#31 Delegating Tasks
Mar 20th, 2009 by pfi
Accountants are experts at delegating.
Don’t believe that? Just try to get an accountant to do something and you’ll soon see it delegated to no less than two people.
Accountants get their first taste of delegation early on in their careers. It starts out as getting one binder from next door. Before you know it, an accountant is delegating away all their areas to unfortunate slaves people. The amazing part is how an accountant will spend more time explaining the delegated task than it takes to complete it.
Delegation is an important part of maintaining work life balance for senior accountants. Delegation allows them to golf, travel, or shop while the people below them are forced to compensate by working more unpaid overtime.
When you talk to an accountant, they will acknowledge everything and assure you that they will take care of it. Moments later, the accountant is “working offsite” while their staff is trying to figure out what kind of crap was passed onto them.
Delegating tasks has a lot in common with throwing people under the bus. Both suck and help form the foundation of the accounting profession.
Although delegation sounds horrible, it makes sense in that a manager should not be making photocopies at their charge rates. However, delegation is, in reality, used to avoid doing any work at all. This way if things work out, an accountant can take the credit. If things blow up, it’s time to throw people under the bus. Rinse and repeat.
You just described my co-workers philosophy perfectly. They have successfully delegated all their tasks and are taking a vacation day during busy season.
I hate those a-holes that take more time explaining a task than it takes to do!
This is actually pretty accurate, not only does it allow for longer lunch planning, but also right now during March Madness, while I’m working, everyone else has their brackets out and the games streaming online. Why hasn’t there been an article about the question “Well, what’d they do last year?” I’m pretty sure everytime I’ve ever asked a question, that’s the first response I get.
I just sent this link to my senior instructing him to send it to the rest of the seniors.
They (esp. MANAGERS, SR. MANAGERS) spend more time explaining what to do than it actually takes to do it. When you point this out to them, they will tell you that it is to develop the staff. Lazy auditors!
My Manager will spend time discussing what to do (X minutes) > I do it > She reviews and gives me stupid (pointless and unnecessary) REVIEW NOTES > I go back and make the changes > She reviews again > sometime in the future the Partner will add his notes. If you are out of luck, the lazy Sr. Manager will be obliged to add few review notes > Finally the document is ready. Big 4 auditors just charged 4 hours for a task that was totally unnecessary and something that would have been completed in 1 hour . All in the name of STAFF DEVELOPMENT.
when i was a new staff, my manager dropped a letter on my desk and told me to give it to the admin to type up – LITERALLY 20 feet down the hall.
my favorite advice from a senior is “Last year, this year – do it”. I LOVE last year this year work, it’s so easy!
I love delegating! This way I can sleep in and also not work late nights
I saw a manager ask a first year staff to date stamp every page in a file after they reviewed it.
Everyone’s too afraid to do much of this anymore….need that utilization!
I think it’s worst when you are already busy (working unpaid overtime to finish up a job within budget) and your manager would ask you to set up a client on the system. Really?! It would take an admin five minutes to do! GEE!
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I was once delegated the task to pick up a seniors prescription pills. Turns out that senior was given the task from a Manager and the manager for the VP. FML!!
I am constantly sent e-mails with an attachment asking me to add the attachment to the client file. All of our computers have access to the client files, why it takes and e-mail from a manager to a staff (writing the e-mail attaching the document etc.) instead of just saving in the correct place, I will never figure it out. Or printing, they send me an e-mail with an attachment “will you print this and bring it to me?” really… did you really ask me to do this….