Keefe, Nancy Q.

Stevens, Roy

English

eGrove (Univ. of Mississippi)

University of MississippieGroveHaskins and Sells Publications Deloitte Collection1970I'll be home late tonight, dear: coping with the busyseasonNancy Q. KeefeRoy StevensFollow this and additional works at: https://egrove.olemiss.edu/dl_hsPart of the Accounting Commons, and the Taxation CommonsThis Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Deloitte Collection at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Haskins and SellsPublications by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact egrove@olemiss.edu.Recommended CitationH&S Reports, Vol. 07, (1970 winter), p. 22-24Coping with the Busy Season By Nancy Q. Keefe Til Be Home Late Tonight, Dear' 22 During the busy season, a staff accoun-tant in Boston kept his suitcase packed and ready to go. It worked as a good hedge against forgetting his razor, so he adopted the habit for year-round business trips. A wife in North Carolina "needed people to understand" when she spoke of the busy season. She formed a CPA auxiliary that now flourishes through-out the year. A principal in San Juan discovered that starting the day early during the busy season let him be home for din-ner more often; so he trains for his win-ter early rising by getting up at 5:30 a.m. in other seasons to play tennis before work. Like alchemists turning dross into gold, these H&S people have turned some nuisances of the public account-ing busy season into conveniences for all seasons. Other H&S people and their families adapt as the occasion requires, which varies from office to office because busy seasons occur at different times in different places, de-pending upon client requirements. Renee O'Donnell, Philadelphia staff accountant and mother of two young children, said that by the time she had been at H&S for 15 months she had gone through four busy seasons. "I ar-rived in January, and the first thing I did was work overtime for about three months. Then I went over to the tax department in June just as the income tax surcharge went into effect, which meant more overtime. I was back on audits from January to March, and on taxes again from March till after Easter." So the busy season is where you find it, although this periodic pressure cooker usually makes the heaviest de-mands on H&S from January through March. While no one pretends that its effect is negligible, H&S families have found that to a great extent they can adapt to a changed routine according to their instincts and thus live with the busy season, if not joyfully, at least good-naturedly. Those whose lives are highly orga-nized as a matter of course reorganize their schedules. Families that ordinarily move through their days in a sort of loose, unstructured routine find it can be stretched and reshaped limitlessly. Mealtime is the most readily appar-ent victim of reorganized routine. The Nancy Q. Keefe is a busy housewife and mother of three young children, as well as a freelance writer and editor. Her weekly column, Letter from New York, appears in the Berkshire Eagle of Pittsfield, Massachusetts. She writes the H&S 23 Scene for H&S Reports. classic line for the busy season is "I'll be home late tonight, dear." It need not open a Pandora's box of disruption. As Duane Whitmarsh, Houston prin-cipal, observed: "A phone call at four in the after-noon to tell my wife I won't be home for supper usually gets a pleasant re-ply, but the same call at 7 p.m.—when the roast is already burned—somehow doesn't get the same response." A number of modern gadgets help wives whose husbands are late for din-ner—warning or no. Some have found that a meal wrapped in foil and placed on an electric hot tray or in a warming oven (at 1700) will stay edible for two or three hours. Cathy Komatz of Pitts-burgh says that she prepares two meals because she prefers her husband, Larry, to eat at home "regardless of the hour." Often she plans her dinner for two to be ready at g or 10 p.m. and uses the leftovers for the children the next day. Although busy season in many places falls at an inopportune time for picnics, something of the flavor of an informal, special-day treat can occasionally be used to delight children at times when Daddy is away. One idea is letting the children have a do-it-yourself supper, making their favorite sandwich com-binations (like "fluffernutters" of pea-nut butter and marshmallow cream), the thought of which few fathers could abide at the end of a long day. Another is to have a hot dog roast over the fam-ily room fireplace, with plates of potato chips and pickles for supper around the "campfire." Robert Wilkins, editor of The 800 News of H&S Cincinnati, said many of his colleagues, like others elsewhere, opted for a restaurant meal rather than ask their wives to reheat the dinner they had missed. This has had at least one salutary effect: Some men have been heard to say that they used to think eating in restaurants was a lux-ury, but after repeated restaurant meals the glamour faded. They began to appreciate their wives' dinners and looked forward to a home-cooked meal once again. Some families rework household shopping routines during the busy sea-son and must go to market at the odd times when the family car is available. Others rely on H&S friends or neigh-bors in that mobile symbol of suburbia everywhere—the car pool. Still others find that the only solution for the sea-son is to own two cars the year around. For some families, only the member who actually works at H&S needs to revamp his schedule. Where commut-ing isn't a problem, many H&S people prefer to start the day early. Besides lessening homefront disruption, early risers say they avoid traffic snarls en route to the office and interruptions when they arrive. In addition, Norb Janis, the San Juan principal who plays early tennis in the off-season, said, "I have also found that when I'm working late in the eve-ning, the mind is tired and tends to wander. In the early morning, though, few would dare waste any time after making the super effort of getting up at 5 a.m." Many people have found that what they thought were fixed schedules really had a lot of give. As Irene Peck of Seattle put it: "Who said you had to plant sweetpeas on Washington's birthday to insure summer blossoms? Mine were planted after April 15 and were blooming in July." Where lawns need mowing, a late-working husband can skirt the issue. "Such traditional jobs, Mom does," said Hazel Faries of San Francisco. Where the schedule has less flexi-bility, sterner measures are required. Elmer Beamer, Cleveland partner in charge, once regaled a University of Notre Dame audience by saying: "It is a cardinal sin to have a baby during busy season. More planning should be done to avoid having children during the period January though March." Drew Wallace, Cleveland staff ac-countant, said he found these words appropriate last year when his wife was expecting their second child. "My wife was under strict orders from me," Drew recalled, "not to have the baby during the working day (8 a.m. to 10 p.m.). Fortunately, she followed my instructions and our daughter was born at 3 in the morning." Lacking the "good planning and full cooperation" Drew attributed to his wife, a man could make an arrange-ment like that of a Philadelphia ac-countant some time ago. He was on the job at the hospital doing an audit when his wife was brought in to have their baby. For all their ingenuity, the solutions to meal schedules, car availability, work routines and even birth timing are not the real stuff of accommodating the family to the busy season. More impor-tant are abstract and emotional needs, like keeping members of a family in touch with one another. To succeed on that level, people need a kind of sixth sense about maintaining the lines of communication, which is probably as applicable to the extraordinarily busy lives nearly everyone seems to lead as it is to the accounting busy season in particular. Raymond Falconette of Newark tries to make Sundays the family day: "Gen-erally, Sunday is the only day that the family can spend together during the busy season, and the accountant should never make plans which do not include the entire family." He suggested, de-pending on the children's ages and the weather, a drive in the country, a fam-ily visit, sleigh-riding, ice skating, the theater or a quiet day at home. "The important thing is to make this day enjoyable for the whole family." Others find, as Dick Hoiekvam of Omaha has found, that longer working hours spur them to use more effectively the hours away from work. "When I joined the Firm," Dick said, "I had some perspective on dollar-budgeting. But budgeting hours of the day—for everything from children's haircuts to professional development—was some-thing new." He added a bit wistfully, "The family is better organized during 24 the busy season than during times of the year when client needs slacken." As is so often the case in the course of human events, really busy people accomplish whatever they must accom-plish. It's the beachcombers of life with time to fritter away who never have time for anything. On the other hand, a kind of Parkinson's Law of time can be observed: people will increase their activities to fill their available time. Gene Daniels of Charlotte found that "after being a tax principal for a few years, I find the rigid office schedule has been replaced with increased out-side activities, such as church, club and civic work, which extend through-out the year and require even more evenings away from home." Whether father is away from home for one evening or several days, some families have capitalized on the en-forced separation to take an evening school course or to travel. Marianne Wallace took sewing and bridge les-sons in Cleveland's adult education program. It meant employing a sitter for those evenings, but the Wallaces felt "it was well worth the cost." Hazel Faries has taken her children from San Francisco to Southern Cali-fornia for a leisurely visit to grand-mother and cousins, which would not otherwise have been possible. "It was always a treat to go," she said, "and I remember we were a little sad when January out-of-town assignments ceased." In Denver, wives contemplating win-ter Saturdays without husbands plan skiing outings among themselves."Any-thing to keep busy," said one of them. "If we waited for our husbands, we'd never even get near the slopes." There are days when even the best will in the world to be resilient, flexible, adaptable and all the other noble ad-jectives cannot completely dispel mid-winter doldrums. For those days one wife suggests calling another H&S wife to remind each other that it cannot be January 27 or March 19 forever. "If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?" • 

I\u27ll be home late tonight, dear: coping with the busy season

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I\u27ll be home late tonight, dear: coping with the busy season

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