I tried not to whine, but these were what I had experienced. I could not believe that KPMG or any of the big four accounting firms were listed as "the best employers" which also includes other companies like Google, Facebook, Genetec, etc. To my knowledge, those companies have much better work-life balance and were paid much higher.
1. 80 hours a week or more during peak seasons (about 3 months a year) with no additional after-hour pay. I don't know if it is against any law. Some of my colleagues fell badly sick right after the peak season. One girl had a disease very unusual for her age according to her doctor.
2. Some of the managers/directors don't care about staff accountant at all. One of the directors brought accountants on site at a client company and everyone had to work from 9am to 10pm. No breaks for food or anything. But the director sneaked out for lunch and dinner by himself without letting his staff accountants know. How cheap was that!
3. Fresh accountants struggled by themselves without much help. They were supposed to get help from seniors and the managers. Unfortunately everyone was drowned in his/her own work. Few people really had time/energy to train fresh employees. I saw some of the fresh accountants still couldn't get the basics correct, even after she joined the company for one year. Sometimes I felt it was a joke to let them review the work from our outsourced division in Indian. The indian employees sometimes did a very clean job but our guys were trying to add errors during the review process!
