[Anonymous]

Hi, I am a CPA candidate who recently graduated with Bachelors of accountancy.

I haven’t passed the exam, will be taking my first REG this June.

Since I am an international, I am in OPT status.

I recently took a job offer from a construction company as staff accountant position.

I gladly took the job because it was so hard to find a job for me since I did not have that much experience and my visa status that require sponsorship. This job I took is at least accounting job and the pay was highest among the offers that I had – mid 50k.

Yet, I just had my first day, and somethings that I found from there seemed quite bizarre that I am not sure how I should behave. I don’t have any friend or family to ask about this and wanted to ask you guys that what this company does is pretty “general” in America.

1. the President’s office is located right in front of the door, and the wall is all windows, so he can see anybody coming in and out.

2. My supervisor and colleague keep studying the President’s face, saying “the President may not like this.” “The President would not like if we speak too loud”.

3. When I had interview, they said working hour would be from 9 to 5, but sometimes 8 to 4.The President joked saying “You can work until 7 any time. I wouldn’t stop that.”. I just didn’t take that seriously.

I arrived at office at 8:30 today. When I was about to leave few minutes after 4:30 PM in the afternoon, my supervisor told me I should come before 8 AM, because the President want everybody to be in the office by 8:30 AM. According to him, the timeline is like this.

if you come at 7, you go at 4 with 1 hour lunch time

if you come at 8, you go at 5 with 1 hour lunch time.

but today when I was working, there was no lunch time (I had my lunch at 3PM) and staffs were just working with sandwiches on. It is pretty hard to take the lunch time not working when everybody else is having their lunch time working . So I am presuming that it would be practically working about 9 hours + extra minutes because the supervisor said the President want the employees to stay at office as longest as possible.

I am just about to sign w-9 and other documents. The job is not that difficult, but those above things kind of worry me.

Places I interned weren’t like this, and maybe I am just being too naive and selfish.

But can anyone tell me whether these are normal in American company and It would be okay to keep working in this place?

I am the only 20s there, and talking with them kind of scares me. Because when I talked to the supervisor about the commuting time, he said, “we are all adults, so we should know what we are doing. we are also team.”

I am not really sure why he said that in that moment.

I would appreciate if anyone could give me an advice with this or share your thoughts.

[Missy]

It's pretty normal but not all the time. They may be unusually busy for whatever reason right now, they may leave earlier on Fridays, there may be a big deadline right now. I'd go with the flow for now and give it a few months. It's very normal to find everything intimidating at your first professional job, and it may be an awful employer or just overwhelming this week.

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

[Nessie]

So you are expecting to work 8:30 to 4:30 and taking a lunch? That's only a 7 hour work day. Where are you from?

REG Aug 20/15: 88
AUD: Feb 29/16: 80
FAR: Jun 10/16: 80
BEC?

Becker self-study, Becker Final Review & NINJA MCQS

[Vanessachy]

I work in a local accounting firm. Our working hour is from 8:30 to 5:00 with one hour lunch break during non tax season. Tax season, we work as long as we want, like12 hours a day. I don't like to be late, so I always come to the office before 8. Now I am studying CPA exam, I arrive the office around 6:30. No one would tell us when to come or leave, like your boss's said, we are adults. Not everyone goes to work as early as me, but I just do it. Our partners would come to work at 7:30, during tax season, they come earlier. They are my examples and I admire it.

Far 10/26/2015, 64, 1/4/2016, 82
Reg 7/10/2015, 60, 2/27/2016, 86
Aud, 5/9/2016, 74 (ouch), 7/26/2016, I cannot wait to take this test again
Bec, 6/10/2016, 70,9/8 retake

[livealittle]

Sounds pretty normal to me.

I was the company accountant at a mid sized construction company for about 8 years. We had “office hours”, but as long as I got my job done, the boss didn't really care if I came in at 6 and left at 2 or came in at 9:30 and left at 5:30.

If *everyone is eating at their desk, that may be normal all the time, it may be normal for a busy time like right now, or it may be a fluke of some kind this week.

I work at a pretty high-octane CPA firm now. our “standard hours” are 9-5 but we have a lot of freedom to come in early, leave late, schedule personal appointments during the day without having to request official time off, work remotely if needed, etc.

I suggest sticking it out for a while (like a few months at least) before making any decisions about changing jobs.

BEC - 8/8/16
REG - 66, 77
AUD - 81
FAR - 9/8/16

[Mayo]

The President this…

The President that….

The President thinks..

The President..THE President….THE PRESiDENT!!!!

O_O This place sounds completely bizarre to me.

Mayo, BBA, Macc

[Anonymous]

Thank you guys for all your advice. I think I will go with the flow for now then and see how things are going at the company.

The President stuff kinda worries me a bit in case I leave as the company guide I received said “All employees who are leaving the company have to have an exit interview with the President”, but I guess it will find a way to deal with it if it happens.

Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

The fact that they told you the hours would be one thing and then after you started they were a different thing is bad. I wouldn't appreciate that. Unfortunately, it's not surprising, either. The job I'm at right now, I was told the hours were 8-4:30 with a 1 hour lunch break (7.5 hour work day); I've been here about 18 months and have only worked that schedule about 1 week, the rest of the time working longer hours. At least they didn't tell me on my 1st day, though – waited till a couple days in when we just kept working…got to be 5:30 or so and I finally dared ask when we were going home haha. I really enjoy this job, just wish they would've been more honest about the answers up-front so that I knew what I was getting myself into. 😐

As for the exit interview, I wouldn't be too worried about that piece of things. Exit interviews are a very standard thing. Generally the goal is to go over any final paperwork that needs to be taken care of (for example, make sure they have your address correct to mail your last paycheck and W-2 to, discuss what will happen with your insurance, etc.), and to give someone other than your direct supervisor the opportunity to ask if there were any issues, so that if there was a problem it can be addressed. Like if your direct supervisor was threatening you or something, they try to give you an opportunity to speak out about it. Usually, employees figure it's easier to just do the paperwork and move on cause they've already got a job lined up, but employers try to at least give the option. Human Resources more often does the exit interview, but it sounds like this company may be small enough that they don't have a Human Resources department, or they may think that it makes the employees feel more valued to have the President meet with them. Either way, an exit interview is just a formality, so I wouldn't be too concerned about it, whenever you get to it.

P. S. Everyone's obsession with the president – especially if they're referring to him as “The President”, not “Joe”, or even “Mr. Smith” – is a little weird, though. 😐 For the manual to reference people by their position makes sense; that's proper formal writing. But if in conversation people are saying “The president won't like that” instead of “Joe won't like that”, that's really weird. 😐 Or if you just typed it as “The president won't like that” to avoid using names and/or cause we wouldn't know who “Joe” was, then that makes more sense, though it's still weird that they talk alllll day about the president.

[Missy]

Honestly it sounds like you are reading too much into every single detail of the job. Yes, it is appropriate of your colleagues to inform you of the expectations of your boss (“the President”), unless you have your own business you will always be expected to follow someone else's expectations. No, it is not appropriate to expect to work 8-4 and take a lunch, as nessie said that is less than an 8 hour work day. Very few people have the luxury of watching the clock and punching out exactly when they've hit the 8 hour mark. It may well be expected that your actual job is 45 hours per week (9 hour days) which is why the offer was higher than any other offer you got. Really 9 hour days are fairly typical on a regular basis.

As a new employee you should expect to have to go above and beyond to make a good impression. If I was told core hours were either 8-4 or 9-5 you can bet I would have been there my first day at 7:45, to make a good impression and if everyone was still in the office at 4:30 I would have used that time to learn everything I could about my new job.

Don't be intimidated by the title President, he is just a colleague with a different role than you have. Yes it is appropriate that he sees everything going on in the office, he is responsible to make sure the business runs, people do what is expected and mostly that everyone who enters or exits belongs in the building.

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

[mtaylo24]

Don't worry about the president or anyone around you. Just focus on what's assigned to you and try to do your best. They won't care if you work 6 hours or 16, as long as your work is on point.

AUD - 1st - 60 (12/12), 61 (2/13), 61 (8/13), 78! (11/15)
REG - 55 (2/16) 69 (5/16) Retake(8/16)
BEC - 71(5/16) Retake (9/16)
FAR - (8/16)

[the LAST Coffee]

Obsessive president. This is a construction firm, not a CPA firm so I can understand why the hours might be strict (whereas in CPA firms the hours are more lax as long as you get your work done as others here have mentioned).

Are your coworkers internationals? My first feeling is you're in a company that takes advantage of immigrants as they do in Qatar for the world cup but there isn't enough info to tell you that.

FAR 84 (AUG '15)
BEC 83 (AUG '15)
AUD 79 (OCT '15)
REG 71, 78! (NOV '15, FEB '16)

[marqzho]

the LAST Coffee

For those companies that take advantage of immigrants, they pay you min. rate, be your sponsorship.

REG 90
FAR 95
AUD 98
BEC 84

[Author]

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