For those of you who know public accounting, it can be a hell of a field. After five years of working as a person who has to liaison between clients, management, owners, and the government tax authority, I had enough. One man's soul can only be crushed for corporate profit for so long. My employer wasn't an all bad guy, and paid me well above the market rate which allowed me to save enough to take a couple years off work.
He was however, someone who would loudly yell at me in his office, in front of other staff, and seemed to have less technical knowledge and expertise than I did on most days. When I started working for him, it was a very small accounting firm (fluctuating around four people). He had purchased a client list (think list of individual personal income tax clients and corporate income tax clients). I worked my ass off for him for 4 months, averaging 70 hours a week. I had generated roughly $160,000.00 of billable hours within those four months and was given a $500.00 bonus for my efforts.
Alas, I continued to grind, because in accounting, you have to pay your dues. The next two income tax seasons saw me generate much more and I helped grow the practice by training students while producing more revenue. I pushed myself even more by working an average of 80+ hours a week. He did see some value in this and gave me a $5,000.00 bonus the next two years.
Things started to change when an actual manager was hired. Let us just say this manager thought the tax laws in our country where something that could be ignored at times depending on the situation. This caused me an unbelievable amount of stress. The owner didn't really seem to care since more money was coming in. I wonder why.
Well, I quit two weeks before the next tax season started. Within the next week, our backbone administrator quit. It took another month for our previous administrator to quit after spending two days training another replacement. The accountant who had to take over my responsibilities quit after the tax season as well. I really wish them all the best, but when you can see a ship sinking it is time to get out.
I still don't have a plan on what I'm going to do for work, and I don't really care. Spending time with my newborn daughter everyday has been more rewarding than any raise, pay, position, or work accomplishment. I consider myself very lucky and fortunate to be able to do this, and wish that more people had this option available to them. The work environment in North America, and the economic pressures make this almost impossible to do these days. I may start worrying about my financial future soon, but I like to think that I'm just paying for time with my daughter. No employer could ever pay me enough to lose that.
Fuck work, get happiness.