If You Win The ‘Rat Race’ Does That Make You A Rat?

A number of professionals I meet who work in public accounting complain about the long hours, the draining commute, the high cost of parking and congested streets at lunchtime, and they seem somewhat disillusioned with where their career is taking them.

Working for unappreciative clients, on projects they don’t really want to have done – but have to have done, such as the annual audit - adds to their frustration. It’s a fast-paced life which just seems to get faster as each year goes by.

Then some of them have to deal with highly demanding – even unreasonable - bosses and they’re seemingly always ‘at work’ even when they’re home – with email, cell phone and ‘blackberry’ devices all having a way of intruding into our own time away from the office.

It seems that some of us are never truly able to switch off.

That seems to be the price we pay for being in a ‘connected’ world in the big city.

Clients expect instant karma, and we see it as our role to help provide it.

Contrast that with some firms I have encountered recently who work in more ‘rural’ settings.

To them ‘rush hour’ means taking an extra three minutes to get home.

They live in beautiful surroundings - ‘cottage country’ - all year round having sold their existing city home and bought one nearer their office that is twice the size of their old home, on a larger plot, with a smaller mortgage!

They can raise a family in an environment where there’s no such thing as ‘smog alerts’, ‘guns in schools’ or ‘gang related violence’.

And they’re enjoying all this, while still building a rewarding, interesting and enjoyable career in public accounting.

Sounds too good to be true? I thought so too. Then we started working with CA firms in Bowmanville, Midland, Newmarket, Aurora, Barrie, Kingston, Niagara Falls and Oshawa, to name a few such ‘rural’ cities.

When meeting these firms we discovered they all had one thing in common – they are all enjoying a very high standard of living, working with interesting clients, and developing great firms, in an area where family comes first and work/life balance is a genuine reality.

Rural firms seem to be able to weave themselves more readily into the fabric of their community.

Those who work in them can walk down ‘Main street, rural town’ and be spoken to by a dozen different people, who are members of the same clubs, whose kids go to the same school, who go to the same church, with whom they build a real sense of community.

It’s a totally different lifestyle to working in the city.

Now please don’t get me wrong. I love city firms.

Metropolitan area firms have a lot going for them too, it’s just that they are different things that they have going for them!

Some city firms are also achieving work/life balance, but many of them are not.

City firms usually have a higher proportion of audit work, bigger clients, more partners and staff and a faster pace in the office. City firm clients are, generally speaking, more demanding, as there is no sense of community.

City firms are great, but they come with a price…

• The commute
• Traffic congestion
• Construction
• Pedestrians!
• Parking
• Crowded streets
• Smog alerts

Some city firms keep running the rat race with little hope of winning, but what happens if you do actually win the ‘rat race’? Does that make you a rat?

The recruiting side of my business is as interesting as the merger & acquisition side or the consulting side. It’s great to be able to offer a variety of career openings, city-centre, mid-town or rural.

So if you’re in a rural firm right now and want to work in the city, or if you’re hankering for a simpler life (not to be confused with Paris Hilton’s simple life!) and want to join a smaller community in a rural setting, but still want interesting professional work and career options, then maybe we should be talking!

To all of those who take the time to read my column, I want to say thank you for your continued readership this past year, I look forward to being with you all again next year.

Take some time off during the holiday season and return to the office with freshly charged batteries ready to face the new set of challenges that we call 2008!

© MFA Group Inc, 2007