The Toxic Trap of Public Accounting: A Conversation With Dorothy Grace

Meet Dorothy!

Dorothy: Hi! Like Katie said, I'm Dorothy Grace. The short version of the story is that I found Katie almost exactly two years ago, and that's when I started my bookkeeping business.

The long version starts in college. I originally went to school to earn an accounting degree—though, funnily enough, I got a C in my first accounting class!

That didn’t discourage me, though. I loved the challenge of it. Everybody else started dropping out, but all it told me was that if I could finish that degree, I would always have a job in that field.

I stuck it out and got my master's in accounting, followed by my CPA. After that, I went to a big state school, and they didn’t really present any alternative besides going into public accounting. Everyone in my class went the public accounting route, almost exclusively Big Four, so that was the path I followed too.

When I started in public accounting, I had gotten married in November, and tax season started in January. It took almost no time at all for me to realize it was not going to work for my life—I only made it one whole year working in taxes, then switched into the nonprofit world and stayed there for almost five years.

At that point, once my second child was born, I knew that I wanted to stay home with my kids but still wanted an outlet for accounting and a way to make money.

Enter Katie! I found her while I was lying in bed one night, one month left in my maternity leave, Googling ways I could possibly make money with accounting from home. I started listening to the Profits and Prosecco podcast, got hooked, and went on to join both LIBBY and BABs!

The Toxic Truth of Hustle Culture

Katie: How many hours were you working in public accounting?

Dorothy: Oh, so many. Never 40. Normal weeks were roughly 50 hours, and then busy season weeks were like 60 to 80.

But honestly, it wasn’t even the insane hours I hated most about it. It was that you were kind of expected to be there that long even if you had nothing to work on. Whoever was there at their desk the longest was the most valuable employee.

I was like, “What in the world? If you don't have work to do, why are you sitting here? Go do something else with your life!” Like, why is just sitting in that chair doing no work, being kept from your life, something that is valued?

That was the ultimate indicator for me I wasn’t going to make it very long in that industry.

Value vs Volume

Katie: We absolutely shouldn't be glorifying clocking 60 to 80-hour work weeks. What are we doing it for, anyway—so the Big Four can boost billing?

When you start your own business, you can focus on value instead. You can focus on working the amount of time that it takes to do the task efficiently and deliver a high-quality product instead of focusing on showing face with nothing else to show for it, and you can do it while giving yourself an hourly rate worth about three to four times more than you would get somewhere else.

That's the vision that we should be striving for, and then everyone wins.

With the toxicity of corporate culture, no one is winning. The Big Four is not winning by paying you a salary that you're not fully working. You are not winning by being a martyr. The client's not winning by being overly billed. It’s a very brainwashed, backwards way of doing things.

Lasting only a year in that environment, to me, means you recognized that you had other options and you were willing to break the mold, Dorothy. Because it's hard when you leave, right?

Dorothy: Oh, absolutely. I ran into one of my old coworkers a little while after I left, and she made a comment about how once you get to her salary level, it’s really hard to think about going anywhere else. That really made it clear how bought in she is and that, honestly, she thinks less of me for leaving. She wanted me to feel less-than. That could have been really hard.

Instead, I knew in that moment that I had won. Because I had gotten out of the crazy rat race that's going nowhere.

Dorothy’s Not Done!

This was just the start of Dorothy’s business story. To hear the rest, head to Episode 11 of Profits + Prosecco and hit play!

EPISODE RESOURCES:

Season 2 of Profits & Prosecco is HERE! Kick off your newest podcast addiction (or celebrate its return!) and listen to Episode 1 now: https://open.spotify.com/show/4dB0ZE8JaxqrkImm3Ifxrb 

Sick of imposter syndrome keeping you stuck? Join the new + improved BECOME A BOOKKEEPER now: https://www.katieferro.com/become 

Want a peek behind the curtain into LIBBY, my program all about what it really takes to have a simple and scalable (and successful) bookkeeping business? Get access to my free, on-demand four-part series, 6 Secrets to a Simple, Scalable Bookkeeping Business: www.katieferro.com/6-secrets

Learn how to take your bookkeeping skills and turn them into a business that allows you to replace (or surpass) your corporate salary, be present for your life, and profoundly impact your clients without selling your life in the process by joining Life by the Books (LIBBY).  

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