work

I like to work, always have, and almost hate to admit that. Most everyone I know, if given a winning lottery ticket, would happily abandon their current employer. I’m not sure what I’d do. Depends on the employer, I guess.

I like the challenges of learning new things and then teaching them. I seem to have an affinity for accounting software. I love numbers, balancing, reporting, analyzing, translating it all. I love learning a new-to-me industry’s nuances. Call me a traitor to my gender, but I’d rather talk business than babies.

I did a lot of good at this last one, and in a short period of time.

I found their accounting records in barely contained disarray; now, all but two or three balance sheet accounts have been reconciled.

They never had cash flow statements with their financials, and now they do, or did, anyway, until two days ago.

I taught my bookkeeper and the department heads the importance of the dates on those invoices they were approving (usually months or more late), and explained the impact that one simple thing had on the income statements.

I found the problem with the monthly inventory adjustments, and corrected that.

I found out the reason behind the ongoing payable and receivable reporting issues, and corrected that.
I chased down inter-company balancing errors that dated back 10 years, and fixed those.
The company, at me and my bookkeeper’s urging, finally switched to a payment gateway service that’s the best there is out there. They’d been trying to make that change for years.
I tried to mentor the new GM; she’s in over her head. I’d like to think even a bit of what I tried to teach her sunk in, but I’m afraid the evidence points to the contrary.
I tried to restore my bookkeeper’s confidence in her skills; she’s really good, she’d just been verbally abused by the owner for so long, she was starting to buy into it.
I shortened the month-end close process from over three weeks to six business days.
I never missed a deadline, and I did more than I was asked.
 

Still, it wasn’t enough.

What I learned:

*I know more than I thought I did. To some extent, although this is another beating, my self-confidence has been restored. It’s tough to maintain that when you have even some of your closest friends starting to doubt you.
*A manager, in over her head, will boldface lie to you without so much as a twitch in order to save her own ass skin. When you hear her say “it needed to be done,” you know she’s just compromised another principle; that is, if she had any to begin with.

*An owner who says she doesn’t want to be surrounded by “yes men” really does.

*When one of the interview team tells you the owner “really cares” about her employees, you should question why she even thought she had to bring that up.

*If told the employee turnover rate is low, you should find a way to check. [In this instance, the owner has fired over 50% of the employees since January; she hires more, and then fires them a few months later.]

*Never trust anyone wearing knee-high turquoise lizard skin boots and junk jewelry the size of gumballs, or anyone with a standing Botox appointment.

What a disappointment, to have searched so long, only to find I’d accidentally joined the The Circus. Luna-Bitch and her Gigolo will soon find themselves in the same position they put everyone else – out on the streets. What they won’t understand is why no one will care.