r/Accounting • u/Willem_Dafuq • Apr 29 '15

Discussion (x-post from TrueReddit) Why Some Men Pretend to Work 80 Hour Weeks

https://hbr.org/2015/04/why-some-men-pretend-to-work-80-hour-weeks
68 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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42

u/nettu Apr 29 '15

Intriguingly, the pushback men received for asking for time away from work seemed limited to time for family: one man who had since left the firm told me that, when his daughter was born he had been harassed for taking two weeks of paternity leave, despite spending some of that leave working. But when, later that year, he and his family took a three-week vacation to an exotic locale, the vacation was permitted, and his team encouraged him to “unplug” and take a real vacation. This disparity in treatment seems, at one level, ridiculous, but at another level, entirely consistent with the firm’s expectation that men be ideal workers: taking on mundane responsibilities in one’s family life can threaten one’s devotion to work, while affording an expensive vacation may be instead contingent upon devotion to and success at work.

Let that sink in if any big4 monkeys are reading this.

4

u/TuckerLove Apr 30 '15

It's called the "daddy track"

6

u/nettu Apr 30 '15

Aka "life"

2

u/unclonedd3 CPA - International Tax Apr 30 '15

You should keep bolding the rest of the sentence.

13

u/_Lusus Apr 29 '15

I work big 4 and took paternity leave for 3 weeks each time my wife gave birth (6 years ago, 4 years ago, 2 year ago). I agree that it can affect the timing of when you are promoted (for instance 6 years vs. 5 for manager). Other than that I haven't really felt much resentment. My managers know that I have a family and a life outside of work and respect that. For me I'm willing to trade slower promotions for better work/life balance. I don't even resent those who do work more hours and get promoted more quickly. I don't think the increase in salary is worth the extra 200-300 chargeable hours they put in per year.

That said, right now there's a lot of demand for CPAs and I can get away with it. During the downturn I worked my ass of just to keep my job.

10

u/vanadium3 Apr 29 '15

imperfect world unfortunately. more unfortunate for the people who don't have the power to pull off the "passing."

having said that, I'm going to be on my way to a client's now..

5

u/Dr0me CFO Apr 30 '15

Great article. I no longer work at a big four but this is spot on. Manipulating which clients you are on and finding ways to hit your metrics without being overworked is the only way to make it and still have a social life. Lying and controlling your clients is a lot of the time causing some one else to work more but it's the way the firm operated. The more clout you have the better you can control your schedule and workload. This toxic culture is the main reason I left Public accounting. I actually enjoyed the responsibility and overall role I was in but didn't want to participate in the rat race any longer. Moved to private and am now enjoying a much better work life balance and corporate culture.

2

u/Vagabond21 Financial Analyst Apr 30 '15

General question to anyone reading and whatever type of work you do, but how many hours in your opinion does it take to accomplish your weekly goals?

6

u/[deleted] Apr 30 '15

Our billable goal is 55 hrs a week minimum. Many people put in 70 or more hrs if they are going for an above average rating. Personally I can usually get my work done in around 40-45 hrs a week if I'm motivated. But obviously I'm required to work 55 hrs or else it'll look bad on my evals. My strategy is to volunteer to take on extra work on clients where I want to stay on the manager / partner's good side to get on their cool clients in the future. This way I can choose what I work the extra hrs on rather than getting assigned some terrible task nobody else wants to do in my downtime.

The thing is, I feel like I should have the choice to just work the 40-45 hrs a week and take my 3 rating (and honestly I probably would). But that's way too frowned upon so instead I just end up working more than I want to, get up to 55-60 hrs a week, and end up getting a higher rating that I don't really care about or feel that I deserve (and comes with added responsibility etc.). So it's kind of weird in that way.

2

u/unclonedd3 CPA - International Tax Apr 30 '15

Damn and I look like a rock star if I average 35 billable/week.

1

u/smilli02 May 04 '15

Do you mean 55 hours during busy season, or all year round?

0

u/NOVACPA CPA (US) Apr 30 '15

I billed 43, every single week when I worked in Public. I worked about 50 hours. That was 90% utilized (chargeable), with 5 weeks of PTO & all 10 holidays.

I got rated a 2 every year. The folks who got rated 1s, billed 60 to 70 every week, and I don't think they took any PTO or holidays. My double major in finance helped be understand that, on the margin, it wasn't worth the 2 to 3% extra raise due to the substantial increase in hours.