Originally published on Forbes.com Feb 22nd, 2014
Sylvia Dion took six years off from public accounting to be a stay-at-home mom in the south of France. When, in 2007, she “on-ramped”, as she puts it, she landed a Senior Manager job at the then sole New England office of a not-quite Big 4 firm. The office was in a city about 40 miles east of Worcester, quite near Cambridgeport where Margaret Fuller was born.
There was a rah-rah meeting to joyfully herald the new leadership team of the sub-region (or whatever they called the six states that lived in the shadow of the tall spires of Manhattan). Sylvia shocked the leadership group by out loud asking “Where are the women? I mean, why are there no women in the leadership group?”
I have been puzzling over the public accounting glass ceiling for about a year now, so I think I can now claim to have a series of posts on the topic. Sylvia told me that she thought the leadership group at her new employer looked askance at her for being an outspoken Mexican-American woman. There may well be something to that, but it could be that an outspoken anybody, regardless of gender or ethnicity, not from the national office, was frowned on.
Sylvia found her new national home much less pleasant than what she had experienced at Ernst&Young in the late nineties.
Quite honestly, the firm – in my opinion – operated like a firm out the 1980’s. As a matter of fact, I often felt like I had stepped back in time. My observation and experience were that everyone was a number, a dispensable machine, and “face time” was much more valuable than the experience and knowledge someone brought to the table. There was a huge focus on utilization or billable hours – which I and many of my CPA colleagues agree is a significantly flawed metric. And – with the exception of one partner – the office firm leaders never really demonstrated that they cared about me as an individual, they rarely asked about my children or asked how I was managing the juggling of it all, and I doubt that they ever knew my children’s names. All of these things would have meant a lot to me. What would have mattered too was if there had been more women, more working mothers like myself, in the partner ranks. But during the two year period that I was with __________ there was only one woman partner in a group of about 17 partners in the office. One woman partner out of seventeen!
Sylvia’s solution to the work/family balance problem is similar to that of some of the other women that I have interviewed. She started her own firm – PrietoDion Consulting Partners LLC. Her focus is SALT- state and local tax.
If you think federal taxes are complicated, try doing business in several states and dealing with sales tax, use tax, corporate income, and employment taxes. You can worry about things like one of your telecommuters moving to New Jersey and creating a new nexus for you. One of the problems of tax work in a national firm is that the tax people come in behind the auditors.
The problem is even worse for SALT people who come in behind federal tax people. In my experience, you rarely give a client good news when you closely study their SALT issues. As a stand-alone consultant, Sylvia will be hearing from people who know they have a problem and need help solving it. She is quite enthusiastic about her new firm.
I traded in a steady pay check, corporate benefits, and the “prestige” of working for a National Accounting firm because my family was more important than all of that. I wanted to know my children, watch them grow up, be a part of their lives, and be there when they came home as opposed to sitting in traffic for hours. I often say that I created my own “worklife” balance because I wanted to be a “present parent.” Yes, having real work/life balance was more important!
Yes, it’s hard launching out on your own, but I’ve had so many great things happen! I’ve been referred to as a “leading authority on e-Commerce and Internet Sales Tax developments” (other people’s words, not mine), a “thought leader” and a “respected SALT professional.” I’ve authored numerous journal articles that have been published in the leading accounting and tax journals, such as the Journal of Accountancy and Bloomberg BNA’s Multistate Tax report. I’ve also become a relatively well-known SALT blogger. I’ve developed some fantastic professional relationships with people all over the country! And, in 2012, my firm was asked to become the exclusive provider of employment tax consulting services for the BDO Seidman Alliance.
But here’s what really important – I say all the time that I have achieved what I set out to do – be significantly present in my children’s lives, while still being professionally challenged. The best, and I mean best, part of my day is when I see my kids after school. I love that my teenager still tells me that he appreciates what I do for him, and I love, love, love that my twins literally still come running into my arms when they get home from school. Yes, I often feel stretched to the absolute limit, pull my share of late (very late) nights and can’t think of the last time I took a day off. But I love what I’m doing – advising clients on SALT and employment tax issues, and writing and blogging on tax developments, but most importantly, I love watching my children grow up and love feeling like a part of their lives.
She has some thoughts on how large firms might do a better job of retaining talented women.
I also very strongly believe that in general, the Accounting profession needs to take a cold, hard look in the mirror and ask why women (and why mostly working mothers) are still continuing to leave public accounting – why it is that by the time you reach the partner and leadership ranks in this profession, women are missing. (Remember my story about how there was only one women partner out of seventeen in the office.)
You see, when a working mother leaves a firm – her exit is often simply “justified” by statements like, “She wanted to spend more time with her family, etc.” and then nothing more happens. But the firm should be asking itself “What could we have done differently to retain that talent?” or “How did we make that working mother feel?” On that point, I think an Accounting firm’s leadership – the partner group, those in leadership positions – should be evaluated on their ability to retain women. I’ve seen too many instances where a partner was given a warning, a slight “slap on the hand’ because women at the firm had “complained” to human resources about how they were treated.
Personally, I think the only way things will change is if a couple of hundred women walk out of national and large regional firms and start a substantial firm. It is kind of amazing that it has not happened yet.
You can follow me on twitter @peterreillycpa.