Busy Season Stats: Day 43

It is midnight and I am once again still at work. Granted, I didn't get in until 8:30 this morning, but this has still been a pretty long day. I think that after almost a month and a half, the fatigue is starting to take its toll. I find myself frequently making rookie mistakes (and anyone who works with me knows that I don't even let the rookies get off easy for making those kinds of errors). This weekend was another sure sign that something was off and my body was screaming for some relief, as I slept for 9 hours, straight through 2 alarms (one right next to my head). I got up around 9AM on Saturday and realized I was already late for work. I consoled my delinquent self by gorging on a donut. Take that, stupid diet!

One of the interesting things about busy season is that it tends to bring out the best or worst in people, and there is not much in-between. I have often equated this time of year to boot camp (not that I know what that's like, but I'll just have to go by what Hollywood tells me). This is the time when a tremendous amount of pressure is placed on a small band of people who will either crack or find the will to struggle on and come out stronger for it. Those who break will likely come to the realization that this is not the right path for them and pack it in during the next few weeks...the accounting equivalent of washing out. After all, it really does take a certain kind of person, a very particular personality to deal with this kind of work, which is neither glamorous nor exciting nor understood by 99.9% of the population (for the last freakin' time - I DO NOT DO TAXES!) Others will be anxiously looking to see who will make it through the next round of promotions and outlast the dreaded Layoff.

Now, we have not been "officially" told that there will be a new round of cuts, but there is enough discussion to make it pretty clear that something is in the works. I have alternately been anxious and blasé about the potential for being canned. I have reached a point in my career where I have to give some serious thought to whether or not I want to stay in this profession and potentially try to make partner some day. If I decide that is not something I'm serious about, then this is probably a good time to go. The thing is, I really want to be the one to make that call. Despite my self doubt, I would like to think that I have put in 8 years of true effort and that even if I have some off moments, those will not be frequent or prolonged. Until I hear otherwise, I will try my best to continue plugging away, helping the staff and seniors where I can, and trying to go against my natural pessimistic inclinations and be positive.

So, as it is late and the audit program has once again failed to open after much begging, pleading, cursing, etc, here are some stats before I go home:

• Times we played "the movie game" and ended in a tie, much to the consternation of a certain senior: 2
• Hours worked so far this week: 20
• Bags of chocolate chips purchased with the intention of actually baking cookies for the team: 2
• Bags of chocolate chips "tested" for "quality control" by me to ensure that the team would like them: 1 (what can I say, there are worse things to be addicted to than chocolate)
• Hour at which I realized that today was Monday: 7PM (yes, an entire day when I had no idea what day it was)
• Memos re-written today: 4
• Times I saw the video of that hysterical lady in Hong Kong airport and thought, "Holy crap, that is totally me": 1
• Times I have kicked my own ass today for making stupid, ridiculous, unforgivably avoidable errors: countless

Busy Season Stats: Day 33

Apparently the 33 straight days of non-stop work has started to take its toll on me. I had started to make headway in building a rapport with some of the mid- to high-level executives at my newer client. However, during a client meeting this morning, I attempted to describe how I thought they were obtaining information from their external vendor. I meant to say, “So I think you take a data dump from the vendor’s system and import it into your spreadsheets.” That would have been fine, except I forgot to say the word “data” and said "on" instead of "from"… so that basically changed the meaning a tad bit, which caused my senior manager to give me the “Oh my god” look and the client to giggle a little bit. Also, I couldn’t keep eye contact with anyone for the rest of the meeting. That one will probably get a lot of replay on the internal blooper reel that is always running in my head. I’ve also had John Mayer’s “My Stupid Mouth” in my head all day. Great.

At lunch, further evidence that today was the day that the Universe decided that I should get punk’d. I polished off the slice of pizza I had left over from earlier in the week, and then the staff came in and said that the restaurant they had ordered from for lunch had given them an extra crab cake sandwich. Naturally, I volunteered to take one for the team and not let a good sandwich go to waste. I was halfway done with picking at the crab cake when the senior looked up and said, “Um, so you know how the Tax guys came and picked up their three boxes for lunch…apparently they’re short a crab cake sandwich.” I looked down at the sandwich I was picking at (which now consisted of just about everything but a crab cake, since that’s all I ate). I proceeded to put the fork down, closed the box, peaked around the corner to make sure that there weren’t any half-starved Tax managers lurking in the hallway ready to pounce, and then made a dash for the nearest garbage can in the kitchen to get rid of the evidence. Oh yeah, and I trust that none of you loyal readers will tip off the Tax guys. If you are thinking of doing so, read on for more evidence of what happens to those who cross me…

As I returned from my evidence-ditching mission, talk turned to the last episode of Grey’s. I really can’t stand the two main characters (Mer-Der), but I love Dr. Yang, and Dr. Bailey’s a close second. After all, there aren’t that many short, hard-charging women on TV who are tough on the outside but are a lot softer on the inside than they let most people believe, and I seem to have a natural affinity to them. So it should come as no surprise that I was pleased when the senior admitted that her codename for me was Dr. Yang. Hey, I will take Yang any day over the ever-annoying Izzie or Meredith. Yang gets all the good lines, is the best in her class, and every once in a while dates an attractive, successful surgeon. Not a bad character to be compared to.

I left the client around 2:30 and headed to the office. When I got there, I found that the senior who is leaving the country on Monday had literally dumped all the workpapers on the staff’s desk and left. All I had was an email to say that the work had been “transitioned” to the brand new staff. I was LIVID. I got a quick update from both of the staff I was working with and at one point mentioned that I was going to cancel this guy’s flight if he attempted to leave the country without properly closing out the work. Is it really so difficult to just send a quick email to say that he had to leave early today and to provide some idea as to what was done, what needed doing, and who needed talking to? I only started to calm down a bit after sending a furious email to the offending senior, plus one to HR and IT to confirm that they would not let him proceed with the formal exit procedures until I had spoken with him. I was dead serious in not letting them know that this guy was not to leave the building on Monday without talking to me first. At this point, I am past the fury and just want to know what needs to get done so I can start putting a plan in place to tackle those items. But word definitely gets around fast. I got a message from another senior saying that he’d heard about flight cancellations...I suppose that’s a warning that I need to be careful in what I say and who I say it to. In this case, I think I’m justified in going a little ballistic, and it probably doesn’t hurt to occasionally put others on notice that I DO NOT SCREW AROUND when it comes to work during busy season. After venting to Anne a bit and getting an oh-so-appropriate emoticon from another senior (it’s a screaming cat unloading an AK-47…just take my word for it – it’s funny), I felt a lot better. I will probably feel even better when I polish off the rest of this bottle of wine (not a big fan of shiraz but this one is growing on me, as is the buzz).

So, after a very up and down day and generally-trending-upward week, here are the stats:
Miles driven today: 80
Bags carried: 3 (1 purse, 1 laptop bag, 1 enormous black mesh bag for files)
Staff terrified out of their wits at the idea of working with me: 2 for sure, but potentially all 30-40 or so now that they know my wrath can go global
Trips to the car wash needed this weekend: probably at least 2 (my gray car looks white now from all the salt)
Total amount I’ve had to pay for parking so far this busy season: $20
Number of other people in the office when I left today: 0

Busy Season Stats: Day 31

Yes, I have arrived at the momentous one-month mark. 31 straight days of work. So far, I am quite satisfied that I have not had any nervous breakdowns or any Christian Bale-like freak-outs in the middle of the audit room. I believe I have started to find that sweet-spot of management, that happy medium between being too hands off and being a micro-manager. The staff still seem pretty terrified when I walk into the room and don't ask questions of me unless I ask them if there's anything they want to go over, but that's not because I've yelled or been a total dictator (at least I don't think I have....). Hopefully that will pass with time, but I think I have become a little less Dwight and a little more Jim now.

During the last month, much has happened outside of the audit room. Probably the most exciting thing is that Lara had a little boy! I got her text while I was in the airport and let out a "Yay!" that I think caught the TSA guy offguard, but I was super excited. How exciting to start the new year with a new life and all the excitement and fun and responsibility that goes with it! And it's a good year for her son to be born in. The Year of the Ox in the Chinese zodiac is associated with hard-working, dependable, and responsible people. Those are pretty good traits for a kid to have, especially for the parents' sake!

As for me, the familial detente persists, but in happier news, girls night is on for this weekend, so there will be a nice break to drink some wine, watch some cheesy TV, and generally not do any work after 8PM. In addition, plans have been made for mini-breaks throughout the summer to reconnect with friends. My friend from college is turning 30 in June, and he is flying back to the East coast with some of his friends from the Bay Area where he lives now, so his friends from both sides of the country can get together and help the big guy celebrate (seriously, he's a big guy...tallest Chinese man you will meet outside of the NBA). Even more exciting is the news that Beney's coming back to the US after a year-long stint in Korea. The guys at Camp Casey will be bummed, but the Korean-American Samantha Jones needs to return to her natural stomping grounds. Plus, there are rumors of imminent ballistic missile attacks from the North, so now would be a good time to leave the area, regardless of how little credence you put in those rumors. I'll have to hammer out the details with her and Kat, but I think a girls weekend in NYC doing nothing but catching up, going to the spa, and drinking martinis is long overdue.

I'm also turning 30 in May and have the Frederick 1/2 to run on my birthday, so I'll have to keep training for the race and plan a post-race birthday dinner at some point. I'm amazed that I've actually got things in my calendar now that are not work-related, but I have a feeling that my personal calendar is going to fill up even faster with Beney back. She really is my best friend and partner in crime (not literally, of course, but there were some close calls in college), and isn't afraid to literally drag me out of the house to go out and have some fun. So, it'll be great to have some of the old Penn crew back. There are definitely days where I wish I could go back 10 years to my sophomore year of college when the only hard decisions to make were whether or not to go to class and which party to go to. That's life, I guess...with great age comes responsibility.

Now, as I need to finish writing a couple of memos before calling it a night, on to the latest round of Busy Season Stats:

• Sodas consumed today: 3
• Number of people who told me I look tired: 2
• Babies born during the last week to current or former managers I've worked with: 2 (1 boy, 1 girl)
• Dollars lost in Super Bowl squares pool: 25
• Bottles of wine consumed over the weekend: 1
• Bottles of wine to be brought to Anne's house for girls night: 3 (have to save room for the cosmos too)
• Vacations planned: 2.5 (working on the details for NYC in March)
• Peanut butter products consumed without any complications from salmonella (so far): 8 (Reese's peanut butter cups will be the death of me...or at least these pants...)
• Number of times I've sung along to Bon Jovi's Bad Medicine on the radio, replaced it with "Bad Debt Expense," and laughed hysterically: 2 (it was late, I was in my car. Admit it - you do it too)