[Anonymous]

Curious, if you have worked a position for longer than 1 year, how much does your emplyer and co-workers know about your personal life?

Are you or the people at your office pretty much an open book or is your office mostly private and reserved? Do you have photos of your family on your desk or share stories with everyone about what you did last weekend or for the holiday?

Please also share what kind of company/firm you work for as well as the size of the office. I would imagine working for a large corporate office or publicly traded firm will be very different than working for a smaller public accounting firm.

Interested in everyone’s feedback. Hope to get a good turnout here to get a better understanding of the different work environments 🙂

[Missy]

I personally haven't noticed such a difference between large firms in industry and small companies. When I worked for a 60m company with 200 employees those of us who had desks had family pictures, kids artwork, and radios in our cubicles. We were very close socially with a small handful of peers that we worked closely with (I still socialize with a handful and I've been gone six years.) Now I'm in a very small company and my desk looks almost exactly the same as at the larger company and I'm social with about half the people there.

Licensed Massachusetts Non Reporting CPA since 2012
Finance/Admin/HR Manager

[Anonymous]

I work in AP for a law firm right now. There are only 5 of us in the Acct department. We share what we want to and all get along swell. I know more about them than they know about me, I think. I'm the type of person who does not bring personal pictures or other items to work. They are distracting. I also leave my phone locked in my car every day so as not to be tempted to text or answer personal calls. Some of my other coworkers do this and while they do get their jobs done every day and never get behind, I don't think Facebooking or texting is conducive to being productive at work so that's why I don't. I don't often talk about what I did last weekend unless asked. I actually have great social skills, I've worked with people from all socioeconomic groups, from lower income/borderline poverty on up through eight-figure earners annually. But I try not to fraternize too much with coworkers. If you give coworkers too much personal info, they can use it against you. You can choose friends. You can't choose neighbors, family, or coworkers.

[Ken]

I believe that every company we work for is a depends on what the office environment and culture is like and mostly depends on the type of industry we work for e.g.(banks, blue-collar manufacturers, non-profits, government).

For example, I used to work for one of the Big 2 steel manufacturers (which is a dirty, dangerous job within a very divided company of union workers vs managers) and the fact that the steel mill workers and operation bosses were a step away from my office made my job much tougher as they see me sitting in my nerdy business casual clothes in front of an Excel spreadsheet all day. Accountants at this company were viewed by the Plant Manager (biggest boss) as unnecessary and a waste of money. So in other words you couldn't win and were always on the defensive with most of the company except your other fellow accountant co-workers.

However, since you always feel you have a target on your back b/c you're on the manager side and not a union person, that means your accountant co-workers are always on guard and defensive for covering the butt all day long (very corporate stiff and uptight vibe). So it's very hard to get your office co-workers and supposed “mentors” to actually pick up your phone call and take a few minutes to help you with a question about your reports. Also, the accounting clerks who do the most repetitive tasks such as data-entry in Excel were union workers. As a manager, if you did anything out of the ordinary you could be ratted-out by union employees or have a grievance filed against you.

Also, working for manufacturing companies generally means safety is the most talked about and drilled into your head subject everyday. Safety was so obsessively emphasized by everyone there that you felt like you were working in a banana land of safety dictators.

All in all, I found another place to work as it got too monotonous doing the same reports every week and the same late nights with no thanks in return. That type of pressure wasn't for me and I never felt I belonged there as everyone is so defensive and on guard with the stereotypical boring corporate accountant personalities.

[Finally_a_CPA]

I work for a small firm (approximately 15 employees, about 10 being CPAs). Everyone is kind of like an open book. The firm has a few events every year where everyone gets together and bring their families. So everyone knows everyone's family.

Im not very personable so they probably know the least about me. I guess everyone shares certain details about their life; I don't tend to share details about my life unless I am asked. I really enjoy working there but I guess I sometimes feel like I don't fit in because I was cursed with social awkwardness. 🙁

[Jdn9201]

Good thread topic. I am less personable or more personable depending on the environment. I would say that in general, I'm less than others because I try to separate my work and personal lives. I have never had pictures at my desk or other personal affects. I've been very blessed that at both my current job and last job, I could call my coworkers a 2nd family. I've worked in industry corporate tax for F500 companies for 10 years. At my first job, I was close a few people but the environment in my immediate department was very toxic. Toward the end when I had one foot out the door, I remarked that our department was the adult version of the movie “Mean Girls”. Needless to say I put up a wall and it took a while for that wall to come down once I moved on. My next job was a department of about 20-25 people and they felt like another family. I think part of that was attributable to traveling together for the first 3 months (we were relocating company HQ). I've been at my current job for 7 months, and my coworkers feel like family there too. I went with one coworker out west for 4 days on vacation, and we were planning the trip after I had been there less than a month. Just last week, I unfortunately had one of my cats pass away during surgery and my coworkers were so understanding and even let me leave early to go be with family. It's nice that I didn't have to hide that.

As I have grown older and had a really bad experience with my first job, I appreciate the value of liking the people you work with, and the importance of them liking you too. When I first started my career, I believed you should leave your home at home and your work at work, but technology and longer working hours make it hard to do that anymore, and the long hours are much easier to deal with when people accept you and you like being with them. For people who may be looking for other jobs – pay attention to culture and how people get along with each other. It's a very underrated factor in considering job opportunities. It's why I actually prefer panel interviews and I do the best I can to be 100% myself during interviews too. Panel interviews allow you to observe group dynamics and give you more people to have a conversation and ask questions to.

BEC - 88 8/29/15
REG - 82 11/14/15
AUD - 83 1/8/16
FAR - 80 2/29/16

[N4]

Our department is small around 7 ppl. Were a laid back environment and we talk about experiences growing up and our personal lives. Some more then others. My boss is really chill and shares stuff about his past and family. Im an open book and So is my other coworker lol. But i dont reveal any details too personal. Just if i am seeing someone or what im doing that weekend etc. Im also much younger than my coworkers so its good to get their opinions bc they have been there done that.

FAR (5/31) PASS (Best birthday gift ever!)

[Skynet]

Things were going great until……

Let's just say the word “Swinging” is now forbidden in the office. Nor can “Swinging” be used in conjunction with “CPA Candidate”. : P

[Author]

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