Dreaming about the post-tax-season slowdown?
Join the tracking survey. Check the Stress-O-Meter.
by Rick Telberg
At Large
Here at the height of tax season, accountants have only one thing on their minds — taxes.
Wait, I’m wrong. There is, indeed, one other thing on their minds — apre-tax.
Public practitioners, at small firms especially, seem more inclined to want to slow things down a bit, take more time off and shift their emphasis away from the office to their personal lives. Indeed, taking more time off is becoming a mainstream business strategy.Jeffrey A. Tuskan, head of the Tuskan Financial Group in Munster, Ind., has his eyes set on making way for more personal time, starting with Saturdays off during tax season. He was even considering taking a whole weekend off during February for a trip to “somewhere warm.” Well, at least someday. He hasn’t taken a February break in the past 20 years.
Charles F. Kantorik in Mount Pleasant, Pa., is trying to reserve two days a week with no appointments, and scheduling books no more than one client in the office at a time. That sounds like a recipe for sanity to us.
Talk to CPAs, and about 45 percent might tell you that “taking more time off” is among their most important goals – both for themselves and their firms. It is, in fact, the third most popular strategy nowadays, trailing only “work smarter, not harder,” identified by 81 percent, and “do a better job of balancing work and personal life,” identified by 67 percent.
But taking more time off and better balancing work and personal life are in many ways the same thing, so perhaps the umbrella idea of slowing down on the job could be considered public practitioners’ most popular new strategy.
Also, working smarter as a strategy may be a by-product of wanting to take it easier at work. For example, Jeffrey Tuskan also told us he plans to be more selective in client work and avoid the less profitable assignments. Stephen F. Marx, a solo in San Angelo, Texas, is hiring experienced tax personnel rather than expend the added effort of training people just out of school.
However, slowing down is not as urgent in business and industry. Only 30 percent of CPAs say taking more time off is an important personal goal. About 50 percent cited improving their work/life balance.
Among the business-and-industry CPAs who want to shift the emphasis is Brian J. Dupre, accounting manager with Coca-Cola Enterprises in Riverview, Fla. He wants to renew his piano lessons and really commit to practicing.
And some day I’ll get around to cleaning out the garage. Maybe after tax season.
NOW IT’S YOUR TURN: Join the tax season tracking survey. Check the Stress-O-Meter.
COMMENTS: Rants, raves, idle thoughts, or questions? Contact Rick Telberg.
[First published by the AICPA]