[Lindrobe]

Some background on my workplace – I work in tax and we have a FY that ends on 6/30. A lot of the work can be done during the summer and fall, so I have worked during the past five years to “smooth” my schedule out. I work hard during the summer months to get as much done as possible so that I don’t have to kill myself January through May. On the other hand, the rest of my department takes it easy during the summer and fall (long lunch breaks, don’t turn out much work, etc.) and waits until the last minute to do a lot of work.

I am a very efficient person, so I feel that it is just common sense to arrange my schedule this way. However, my boss obviously disagrees because I found out I got a 1% raise for the year. My boss dinged me on the fact that I did not work any Saturdays during busy season this year, although he said that he was aware that I was spending most of my weekends studying for CPA exam. I pointed out the fact that I work very hard during the summer and fall, but it didn’t seem to matter to him. Am I wrong for feeling that I should have the flexibility to arrange my workload how I want?

FAR 12/3/14, 87
AUD 2/3/14, 90
BEC 4/1/14, 88
REG 5/27/14, 94

Licensed CPA, Indiana

"Successful people do things that unsuccessful people don't want to do"

[mla1169]

Your way of thinking is great, if you're self employed or part of a very small (less than 4 people) firm. Unfortunately the perception of your peers and superiors matters very much and even if you're accomplishing everything in your job if you're not doing it the way they want it done, its no dice.

I will say I think its terribly unfair that he's just now letting you know that the fact you didn't work Saturdays was an issue. A GOOD manager would have said something during busy season. When you decided to smooth your workload this way did you discuss with your manager at all? What did he have to say then?

FAR- 77
AUD -49, 71, 84
REG -56,75!
BEC -75

Massachusetts CPA (non reporting) since 3/12.

[Lindrobe]

mla1169, I appreciate the advice. My manager said nothing to me until my review.

My department has had some issues and my boss was basically recently demoted because of the inefficiencies and inability to get stuff done. I have tried to share my ideas about spreading out the work over a longer period of time and let him know that this is the approach that I have tried to take with my work.

Everyone else in my department is so opposed to change. They have the “this is the way things have always been done” type of attitude. My boss now has a new manager that he reports to that is supposed to come in and make changes to our department so that is runs smoother.

FAR 12/3/14, 87
AUD 2/3/14, 90
BEC 4/1/14, 88
REG 5/27/14, 94

Licensed CPA, Indiana

"Successful people do things that unsuccessful people don't want to do"

[WeWillSee]

I'm not really sure how you could arrange a schedule like this working in tax. My firm has the same YE, and everyone at my firm maintains the same schedule as the people at your firm. There is a reason that busy season exists…because clients don't normally have their year end information until January, and filing dates are March-April. In order to get all of the tax work done by the filing deadline you have to put it long hours/saturdays during January-March/April.

The schedule that I worked, which seems pretty light according to people at other firms, 65-70/week was just enough to get the work done. Those of us that work hard during the summer/fall still put in the busy season hours because we know we are expected too, especially as staff accountants. Sorry to say that if everyone else is working on Saturdays – they are not going to be happy that you aren't there, no matter what the reasoning is – people notice who is, and who isn't there and it creates a stigma associated with that person.

Good Luck! My advice would be to work every saturday next busy season.

[Anonymous]

At this level, we are professionals, and in my opinion, if you're getting your work done on time, they should be happy about it, no “dinging” necessary. With that said, companies don't have to like the way you do things, and that's their choice. But they do have a responsibility to communicate that you aren't meeting their objectives, and doing it at raise time isn't appropriate. A 1% raise isn't even cost of living – it's an insult. To me it is a message, loud and clear, that they don't think you are the right fit for their culture.

Some places don't want wave-makers, but want people who are really good at acheiving goals on a standard, pre-defined trajectory. I would find a place to work that appreciates my ability to think outside the box, to make it work on my own terms, and is willing to hear ideas for making the workload more manageable. Or, if nothing else, a company that is at least willing to give me real-time feedback if I'm not meeting their expectations.

[Lindrobe]

WeWillSee, as I said in my original post, I work in tax at a non-profit University (not public accounting), so we have a June 30 year end. We extend our return 2 times, so the final extension brings the returns out to May 15th. We have a lot of our information already and have an even larger amount by the end of July. Also, not everyone works Saturdays for the entire busy season. My boss only worked about 5-6 Saturdays and the other accountant just a couple (mostly just went she had to take a day off during the week cause of a sick kid).

FAR 12/3/14, 87
AUD 2/3/14, 90
BEC 4/1/14, 88
REG 5/27/14, 94

Licensed CPA, Indiana

"Successful people do things that unsuccessful people don't want to do"

[WeWillSee]

Sorry, I guess I missed that part. In that case your boss should have said something, like given you some sort of idea of what the expectations were, it is unfair to let you think your schedule is ok, and then punish you at the end because you didn't meet some unspoken expectation that they had.

Hopefully this new boss will be more open and communicate more clearly what is expected. If they don't, you should communicate with them on a regular basis. It's always better to overcommunicate than undercommunicate – at least until there is some sort of precendent set of expectations on both sides.

In my office there are people that get to work at 6am and then leave at 3pm and I come at 8:30 and leave at 5. I got talked to last year because I wasn't working standard working hours (8-5) – and when I asked what the difference was between coming in 30 minutes late and leaving 2 hours early they said it's all about peoples' perception. It's completely unfair and a little bit ridiculous, but unfortunately sometimes office politics over shadow your hard work and efficiencies.

[Lindrobe]

@WeWillSee, good advice about the communicating. I think I am going to ask my boss if we can have a conversation about my schedule. It is sad that so many organizations seem to have such little flexibility in schedule.

My boss and the assistant director continually complain about the amount of hours they work during busy season and are so unwilling to rearrange their schedules and do a bit more during the rest of the year so that they don't have to kill themselves during busy season. It just makes no sense to me, but I agree with your comment about perception.

FAR 12/3/14, 87
AUD 2/3/14, 90
BEC 4/1/14, 88
REG 5/27/14, 94

Licensed CPA, Indiana

"Successful people do things that unsuccessful people don't want to do"

[itsjustatest]

Unfortunately, a lot of managers/seniors/anyone reviewing people under them are very passive aggressive. They wont say a word to your face about your behavior if they disagree, but they will thrash you during your review behind the security of a keyboard. It is probably best to have these convos up front and make sure everyone is good with it.

AUD - 83
REG - 78
FAR - 69,73,79
BEC - 85

[Anonymous]

From what you've written, I could definitely see why this would feel like an unfair situation. A few more thoughts below:

1. Value of hours: Not all values are perceived as having the same worth. For instance, an hour that an intern spends bookkeeping is simply not worth as much as a partner's hour spent building relationships with new clients. Perception aside, the first hour is worth about $15, and the second is worth somewhere between $100 and $350/hr. If the tasks you're accomplishing earlier in the year are lower value (perceived, or actual), then you're probably shooting yourself in the foot.

2. Old way vs. New way: How long have you been in this role? (I apologize if you've already mentioned this). The only reason I ask is because one of my largest pet-peeves is when someone new tries to change something with no appreciation for why we were doing something. I'm not calling you out here, as your method of time management may be superior — but you have to be careful about how you put forth new ideas in established organizations.

3. Why haven't you quantified your argument? I assume you have an hours tracking system, and if you do, it should be remarkably easy to do a data dump into Excel and calculate average weekly/monthly commitment via the magic of Pivot Tables. If you don't have actual time data, then how sure are you that you're working as much as everyone else? Again, not calling you out here, but people who feel slighted tend to have a skewed perspective of their point of view.

4. Have you had a real conversation about your time-management preferences? I'm also curious as to whether you ever received explicit permission to structure your schedule the way you chose to. Most modern organizations are giving employees more flexibility than ever before — but it often has to be earned. The university you work for may not offer that kind of flexibility, but if you haven't had a conversation about it, then I don't blame them for dinging you on the Saturdays issue. If someone that worked for me started leaving at 3:30pm every day, I'd be a little pissed about it. After about two days of it, I'd ask them why. If the answer was that they were starting their work day at 5:30am, I'd understand why they were leaving early — but I'd still be confused as to why they didn't ask first. Client meetings happen after 3:30pm. Some deliverables can't wait until 5:30am the following day to be sent. Team relationships are often built through periods of intense stress and working through situations outside of the daily routine/work-hours. Have you stated “I'd like to avoid working Saturdays because I put in significantly more time on the tasks I have ownership of earlier in the year.”? If you haven't had a very clear conversation about your work schedule, then I understand why they'd view your performance as sub-par.

5. Your manager probably sucks. He/she may not be a terrible person, but not bringing up the issue of skipping Saturdays until your review was a big mistake.

Bringing this all full circle, it may be best to consider one of the following two options:

1. Leave — or at least seeing what else is out there. I personally value working for a firm that gives me flexibility to work on a schedule that I see as best for me, and it sounds like your employer doesn't fit that bill

2. Suck it up and try it their way. Who knows, maybe the relaxing summer and stressful Q1/Q2 option isn't as bad as it seems. You may find that your team likes you better for “fitting in” and are actually more willing to give you scheduling flexibility once they perceive you as a strong team-member.

[Lindrobe]

1911CPA, I appreciate your point of view. To answer some of your questions, I have been in my position for 5 years. I worked plenty of Saturdays my first few years. I actually think that this is the second busy season that I have worked no Saturdays, but heard nothing about it until now. During busy season my boss would always just as “I only expect you to be here on Saturday if you feel like you need to.”

I absolutely hate taking it easy during the summer/fall when there is work that can be done. My coworker mostly browses Facebook all summer but that type of “work” style is just not for me. Makes the work day go by way too slow. We do keep track of our time in excel (except for boss man), but the Facebook browsing and long coffee breaks make the time tracking pretty much a joke cause these hours just get buried in the spreadsheets. It would show that I have worked the extra hours in summer/fall though.

I have not had a real conversation about my schedule, but I am starting to realize how little flexibility there really is. Arranging my schedule this way has actually allowed me to take on a significant amount of work beyond what I was originally hired to do. One would think that this would be appreciated, but obviously not.

FAR 12/3/14, 87
AUD 2/3/14, 90
BEC 4/1/14, 88
REG 5/27/14, 94

Licensed CPA, Indiana

"Successful people do things that unsuccessful people don't want to do"

[Anonymous]

@Lindrobe, your boss sounds like he sucks.

Sounds like he dinged you for what we call ‘a lack of facetime'. Even though you may have gotten more work done than anyone in your apartment the fact that you were not working the weekends and/or longer busy season hours with the rest of your department hurt you. It doesn't necessarily matter that you got more work done (even if you could prove it), what matters is that is was perceived that you were not giving it your all for your team/department. Sometimes, perceived effort/hardwork can mean more to a boss than results or productivity. If you get your stuff done earlier than others, see if you can take work off of their desks.

However, like others have said, a good boss would let you know expectations up front – and wouldn't say ‘you only have to work weekends if you have to' and then change his mind come raise time. It seems to me that your boss just sucks, and was looking for a reason to give out small raises. If you hadn't said that, I would've just assumed that you weren't being a team-player during busy season (even if you were during non-peak hour months).

[Anonymous]

Lindrobe – Given your tenure, I'd absolutely consider looking for a new position — unless there's some redeeming quality that make your current role engaging, or (at minimum) tolerable. Alternatively, if you truly want to value your time at it's true worth, then start your own business. All you literally need are a couple clients and you're on your way.

Unfortunately, managing face-time perception is a reality that you'll have to face almost anywhere — it's just a question of to what extent. The problem with the “I don't want to waste time” mentality is that it tends to manifest itself as a poor attitude. No one likes to be judged by an ‘over-achiever'. Being an over-achiever is a great thing, provided it's managed correctly, and not projected in the form of passive aggressive resentment. The key is to get credit for the scenarios where you're going above and beyond. For instance, instead of accomplishing a task ahead of time, it may make sense to ask for permission up front to start working on it. Doing so changes the conversation from: “Great, he did what he was supposed to do” to “Hmm, this guy's really working ahead and taking on more while no one else is”.

It feels a little childish to say all this, but you need to get credit for the work you do that's above and beyond the rest of the team (or the expectations for your role). The easiest way to do so is to over-communicate. If you don't get credit for your efforts, you'll wind up in the worst type of employment situation: under-appreciated and over-worked. After all, if a task gets accomplished a month ahead of time and no one knows, did it really happen?

[Anonymous]

Im sorry your going through this. It's really a shame that you work efficiently all year long and you are perceived that your not part of the team because you don't work on the weekends when everyone does. In my tenure in corporate world and all my professional experience, PERCEPTION is everything!

My advice, stay in the game and work weekends when you have to if you still want to work there. Beauty of the CPA designation is that you can start your own business if you so choose. Sounds like you'd be a very self disciplined person to go out on your own.

Best of luck!

[Lindrobe]

Thank you all for your comments. I really appreciate you taking the time to give me advice. I have never been a real confident person, so I am really struggling with receiving this negative review. I have been looking for a new position and I do have an interview this afternoon (it is for an internal position though). I am having a hard time figuring out how I am going to sell myself and my experience since non-profit tax work is pretty specialized. Maybe some day I could own my own business, but at this point in my life, I know that I do not have the experience needed to do so.

FAR 12/3/14, 87
AUD 2/3/14, 90
BEC 4/1/14, 88
REG 5/27/14, 94

Licensed CPA, Indiana

"Successful people do things that unsuccessful people don't want to do"

[Author]

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