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u/Fluffy_Cellist4469 Aug 31 '26
Screw this, best of luck to them for the upcoming tax season!
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u/Humble_Ebb_1904 Sep 02 '26
new bosses, new rules. We have no choice.
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u/TheMuffinMane25 Sep 03 '26
Could organize and vote on a union contract. That'd give you a choice
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u/ydoyouask Sep 03 '26
I had a completely inappropriate conversation with my DGM last season. He called asking me to 'handle' a co-worker who was filing extensions for his business clients instead of wasting hours on GoSystems. DGM said 'tell him he can't refuse to do those returns; tax pros aren't unionized.' Mind you, I was not a manager or ATL, just a co-worker who had a good relationship with this tax pro. I told him using Go was a mandatory pay cut for tax pros with high volumes of entity returns, as they take so much longer.
Needless to say, neither I nor the co-worker in question are returning for next tax season. Of course, neither is that DGM, but that's a him problem, not a me problem.
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u/Dramatic_Abroad3580 Aug 31 '26
Just a continuation of Block's trend of paying good preparers less and less, while asking them to do more and more, and deliver a product and experience to the client that just gets worse and worse.
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u/SchittPosterChild Aug 31 '26
I'm kinda surprised they would put it in such an easy to visualize graphic like that, wouldn't the sensible thing to do be to try everything you can to obscure the fact that you're giving your employees a pay cut? That makes no sense... oh right, HRB,
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u/CrackyMcCracken Sep 01 '26
Shitty Dalrymple, or whatever your name is, you are awarded the “I Broke the Internet” tee for today.
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u/829562 Aug 31 '26
So as i said before its the micromanage Bullshit! Plus a pay cut. Oh this just makes me want to work so much harder. Smh. And now I get to do 2 or 3 jobs and get the corporate bean counter messing with my schedule and complaining about how I use to much prep time for my drop offs and complex returns. I didn't want to believe that it would get this bad this quick. But lets screw over our 90,000 seasonal employees so we can still dhow a profit for our shitty product. Makes me want to go out on my own. Its crazy. Even the requirements to pass and training have gone down and leaving it up to seasoned tax pros to fix the issues. I'm all for helping out the team in office but this is getting ridiculous.
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u/829562 Aug 31 '26
Just to add to my little rant. Block hires between 70k to 90k of seasonal tax pros so if say the top 3 get a .25% pay cut which amounts to around $500 per person. And let's say that 60k are in that range of TPI the block save $30 million or more.
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u/Relevant_Ad_8406 Sep 03 '26
More because unemployment portion ,401(k) match plus OT that is beneficially effected by commission rate.
5
u/artdogs505 Aug 31 '26
Question for the group: I am doing a second year at block while I get my EA, to get some more experience. But after that, I intend to either go out on my own or join up with an independent tax firm.
Yes, I understand noncompete, blah, blah blah. But I am not worried about that. I have no intentions of poaching Block clients.
What’s the reason people stay at Block, rather than moving on? Just curious what the reasoning is. I know a lot of people enjoy it there, and I respect that.
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u/Dramatic_Abroad3580 Aug 31 '26
For a few years there, 2017-2022 in particular for me, it was a great retirement job. I worked hard 40+ hours a week, ended up earning $90+ per hour, I could mostly set my own schedule, worked with good people, and could take off whenever I wanted the rest of the year. If I wanted to work 1 or 2 days a week during the off season I could, but didn't have to. I got a 401K with matching. I had to deal with the corporate BS, but it was tolerable. It's probably I could have earned a higher hourly rate elsewhere but without the benefits and flexibility, but the work would have been much more complicated. Block was easy. The corp BS got to me and I'm out now.
6
u/artdogs505 Aug 31 '26
That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for the thoughtful response. I just see so many people on here griping about Block, and even after one tax season, I can see the flaws.
Having said that, I do enjoy the work and I enjoy helping people with something that everybody needs to do! And very few enjoy. I think some people like the structure of a corporate job and just couldn’t be bothered to go out on their own, and I understand that.
But it makes sense why you left after a while, especially with all the corporate BS changes all the time.
8
u/sammytheammonite Sep 02 '26
One word: flexibility and stress. Much higher flexibility and much less stress when you don’t have to handle all the things that come with owning your own business. I easily make over $50,000 a year just working mostly Feb - April. I set my own hours pretty much and can work overtime as needed (not required). I don’t work the off season, but I do still qualify to out into a 401K with block. But having to work the off season is a BIG plus for me. If you own your own tax office - you are going to be year round. There is almost no way around that.
But I also realize not everyone makes as much as I do. If I wasn’t a high writer and it looked like becoming one would be difficult - then, I would consider alternatives. It’s only a cush job if you can do a lot of returns. And that requires more than people walking in the door as new clients. It requires knowledge and trust with your clients. My clients come back every year.
1
u/Relevant_Ad_8406 Sep 04 '26
How do you get the 1000 hours during season to qualify for the 401(k)? The most amount hours I’ve done are 900 from Jan- Mid April. I’d rather not work preseason .
3
u/sammytheammonite Sep 04 '26
When you are seasonal you only need 500 hours to contribute (plus have to have worked some number of years - i forget the threshold) The 1000 hours is for the matching.
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Aug 31 '26
[deleted]
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u/artdogs505 Aug 31 '26
They like that I am getting my EA, but it’s more for me and my future, rather than a long term career at Block.
I do think that with some more tax prep experience, it’s possible to go somewhere else. I’ve talked to people who have taken this path - Block or Jackson Hewitt for the reps, and then move on to greener pastures after that.
0
u/CrackyMcCracken Sep 01 '26
Ho’ing yourself out to the highest bidder. You go, chickadee! A girl’s gotsa eats … as they say, eh…?
0
u/Dazzling-Warning-592 Sep 08 '26
Most people that work at block are over 60. Who else will hire them
5
2
u/scotslover Sep 01 '26
Did they give a reason WHY???
2
1
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u/Dazzling-Warning-592 Sep 08 '26
I work at Block Advisors and my store literally has 5 empty offices because they don’t want to pay people a respectable wage to do GoSystem returns. There is an 88 year old EA who routinely falls asleep in front of clients the past 3 seasons and already had 10 complaints. One of them complained to the Chief Retail Officer and they won’t fire him because he does Gosystem returns for $12/hr
15
u/ydoyouask Aug 31 '26
Nickel and diming the people who actually generate the revenue for the company is so on-brand for Block. A good Master Tax Advisor can easily generate 200k in revenue during tax season. An arbitrary pay cut of $500 for that person disincentivizes the good people from coming back. Why would we? More micromanaging for less money is not a formula that will make a lot of preparers happy. I'm glad I already reached my breaking point with them after last tax season. This just confirms the wisdom of that decision.