, when resigning, to the extent possible, protocol should really be observed. I mean, how would you feel if you’re already a manager or the boss and your junior does the same thing to you? You will not also like it (especially if it happens during the busy season).

If you want to be sure you are taking the right steps on resigning, there are a lot of sources here on the Internet about this topic (so I won’t go through them anymore). I just want to say that we owe it to the company or firm that hired us to say goodbye in the right way. And this ends my post (or rant, if you want to call it). Feel free to leave me a comment (negative or positive). I’m looking forward to reading them.

Note: Somebody asked me from my previous post what are the things I don’t want to hear from my junior or staff during the busy season. My reply is, please read the first four instances above and you’ll have my answer. Thanks for your comments!

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Some Things I Don’t Want to Hear During the Busy Season

Okay, let me get this straight. There are really a lot of things I like about the busy season (I must be a martyr or something). In fact, in general, I can honestly say I’m a person who can tolerate a lot of things. But then again, there are a lot of things I don’t like about the busy season and there are really some things that I don’t want to hear and to tolerate, especially during the busy season. Let me just tell you what are these things are:

From the client: “We’re moving the Board of Director’s meeting to an earlier date.” Meaning? They’re also moving the deadline for the audited financial statements. Subsequently, all your well-made plans and schedules get shot down and you have to scramble to re-schedule everything just to meet the new deadline. Thinking of protesting? Save your breath. The adage “customer is always right” works in the auditing firms as well, especially when it comes to deadlines.

From the client: “I haven’t finished the schedules that you asked. I’ll give them to you next week.” Meaning? It’s already the end of March and you need to submit everything to your manager and partner for review, otherwise, your head will roll (figuratively, of course). But here’s your client telling you that you still have to wait for another week for the much-needed schedules. What do you do? Call your manager or partner and tell them the FS will not be released on time and you will have to go on ‘tentative’ mode? Good luck, especially if your client is expecting you to still finish on time despite the fact that they’re the ones who are causing the delay.

From the client: “I’m right, you’re wrong.” You’re having the mother of all arguments with the client and to just get what they want, they’ll end the argument with this sentence???? Does this make sense? Or is the client starting to sound like a spoiled brat?

From the client: “You’re here again! Is it the time of the year already?” Uh, yes and yes. Why is it that some clients could not get into their thick heads that they need to be audited every year? It’s like we’re a bug or something that comes out from January to April of every year. Or we’re just somebody who they have to tolerate because we’re the ‘necessary evil’ for them.

From the client: “I don’t like your junior, send another one.” This I heard when I was already a manager. As if all the tight deadlines, overtime and overnights are not enough, I had to contend with the fact that my client did not like my new junior! Since it was already the busy season, replacing her was near to impossible, so I had to tell my senior not to let the junior get near that particular client. If I didn’t have a senior – I’m dead.

From the previous manager: “You need to help me out in finishing this job.” You’ve already done your schedule with this manager. You’ve submitted all your work and cleared all his notes. But then again, your ex-manager suddenly approaches you and told you that he needs your help to finish the job. And you’re already in the middle of auditing your next client! What to do? What to do? This happened to me once, and I knew I couldn’t say no. Good thing my new manager said yes. Don’t know what would have happened to me if she said no.

From the partner / manager: “I need this ASAP!” Right. As if all the rest of what you are doing are not urgent as well.

And lastly, “you cannot charge 100% of your overtime hours!” You work your butt off all those late nights (and week-ends, too!) just to be told that you can’t charge all of your overtime hours because the job is in danger of exceeding the budgeted hours. Need I say more?

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How to Survive the Busy Season…

Alive and (mostly) unscathed.

Okay, I was just kidding about the line above. As I said in another post, nobody really dies from the busy season. But I noticed that, even though I was writing a lot of stuff during the past few months, I’ve never really written about how to survive the busy season during and after you went through one.

Just a note – I’m not an expert in this subject – but then again, having gone through 10 busy seasons (8 in audit and 2 in accounting), I think I can say I’m a veteran in getting out of busy seasons “alive and unscathed”. Not to mention that I’ve seen a lot of people who have busy seasons for 20 or more years (and they’re still alive, not to mention, have lots of money)!

So, how do we really survive the busy season?

First stop, you have to pace yourself. If you have a client with an early deadline, work your butt off when you need to. But don’t overdo it. Take some rest; too, otherwise, you’ll just burn yourself out.

If you have a client that has a not-so-early deadline (lucky you!), start it easy then gradually increase your overtime hours and week-end work. Go with a pace you’re comfortable with but always keep in mind the deadline date.

Second, always make room for adjustments. When I was working for the big auditing firm, we always give allowances for any adjustments. If the deadline is March 31, we plan to end everything and issue the financial statements a week before March 31. This way, our minds are set on March 24 plus we work the hours required to finish everything on March 24. If there are problems encountered along the way, we can always fall back on the extra week. Better to do this than to peg the March 31 date then find out that we’ll have to extend until April 7!

Third, lay off planning and/or preparing for personal major events. Sorry, have to say this. When you’re in the thick of things during the busy season, try (really hard!) not to do or plan for anything major in terms of your personal or social life. Just a few things that can be categorized as major (and I know I will get into trouble for saying this) – buying or building a new home; planning and preparing for your own wedding (plus having your own wedding during the busy season); and planning and preparing for a family or school reunion. Heck, I’ve seen some female auditors even schedule their pregnancies (and dates of giving birth) away from the busy season! Yes, I know that your personal or social lives should not take a backseat over your own career, but let me just say that from the start, you’ve been warned that there’s a busy season. So if you want to save yourself the trouble and the headache of juggling a lot of things all at once, please apply this tip.

Fourth, plan for some ‘me’ time. The third tip does not mean you’ll spend your busy season living in your office and having no personal / social life. Believe me - you’re entitled to some ‘me’ time. So go out and have dinner with your friends or loved ones. Have coffee breaks. Watch a movie (or movies). Take a break when you’re in - between clients after a deadline. Go home early on a Friday. Go to a spa and have a massage. Sleep longer during week-ends. Take a day off after the April 15 deadline (which is what we usually do, so after this date, the office is usually quiet because a lot of the auditors take the day off or come in late). Little things I know, but they all add up to relieve your stress and to relax you just a little bit during this pressure - packed times.

Fifth, keep your cool (and your sense of humor). During one particular busy season, one client commented that even if we were already busy, I still have a smile on my face. Don’t take everything seriously during the busy season. If your client has been pressuring you to finish everything, don’t lose your cool and erupt like a volcano (you’ll get nowhere plus you’ll just make everybody feel bad). If your boss or manager bullies you to do a lot of things, don’t take it personally, they have a lot in their minds, too (and they are as pressured as you are or even more so). Lighten up. Download a funny YouTube video and laugh while watching it. You may look like a fool (just in case you’re hiding while watching the video) but believe me, it gets loads off your chest.

Lastly, don’t bite more than you can chew. They don’t call it an ‘audit team’ or simply ‘team’, for nothing. Don’t take on everything and don’t say ‘yes’ to everything. You know your limits, when you’re reaching it, pass on some of the load to your peers or ask your senior or manager to assign it to somebody else. They may or may not like your request but at least you know that you can manage with what you’ve got and will not disappoint them later on. Plus, if they still insist you take on the assignment, you’ll have the luxury of telling them later on that ‘you told them so’.

And those are my tips on how to survive your busy season. What do you think?

 

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