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Stressed practitioner gets community's help

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20th Nov 2013
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When one stressed, depressed accountant vented about her bleak situation in Any Answers recently, her cry for help came from a far off, dark place.

Going by the online ame of Sir Digby Chicken Caesar, our depressed correspondent is in real life a sole practitioner wrestling with the pressures of raising a young family in difficult financial circumstances. A recent bout of pneumonia led her to reassess her life.

She decided she did not want to continue working as an accountant; since setting up in practice seven years ago her career had become very stressful. Before then, she enjoyed reasonable success after starting out at 23 in industry.

Now, at 32, she planned to give up her practice to pursue the more creative work she thought would be more fulfilling.

“Is it feasible to sell my practice?” she asked, wondering if she would ever be employable again as she was unwilling to give up the freedom of being her own boss.

But almost as soon as she had written the post on Any Answers, the AccountingWEB community came to her rescue with tips, advice and support. This story, at least, led to a happy ending. Some of the best community advice and suggestions are repeated here, along with Sir Digby's account of how she came to see to the light at the end of her particular tunnel.

Make sacrifices

If Sir Digby felt unable to continue under her current working conditions, several members advised her to bite the bullet and sell her practice.

Before doing so, however, she needed to think carefully about the decisions she makes during this difficult economic period.

“I’ve been through numerous recessions but none have been as aggressive and prolonged as this one,” time for change said. “Many of your contemporaries will be in a similar situation and you have to be careful what decisions you take now, which will impact on yours and your families’ future.”

Selling a practice or making a big change to your life at a time when you’re ill might not be the best move, others suggested, as change can take a lot out of a person.

For a less dramatic solution, Stepurhan suggested approaching other local practices in the hope of getting a job with them, and bringing her portfolio along. “You’d still be in accountancy with the support of a firm, but have to make sacrifices regarding control,” he said.

Some members even made Sir Digby offers along those lines. But Sir Digby didn't fancy this route, she could take on a temporary worker while working part-time and concentrating on improving her health and other pursuits.

Don’t ignore your health

Several AccountingWEB shared similar tales of their own or illnesses of a loved one.

“This is a real downside of working alone,” said Mathswizard, who recently recovered from bronchitis and pneumonia, and lost their mother in July, “We get isolated and soldier on because we have to.”

As long as clients are understanding, sole practitioners can take time off when needed. Sarah Douglas, an accountant who has stopped work four times in 15 years due to illness, says  it’s important to take time out for health’s sake and that you learn to live on the money you’re on.

Sir Digby is also heavily medicated for her depression, which could lie at the heart of her “dire financial situation” she said.

Professional counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy and taking time out could help Sir Digby de-stress.

“Sitting down one-to-one with another human is a strong course of action when you feel you’ve hit rock bottom,” Douglas advised.

“Your children do not care about money or what they have, they want a happy mum.”

Make sure it’s not the clients…

Some members suggested Sir Digby could be plagued by bad or troublesome clients, who can cause stress and take the enjoyment out of accountancy.

Sir Digby replied that while she has some lovely clients, others do take advantage of her helpful nature.

Hannahaston advised selling a block of more difficult clients to make her workload more manageable, which is something she plans to do when her father, who works part-time in her practice, retires soon.

Mark Lee suggested she chart the pluses, minuses and unknowns of her strategy to create a "PMU" breaking down the issues into manageable chunks. Perhaps this would help her to figure out if bad clients really were at fault. Flash Gordon added that it can help to identify the things she did want to do into small chunks - and focus on tackling them.

The light at the end of the tunnel

Bolstered by the support from other AccountingWEB members, Sir Digby returned later to reveal her plans for the future.

“I don't have the energy to keep up the battle anymore. I'm hoping that a change really is as good as a rest, and a new perspective and career would help me rediscover that pushy arrogant young woman I used to be, who worked damn hard to get what she wanted and felt truly proud of her own achievements, rather than the sickly, exhausted fed up 32-year-old woman, who does seem to have a victim complex and is incapable to mustering the energy to take control of her own life,” she wrote.

Sir Digby decided to sell her fee base to another local accountant, who offered to take her on as a subcontractor. This has made her feel “happier, more relaxed” and her health has improved.

Now that she is more willing to get out of bed in the mornings, she has decided that raising a young family comes before establishing her own successful accountancy firm alone. She also decided to send some of her writing to agents and publishers.

“I feel a gathering new enthusiasm for my career in accountancy so I feel very fortunate indeed,” she concluded. "The Aweb community has been so supportive, I honestly don't know where I would be without you all." 

This was just one practitioner’s story of her struggle with illness, stress and her career. Stay tuned for further coverage on stress management and dealing with depression during this self assessment season. 

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Time for change
By Time for change
21st Nov 2013 08:32

Our community works in a very strange place

in my opinion.

On the one hand, "pressure of work" is not a reasonable excuse, unless of course, HMRC (HM Revenue & Customs) are explaining why your enquiry, to them, has been delayed!

As in many traits of our lives, it seems that there's one rule for one and, one rule for another.

The difference is of course that "pressure" can lead to "stress", which is a (seriously) dangerous health hazard.

But, what do I know?

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