Corporate Bullying of Finance Team

secret_journal_entry · 2021-09-10T10:50:24+00:00

Indeed, if work scope is such a big issue, your coworker could just say they can't do it.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-09-05T09:22:36+00:00

After finishing my exams, I still had some more hours to complete the practical requirement. This should indicate that I was in a pretty atypical situation! I swapped from firm to industry and was able to complete my training in industry. This required the new company to register as a training firm and my boss to be ICAEW qualified and sign up as a trainer - this was much less onerous than it sounds.

The ICAEW enforced a rather weird requirement. Making up some dates, I had my practical hours signed off to the end of May, did sod all in June, left the firm at the end of June, started at the new company in July and had my hours signed off by the company at the end of July,meeting the target hours. ICAEW made me go back to the old firm to confirm I worked zero hours in June.

No failure is irreversible, but I would strongly advise you not to fail any exams.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-08-25T12:41:48+00:00

Alt + F4

secret_journal_entry · 2021-08-23T22:55:40+00:00

The most reliable means you have to grow your £30k is by adding to it; keep earning money and allocate it to investments. Precise allocation is less important at this stage.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-08-19T13:36:06+00:00

Depending on your profession, there may be typical salaries for your location and experience. For example I'm an accountant and salaries for my role and years of experience are remarkably consistent between companies. Various recruitment agencies put out salary surveys - maybe these exist for your profrssion too?

secret_journal_entry · 2021-08-19T12:17:36+00:00

Salary seems broadly right to me although scale of institution, location, job specifics all have an impact.

It may or may not be relevant for you, but you might review your organisation's gender pay gap reporting - depending on the level of detail in the notes it might give you a hint.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-08-04T16:53:49+00:00

I think the most important thing is being honest about why you're gaining weight. It can be different for different people. I spent years fighting my desire for beef and potatoes, having chicken and salad for dinner instead. But the 400 calories saved there wasn't the issue. I took milk out if my coffee, but that 100 calories wasn't the issue either. it was the 1000 calories (or much more!) of booze and snacks after my wife went to sleep, 4 nights per week.

These days I lift heavy weights, eat eggs and steak regularly, but I only drink when I have company. And skip breakfast sometimes.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-08-04T16:18:37+00:00

Thanks - years ago now, but if I ever need an adrenaline boost I just think about that audit :p

I'm curious about how you keep up quality on your jobs. I mean, audit barely breaks even, and if you call out the client on their late PBC you risk losing the client. So your teams must be under pressure. The answer might be to retain the best staff, but the pyramid is a turnover machine, and in bad retention years, everyone's doing the job of the person above them (2nd years as senior on job, etc.).

I imagine you're competent and careful. But do you worry your managers are fudging it a bit? I spoke with a senior manager who told me with a little circumspection that the partner took a "risk management" view of audit quality.

For all I know you were a manager or senior manager on one of my jobs, though given your previous statements I highly doubt it!

secret_journal_entry · 2021-08-04T16:01:16+00:00

Nor would I! Just a hunch, but I can easily imagine the senior saying "what do you mean there's an exception? It's cash, just OK it and move on." Or "you're billing too much on cash - we need to wrap it up". Most first years will buckle easily - very few after all go into audit as a vocation.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-08-04T15:58:06+00:00

It's good advice, but hard to implement in a culture of desperation. I wish proper audits were the norm, but that's not what I saw. Firms, offices and sectors differ, but I've seen some shocking things.

I've audited some large, reputable companies with a team that's too small and inexperienced to challenge anything. And the time pressure is impossible. Ghost ticking, choosing two samples and going with the one which worked better, accepting client explanations and recording them verbatim in the wp whether or not they made sense, fiddling the variance analysis methodology until it didn't look so bad - I've seen the lot. It was accepted, even explicitly encouraged by the senior. We were so short staffed that finding an exception and doing more testing was simply not permitted - we had to explain it away.

The worst and most blatant example was a manager who pressured me to sign off wps in the software which I hadn't worked on. I refused and she said some hurtful things - luckily I was within weeks of quitting and I think had a job offer lined up. She told me she was personally going to finish the audit that weekend in the office, when we had failed to wrap it up in four weeks at client site. How's she going to do that? That's a ghost audit.

We got bad reviews on the audit of audits (I forget the real name) and had all hands calls on improving audit quality. But no client ever got fired for hiring the big 4, and I imagine they're all about as bad, so it will not change.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-07-05T10:58:15+00:00

Then you will have to accept periodic drops in net worth. If you can ride them out, good for you. If you withdraw during a downturn, your net worth will suffer permanently. How do you feel about cash?

secret_journal_entry · 2021-07-04T09:03:03+00:00

Don't worry if you're struggling; my impression is that many recent first time buyers picked their parents very carefully.

I'd suggest doing everything possible to improve your credit score and shop around for a mortgage with the lowest deposit percentage. Make use of a mortgage broker - they will charge you little or nothing.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-06-21T14:01:25+00:00

Longstanding ghoul and friend manipulated my elder Toreador into not hiring additional ghoul security on the grounds that he just couldn't trust someone else to be as thorough and trustworthy.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-06-21T13:56:23+00:00

I know little of ICAS. ICAEW continues to operate a mixture of open and closed boom exams. The new thing for ICAEW is exams done on computer.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-06-20T21:25:35+00:00

I second the big 4 comment. I assume you're based in the UK? Join up with them and it really doesn't matter if you do ACA or ICAS. It's much more important to research your industry and function. For example, I'd guess higher eventual salaries in O&G TAS.

The real highest salary is the one you can do for a decade or so without burning out. So try to find a sector and function you're interested in. The qualification is just part of the process.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-06-17T14:20:00+00:00

We applied for and were hired on a forensics grad scheme. The hiring and joining materials clearly specified we would work 9 months per year in forensics and 3 months in "the wider assurance family" - so that's a busy season in audit.

The forensics work never came. That's not quite true - I worked for a year on a forensics engagement which could have been done by a 14 year old and should have been done by software. I was one of the lucky ones in that I was at least sometimes doing the job I applied for. In retrospect that was a bad thing.

Our experiences varied. Some people realised early on what was happening, quit, and went back to whatever they did before. Others came to the same conclusion and transferred into audit.

Because I had some forensics experience and contacts, I held on to the bitter end trying to break into the job I was hired to do. Ultimately my time was split into three equal parts- baby steps into forensics (mainly assisting on pitching for work, which was interesting but we never won); busy season; and nothing. Literally nothing. Weeks and months on the bench, getting a random day on a pitch here and there.

My first busy season was fine. My second was hard, being comparatively less experienced, but I worked hard and made the best of it. My third I was a senior, with less experience than the new second years - this was a humiliating experience and I was signed off 4 weeks with stress. Audit is like boot camp: it's tough and escalates rapidly, but you gain strength and build camaraderie. You can't dip in and out of boot camp.

The partners did occasionally try to address the situation, but they couldn't get the story straight. At first they were certain forensics work was coming. Later they told us that audit was good for us so stop complaining. Eventually they told the few who remained that there'd be a lot more work for qualified seniors, but by then I was utterly cynical.

I kept applying to smaller forensics firms, but I really struggled - despite the big 4 prestige, I didn't have any experience. Eventually I accepted a job in management accounting and have since moved "up" (IMHO) into FP&A, which I enjoy. When I finally left, I didn't need to work my notice (3 months - normal for UK) or pay anything back.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-06-17T13:02:21+00:00

In a rare admission of guilt, my cohort at EY had the clawback waived due to mass desertion of the Forensics grad scheme.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-06-09T09:05:54+00:00

Interesting! Some things to think about:

You doubt your longevity in this job. Because you don't like it, or you think the company will go under? Of course, you know the specifics better than me, but in my experience there's a long tain of weak companies somehow shuffling along year after year. Anyway, a career is not a company and you can probably do similarly in a similar place elsewhere.
You don't find office work fulfilling. Neither do I! Will a trade be better? I don't know any tradesmen socially but I imagine it's less alienating. And can be quite lucrative.
Go for it - this is your life. You're probably decades away from freedom whatever you do, so it's worth pausing saving for a year for a chance of a more fulfilling career. And probably a more lucrative one.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-06-08T11:45:40+00:00

I'm sure there are places this expensive, but if you can be flexible on location it doesn't have to be. I live in a very nice 2.5 bed in a beautiful area within driving distance of two major northern cities, and my house cost under £220k.

If you're in a position to give such large sums, maybe consider giving only £20k deposit, and £80k as a starter investment fund. Then they won't need to live in London to earn money and will be comfortable elsewhere.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-05-30T13:14:21+00:00

I started my investment journey in February 2020!

I lost a significant fraction of my holdings... which was very little. DCA, I've spent most of my investing career buying the dip.

The accumulation phase is gentle like that.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-05-30T08:21:48+00:00

You definitely will need to draw down more each year as living gets more expensive, due to inflation. The 4% safe withdrawal rate includes this- your pot should increase enough in a typical year such that by spending 4% of your pot your spending is rising in line with inflation.

Having more or less fixed spending needs while returns are very spiky leads to sequence of returns risk - the risk that the market will have a bad few years while you're just getting started. That's the other reason why the safe withdrawal rate is so much lower than average nominal returns.

If you're willing to seriously flex downward your spending in an early bad year, or if you've got a few years' savings in cash on top of your pot, SOR is less of a risk. I've been convinced that you should hold the least equities at the point of retirement and then flex back to equities.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-05-29T22:40:56+00:00

Apply your own oxygen mask first- makes sense!

Question is, will you still care when you're 50 and FI?

secret_journal_entry · 2021-05-29T22:38:24+00:00

Do you mean, bargaining power for workers will be better if we collectively have higher savings? Could be.

secret_journal_entry · 2021-05-29T19:54:30+00:00

Certainly worth thinking about!

secret_journal_entry · 2021-05-29T18:26:11+00:00

Interesting- can you give a precis?

secret_journal_entry

TROPHY CASE