For as long as I’ve been covering the accounting profession, one of the most perplexing things is watching (and listening) to tax pros struggle with tax work, repeating what seems like an endless cycle of abuse. I am then reminded of Albert Camus’s written work, ‘The Myth of Sisyphus.’
One could argue that tax professionals do it to themselves, by not setting boundaries or making necessary changes in clients, technology, or work habits that could relieve much of the stress and extended hours. Yet they don’t, too many still don’t at the least. So again, I’m reminded of Camus’s writing, where he depicts a man condemned to an eternity of pushing a large boulder up a mountain, only to have it eventually topple back down to the valley below. As Camus muses, “one must imagine Sisyphus happy.”
As a young college student, this short story always struck me. How could someone forced to complete a seemingly incompletable and even absurd task be happy? Such is the case with many tax pros today.
Of course, I am referring to those who, on a yearly basis, deal with problem clients they don’t fire, answer phones and emails for over sixty hours, wait on phone lines for the IRS, and lack productivity-boosting procedures. They know this every year: when deadlines are, what the workload is (for the most part), and possibly even how their situations could be better. Yet, they do little to nothing to improve workflow, the amount of returns they have to do, the kinds of clients they deal with, or even the number of times they need to remind certain clients of what is required to process the work.
Again, I muse, as Camus did about Sisyphus, one must imagine tax pros happy. Because surely it must be in the work itself where happiness is found. After all, the survey work I recently conducted with Hank Berkowitz and Randy Crabtree, CPA, revealed that most respondents did not mind working long hours (above 60 per week) as long as they enjoyed the work they did.
Though I do find it hard to understand how pleasing work can be given the aforementioned scenarios that don’t seem to change year and out, nor compliance any less complicated, despite numerous complaints to the contrary and an increasing number of accountants leaving tax work, even accounting altogether.
My point, dear readers, is simple: If indeed you don’t know how or are unwilling to reduce your workload, or way that work, by focusing more on the value of the work and not the volume in order to have the business you want, or even invest in systems to give back some time and order, know that you are still needed and valued and urged to find some source of satisfaction as your own boulders roll back down into the valley below.
Thank you for this – we are a slave to the grind for two crazy filing seasons and a myriad of misc deadlines to meet. We are “Oz” behind the curtain and no level of communication is ever enough. I have found spoon feeding is their preferred method of tax prep, why read anything I send out – thats too old school. LOL I’ve been working through my first solo season and have cut my total client base to a fraction of what it was 3 seasons ago. I see a sabattical in my near future. Great post Seth!