Since accountants are always “working” throughout the day, they are constantly making phone calls, sending out e-mails, opening PDF’s, etc. The 2nd one in this list deserves special recognition.

If you are working with an accountant, you should expect an e-mail before you arrive at your desk. You should expect phone calls or in-person visits in the morning for more questions. More e-mails will arrive throughout the early evening requesting things. Accountants take the simple concept of question & answer to the next level.

If someone sends an e-mail at 7AM, it shows that they were there working early, right? Well how about another e-mail to their team at 9pm? That shows they were working late. Accountants manage to continuously send e-mails past midnight, past 2AM, and again before people show up in the office. In fact, accountants rarely see what is known as the sun.

This is the game of one-upmanship that accountants play to show their supervisors, coworkers, peers, etc. that they work harder (read: longer) than everybody else. Why send an e-mail at 8:30PM when you can send one at 11:23PM and show everybody your dedication.

Accountants are amazing at this, because they will pretend that nobody notices the time stamp on their e-mails. Saturday at 2PM? Sunday at 11:57PM? Accountants act shocked when they are asked how late they worked, but deep down secretly, they have a self-important attitude because they were in the office at midnight documenting something while you were out enjoying life.

So the next time you see an accountant, ask them how late they were working in the office last night. This will allow them to give you a nonchalant reply. You should act surprised and then amazed. By commending them for working so hard, this will improve your relationship with the accountant by more than you can imagine.