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Living with aCPA What effect does a public accountant's career have on his wife? How does she, consciously or unconsciously, influence his career decisions? Because H&S Reports believes in frank discussion of an issue that concerns many staff members and their families, it asked for this report by a management psychologist. By Anthony W. Martin, Ph.D. As psychologists to management, my colleagues and I have had a unique opportunity to witness the influence of a man's career on his marriage—and vice versa. Never does that influence reach a more critical point than when the husband comes to make a decision about his career. Such decisions are never easy to make at best, even for the paragons of initiative and toughness described in the management textbooks. The part a wife plays in a decision often becomes crucial. We have seen wives move in to support their husbands, to give strength when it was really needed and to tilt the balance decisively in favor of risk-taking and adventure. At times, we have seen wives, wittingly or unwittingly, withdraw from their husbands at a most crucial moment in their careers, leaving them to flounder. We have also known occasions when the wife encouraged her husband to play for safety, to put on the brakes and to settle for security, prematurely in the light of her husband's potential. Assisting our industrial clients in selecting men for employment, we often interview a young accountant who is thinking of moving from public accounting into industry. The most common reason he gives for wanting to leave accounting is the adverse effect that travel and overtime have on his family. Now there are times when this can be a convenient rationalization. He may not be well suited to public accounting. It is much easier and more Dr. Martin is a partner of Rohrer, Hibler & Replogle, psychologists to management, retained by Haskins & Sells. acceptable for him to project blame onto family circumstances than to analyze his own aptitudes realistically. On the other hand, time away from home can be a very valid reason, rather than just a rationalization or an excuse. A number of these men we have seen in exodus from public accounting are unquestionably of high potential. They have performed well and their firms are sorry to see them leave. Or a man may leave because he is offered a place in XYZ Corporation that he or his wife thinks he cannot afford financially to turn down for the sake of his family. This only the man and his wife can decide. The financial needs of the moment may be great, and impossible to meet without an immediate increase in salary. In that case, the favorable prospects in his present job are understandably put aside. But it also often happens that a CPA will consider leaving public accounting because his wife does not understand the stature of his work or its demands on him. A CPA finds much in his work that is positive. He plays a truly professional role with many deep satisfactions. These satisfactions become very real to the CPA as he pursues his career over the years. To him they become self-evident. He gets a strong sense of achievement from coping with difficult technical problems. His work in building good client relationships is an art that takes patience, forethought and mature judgment. When practiced successfully this can bring many intangible but meaningful rewards. The CPA also finds challenges in the effective supervision of others and the con-
Object Description
Title |
Living with a CPA |
Author |
Martin, Anthony W. |
Contributor |
Sorel, Ed |
Subject |
Work and family Accountants |
Citation |
H&S Reports, Vol. 04, (1967 spring), p. 20-25 |
Date-Issued | 1967 |
Source | Originally published by: Haskins & Sells |
Rights | Copyright and permission to republish held by: Deloitte; Illustrations by Ed Sorel. |
Type | Text |
Format | PDF page image with corrected OCR scanned at 400 dpi |
Collection | Deloitte Digital Collection |
Digital Publisher | University of Mississippi Library. Accounting Collection |
Date-Digitally Created | 2010 |
Language | eng |
Identifier | HSReports_1967_Spring-p20-25 |