Finding Your Balance Ahead of Another Busy Season
Each busy season, burnout looms heavy over accounting professionals. Here, four CPAs share strategies to beat burnout and achieve better work-life balance.
By Kasia White | Winter 2023
It’s that time of year again: Busy season is right around the corner. This means another busy season of long, grueling hours, heavy workloads, and pressures to meet deadlines awaits. And with all this comes added stress, which can quickly boil over
and lead to workplace burnout. Today, burnout isn’t just another buzzword—it’s now classified by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an occupational syndrome resulting from poorly managed chronic workplace stress. According to
WHO, burnout is characterized by “feelings of energy depletion, increased mental distance from one’s job, and reduced professional efficacy.”
For accountants, especially during busy season, it’s not uncommon to have 50-plus-hour
(or more) workweeks. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that a recent study by FloQast and the University of Georgia found that almost all (99%) accountants experience some level of burnout throughout their careers.
So, what’s the solution to
combating burnout during busy season (or any season, for that matter)? Here, four professionals share some guidance on ways CPAs and other accounting professionals can achieve the healthy work-life balance they want and need.
Set Boundaries
“There’s
a risk of burnout for all CPAs during the busiest times,” says Adriane Wong, CPA, managing director in Deloitte’s Chicago office. “Anytime someone experiences prolonged periods of unmanageable stress, the risk of burnout is real.”
As Deloitte’s well-being leader of the Chicago audit and assurance business since 2018, Wong mentors her peers and helps them navigate their work-life balance by focusing on mental, physical, and financial health. On a regular basis, Wong answers
questions, speaks to the firm, creates newsletters, and partners with other experts on well-being initiatives.
According to Wong, the No. 1 way to prevent burnout is to set boundaries at work.
“Setting boundaries takes practice, but boundaries
are important in helping us make time for ourselves,” she says. “We all have different priorities. Communicating our boundaries for those priorities helps the people we work with better understand how to best work with us.”
One way
to effectively communicate your boundaries at work is to meet with your team, supervisor, or career advisor in-person and say, “This is important to me because….”
“Think about the things in your life that are nonnegotiable,
things that are important—maybe it’s having dinner with your family or picking up the kids from daycare,” she says. “When I was younger, I wasn’t as confident about communicating my boundaries, but I realized how important
it is now.”
Like Wong, Amber Sarb, CPA, audit senior manager at RSM US LLP, understands the value of setting healthy boundaries and advocating for yourself.
“If you have a family or social obligation, don’t be afraid to ask for the
time away,” Sarb stresses, who’s worked for RSM for the last 13 years. “If you want to continue playing in your intramural volleyball league during busy season, there’s no reason why you can’t. Sometimes young professionals
are nervous to even ask for it, but flexibility can still be part of busy season. Yes, you’re going to be working a lot of hours, and it might not always be pleasant, but you have every right to ask for what you need socially, emotionally, and
mentally.”
For Sarb, having a schedule where she can shut down her laptop early on Saturdays and not turn it back on until Monday was a critical boundary to her well-being.
“I used to always feel like I was ready to have a breakdown by
mid- February because I really just needed a break,” she says. “We deserve that for the hard work we’re putting in during the week. You can’t work four months straight without a break.”
Manage Expectations
While long
hours and an intense work schedule come with the territory, Andrew Guerrero, CPA, audit manager at Adelfia LLC, strongly urges CPAs to set boundaries and manage expectations not only at work but also with their families—and themselves.
“How
you communicate and prioritize among all parties sets the tone for how you achieve work-life balance,” Guerrero says, who’s been with the small Chicago-based firm for 11 years. “Keeping everyone on the same page requires open lines
of communication, especially when you’re managing busy season expectations.”
Admittedly, Guerrero says finding a firm that’s the right fit for you is key. “It’s definitely easier said than done, but I’m very fortunate
to have found a place where all parties I’m involved with are understanding of my priorities.”
In addition to having a supportive network at work, Guerrero, who’s busy raising a young family at home, attributes the firm’s option
to work remotely as greatly improving his work-life balance.
“Before the pandemic, it was very difficult to have work-life balance,” he says, adding that his commute was more than an hour each way. “If the pandemic didn’t happen
and inspire changes in the way we work, I don’t know if I’d still be where I’m at today.”
Stay Healthy
Of course, working from home comes with its own set of challenges, as the line between professional and personal life often blurs.
“This is very often an issue when we start working remotely. In many cases, it’s much easier to burn out versus being in the office,” says Dorothy Sobocinska, senior tax manager at Crowe LLP’s Oak Brook, Ill. office.
Sobocinska, who’s been in her role since 2016, works 90% remotely and says having a routine and sticking to it is essential. For example, instead of brewing a cup of coffee and heading straight to the computer, Sobocinska starts her day with a morning workout at a nearby gym.
“This allows me to leave the house because working from home, sleeping at home—it can be too much,” she says. “Even a 30-minute gym workout in a different environment is beneficial for not only physical but mental health.”
To get more people at the firm moving and eating better, Crowe offers its employees an incentive-based program, which tracks their activity and meal patterns using a mobile app. Points can then be redeemed for rewards, such as cash for gym membership dues or even a reduction to medical insurance premiums, among other things.
“It’s a great incentive,” Sobocinska says, who’s participated in the program since its inception in 2016. “Crowe is very understanding of people’s personal time and mental health. If someone takes an hour to do a yoga workout, no one has a problem with it because they’re taking care of themselves—and they’re going to have more energy to work.”
Prioritize Tasks
To boost productivity at home and stay focused, Sobocinska is a big believer in making lists that establish priorities for the day and the week ahead.
“It helps, especially when you’re overwhelmed with work and have a lot going on,” she says. “Working from home creates this nonexistent separation for many people between work hours and personal hours. Creating to-do lists lets you know when you’re done with work and that you’re going to go back to it the next day—not overnight or by staying very long hours unless you have to.”
Similarly, Sarb uses time blocks to structure her day. “They’ve always really helped me,” she says. “Every day, there’s at least one hour on my calendar that makes it look like I’m occupied, and that’s either for work tasks I haven’t gotten a chance to get to or for running an errand. If you’re working from home, there’s nothing wrong with taking your lunch break and running to the grocery store. Anything that you can do to make yourself feel a little more human during busy season helps.”
During the day, Wong suggests taking microbreaks (i.e., breaks lasting 10 minutes or less). “Try building in some recharge time throughout your day. Three of my favorite microbreaks are taking a walk outside, getting coffee with a co-worker, and team quiz competitions,” she says. “It’s easy to get swept up in upcoming deadlines or back-to-back meetings without taking time for yourself.”
Get Help
Of course, the firm you work for also plays a crucial role in helping to prevent or manage your burnout. According to Sarb, it’s worth speaking with your manager or firm’s leaders if you believe your team isn’t adequately staffed.
“This is a hard conversation to have. We all know everybody is struggling with staffing, but a lot of the times when I see people leaving their jobs, it’s because they felt like too much landed on their shoulders and they didn’t know if it would ever change.”
Before you, or one of your team members calls it quits, Sarb suggests proposing the use of interns or outsourced support staff to help alleviate the burden of burnout across the firm.
When times get tough, Sarb also suggests simply asking the firm’s partners and senior-level professionals for guidance: “The partners and managers have figured out how to be successful—leverage their experience, opinions, and advice when looking to make a change or just get through a tough situation.”
Take Charge
Overall, practicing self-care, being proactive, and taking charge of preventing burnout is essential to having a well-rounded life and career.
“It’s always better to try to head off burnout by taking care of yourself, because coming back from being burnt out is a challenge,” Wong stresses.
As Guerrero says, “Working in public accounting is a lifestyle. To find balance, you have to embrace the fact that you’re not going to be working a 9-to-5 job. Once you do that, it’s much easier to focus on finding your own unique path to work-life balance, whether that be during busy season or beyond.”
Kasia White is a freelance writer who specializes in profiling small businesses and leaders of global companies.
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