'I left that company... And left him with the rest of his projects that he dumped on me': Overworked accountant quits and gives boss a taste of his own medicine

Author image for Elna McHilderson
Elna McHilderson • Managing Editor
Aug 27, 2023 10:00 AM EDT

There is a difference between being an above-average employee and going helpfully above and beyond and being grossly overworked by an entitled boss who does not even understand the trade. It might have felt like the above-average employee route at first, but then you start to realize that you're getting impossible tasks and not even getting paid more for them. That is when a change must be made on your part because bosses will usually attempt to take advantage of you doing that for as long as they can. 

An account on Reddit shared a story of exactly this. He worked in taxes, and anyone who works in taxes knows that once it starts getting close to tax day, the paperwork starts piling up, and things start to get hectic. It's just part of the job, and the accounts all know this. But OP was getting more than just your regular crunch time tax day paperwork. He was getting an impossible pile of paperwork to do that no human could have possibly finished in time. He gave it his all, but in the end, he decided to say goodbye to that entitled boss and let him figure out how to do the impossible. See the whole story below!

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    via Kelly via Pexels
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    Font - Posted by u/fartman33333 2 days ago Manager reprimands me for working too much after constantly burying me in projects. M OC
    via u/fartman33333
  • 03
    Font - I am a tax preparer and we all know about tax season. Usually, we have to work 55-60 hours a week which is pretty standard. But this year, the company decided to reduce it to 50 in an attempt to promote better work- life balance.
    via u/fartman33333
  • 04
    Font - Realistically speaking, there was no way this was going to work out because outside of my local office, the other offices in the company notoriously struggled to get their tax returns done on time with 55-60 a week.
    via u/fartman33333
  • 05
    Font - They also had increased our yearly charge hour goals, which I thought was pretty counterintuitive. Either way, I decided to say screw it just do the 50 cause I'll take the extra time, sure.
    via u/fartman33333
  • 06
    Font - That adventure died quickly, because my manager just started burying me in projects. For some background on my manager, he sucked at his job. Constantly contradicts himself, throws others under the bus, and hounds you about being efficient and getting his projects done but then waits forever to get them reviewed.
    via u/fartman33333
  • 07
    Font - He also has no problem bossing people around and being condescending. But the moment someone with an ounce of authority pushes down on him, he instantly folds and bends to their will like a dog after its owner tells it to roll, even if they have no idea what they're talking about.
    via u/fartman33333
  • 08
    Font - So as I'm working on all of these projects he buried me in, I soon realize that 50 is not gonna allow me to get all this done. It's definitely not that I was taking too long to do them, I am confident that my track record at that company shows that I got stuff done and pushed out in a timely manner. But between the budget hours that these projects had as whole, the 50 hours, and the line of other projects I had from other people, yeah fat chance I was gonna make it.
    via u/fartman33333
  • 09
    Font - So I decide screw it, I'll just do 55-60. Because I'm a team player, I did like working at that place, I figured I'd get ahead of the company's lovely charge hour goal, and brownie points couldn't hurt.
    via u/fartman33333
  • 10
    Font - Then my manager comes into play again. He asks me to if I can hop on a call and that's where it begins. He asks me about my time card, because even though my requirement is 50, I still book the 55-60 cause I ain't working for free.
    via u/fartman33333
  • 11
    Font - I find out that in a meeting, a partner from another office looked at my time card and started questioning it, then proceeded to start saying all kinds of things about me and accusing me of stuff. I apparently now had a nickname amongst him and that group as the "60 Hour Man".
    via u/fartman33333
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    Font - My manager rips me a new one because I'm working too much and that I don't have to do that, and yes I didn't have to do that but it was my choice that I was okay with making.
    via u/fartman33333
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    Font - I then realize that my manager was also in on the call, and listening to this partner say all this stuff about me. But he didn't stick up for me, and knowing d In well how much he put on my plate, seem to have agreed with this guy who has no idea what's going on.
    via u/fartman33333
  • 14
    Font - I felt extremely backstabbed by this, but I decided, okay fine, I won't work too much. So went back down to 50 hours, again, I'll take the extra time. As a result, he got antsy about some of the projects because they weren't get done yet. I couldn't have gotten to them within the 50 hours I had each week so they'd keep needing to get pushed out.
    via u/fartman33333
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    Font - This lead to some of the projects didn't get done by the tax deadline, so we had to extend, and he wasn't happy about it. He believes that they could have gotten done. And yeah, they could have. That extra 5-10 hours a week I was originally putting in would have allowed me to get them done. All my manager had to do was keep his mouth shut or utter a thank you.
    via u/fartman33333
  • 16
    Font - I left that company at the end of July, and left him with the rest of his projects that he dumped on me through that month. I wished him well, but I hope to never work under him again.
    via u/fartman33333
  • 17
    Font - +3 2 days ago ● slackerassftw I had a great accountant. They would tell everyone upfront, that if they were slow about sending in their tax documents that he would file extensions and complete them after April 15. They still crunched leading up to it, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it was before.
    via u/slackera**ftw
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    Font - fartman33333 OP 2 days ago . edited 2 days ago My manager was terrible at this. He insisted to the clients that they could get it done even though they took their sweet time sending stuff in. When you would realize something was missing, he'd take forever to ask the client about it and getting the information through to you. He was a huge bottleneck in the operation.
    via u/fartman33333
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    Font - RayEd29 • 2 days ago The partners at my firm set a hard deadline of April 1st. If you got your stuff in by then, your return would be done by the 15th. If not, we'll file an extension for you. They were complete hardasses about it too. Client brings their stuff in on April 2nd, we get all the pre-4/1 returns done by the 12th with time to spare so we can cut the 4/2 client a break,
    via u/RayEd29
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    Font - right? Nope. We did the return, had it ready before the 15th, and filed the extension anyway delivering a completed return to the client AFTER 4/15. Loved those guys but public accounting just wasn't for me - the only reason I don't still work there.
    via u/RayEd29

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boss tax-boss employee tax-person quits petty revenge tax-employee Tax Day workplace Reddit accountant working-with-numbers
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