Work-life Balance of a Mama CPA
Work-life Balance of a Mama CPA
Jessica I. Marschall July 13th, 2022
As a caveat to this article…I am old. Forty-six years old to be exact. This means that I entered the CPA and
Accounting profession in 1999 well before remote working opportunities were available and when it was still more of a male-dominated field. Thankfully, much progress has been made in the industry to incorporate the non-male CPA.
My Evolution to a Self-Employed CPA
I began graduate school at University of Wisconsin—Milwaukee in 1999, shortly after getting married and moving from Washington, DC, while also working full-time as an auditor. My course load was 12 credits, and a 40-hour work week would be challenging. I was excited to push through, pass the CPA exam, and get a decade or so of work under my belt before we started our family.
Our first beautiful daughter was born eleven months after our wedding. My dearly departed mother in-law would ensure everyone heard the eleven months part clearly.
Pregnancy was not magical. It was painful, draining, and I was sick for all nine months. Thankfully, my daughter chose an August due date, giving me three weeks before heading back to school.
My employer graciously offered four weeks of unpaid maternity leave. It was suggested that maybe I could take off six weeks unpaid, but four weeks should do it. I insisted on eight weeks unpaid maternity leave.
I thought the eight weeks without pay would put us under. Then, I began looking at daycares and the financial worries compounded. We finally found one we liked and that had an opening, and I dropped my tiny eight-week-old baby off for her first day.
However, her health was not great, and many illnesses led to weeks of staying home, while we still paid daycare fees. Along with my zero paid maternity leave, I was gifted five sick days and no vacation. After blowing through the sick days, I had to take short-term leave just to get my daughter through her spells of asthma and illnesses. ST-disability was unpaid.
In my exhausted stupor, we discussed having another child. Our reasoning was that, once well-rested, we may never choose to have another child! Baby #2 set up camp during my third semester of graduate school and had the audacity of arriving one day before midterms. Thankfully, my hospital was only .5 miles from campus, and I limped over and took three midterms after springing myself out of the hospital a day early.
After our second beautiful daughter was born, daycare costs would have been 60% of my salary. With no sick days and no paid leave, and a paid maternity leave of 4 weeks at 50% pay, it made no sense for me to stay employed.
I left. I had to repay my grad school tuition assistance out the door, as well. However, I was priveleged to have a husband willing to pick up the slack while I started my own practice, took the CPA exam, and passed it in one sitting knowing that if I did not knock it out in one try, I might throw in the towel.
Once again, we planned another baby while in my sleep-deprived delusional state. However, Baby #3 was usurped in utero by the new Baby #3 we adopted from foster care. Our son, Baby #3, has severe special needs. He is an amazing child! Five months after his birth and about 3.5 months after we brought him home, Baby #4 arrived.
There needs to be an *** next to every parent who raises a child with special needs. Our son has severe health diagnoses. Raising a special-needs child is exhausting, rewarding, depleting, yet exhilarating. It is also expensive.
Four years later, we had our final baby, an adorable little girl. Baby #5 has a serious heart condition along with a host of other issues. As children, she and Baby #3 would often have a combined 3-10 doctor’s appointments a week. Again, the *** next to parents of special-needs children.
Work-life Balance with Young Children
Where to find time to work during this mayhem? Here is how I kept my skills sharp and tax practice alive during the wild young-children’s years:
One: Dedicated work and child-care time
I pieced together dedicated work time in the following timeframes, no more, no less:
4 a.m.-6 a.m. Everyone (mostly) was asleep and if they awoke, I threw guilt out the window, turned on Elmo or the Wiggles, broke out the sugary fruit snacks and kept working.
10 a.m. – 2 p.m. Three days a week I had all children in a “preschool”. This was a magical place called Kindergarten Preparatory Preschool in Waukesha, WI. They had a room for un-potty-trained children that my boy’s inhabited until graduation at age 5.
This was it. It was all the time I had, and I adjusted work and client load considerably. I only took clients with whom I felt passionate and for whom I was helping them make significant financial progress. I capped my practice load because I did not have the luxury of working 12-hour days during tax season.
Two: Board Participation
To keep skills sharp, I was the perpetual treasurer of many a local education, finance, or community Board of Directors. This enabled me to nurture professional and personal roots in our community and to give back with my set of accounting and tax skills. Also…I was a volunteer. Typically, volunteers cannot be fired, especially treasurers, as no one ever wants to be the treasurer. I could complete work on my own schedule and miss the occasional meeting if I had a sick child or if my child-care fell through.
Three: Continuing Education
Keeping up with the latest tax code changes, state business regulations, and new software applications was critical. This was also something I could do online or study books, AICPA and other tax publications, and manuals during nap times, in doctor’s waiting rooms, and in long carpool pick-up lines.
Work-life Balance with the Teenage Transition
Eventually, the pack of five children moved to the teenager phase. They no longer awoke at 6 a.m. on the dot and I struggled to get them out of bed by noon. This phase included college applications, college payments, sports fees, driving all over creation for activities, and the whiplash in moods leading one to be perpetually surprised by meeting Jekyll or Hyde each morning.
This was the stage where I made the push to bring my business to the levels I had planned for years. I expanded my tax consulting practice and opened an additional two appraisal companies. Most weeks I work 70-80 hours but on my own schedule and entirely remote. Here are the lessons learned and changes implemented in the work-life balance based upon my earlier experiences:
One: Covid Lessons Learned
During Covid, the companies went entirely remote. I closed our brick-and-mortar office location. Prior to Covid, team members commuted to that location every day, some driving 45+ minutes to get there. All team members work from home.
Two: 9 – 5 is a Ridiculous Timeframe
Traditional hours of 9 – 5 make no sense for anyone. Especially anyone with children or with caretaking responsibilities. Our team does not have any hourly work requirement. We work long enough to get things done and on an individualized schedule that works for everyone.
Three: Paid Time Off
We do not have a PTO policy. Our team members work when they can and take off days for personal rest, vacation, appointments, or myriad reasons when needed. We keep each other updated to ensure someone is covering for us while we are gone. With implementation of home offices and no PTO restrictions, productivity has gone through the roof!
Four: Health Insurance
In our country, this is not an optional fringe benefit. Team members not only need insurance, but they need good insurance. As employers, offering insurance, from the start of employment is critical.
Five: Work-life “Balance” is a Myth
There is no magic formula for work-life balance. Every day I fail in both areas. I field texts all day from children with probing questions such as, “What is there to eat?” Followed by statements such as, “There is nothing to eat in this house.” Placing dinner on the table is met with, “Is thiswhat is for dinner?!” Job feedback from the “life” community tends to be 99% negative. The positive feedback is typically demonstrated by demolishing the tray of cookies presented after dinner. My husband also telecommutes. I often respond to children’s texts with “Go ask your father.” He is a great life partner.
On the work-front, I often miss a critical email, or see a due date on my calendar one day before the deadline. In all these cases, my work partners jump in to help and provide support by reminding me of emails and due dates. Work also generates some positive feedback from clients, which feels like a stream of sunlight and helps offset the negative feedback from the life contingent.
Teamwork and support are needed in both roles.
Six: No Free Lunch for Children
I travel a lot for my appraisal companies and typically bring a child or two with me where they are put to work and often complain of exhaustion. However, I remind them that this work is helping to pay for their home life and college. They also see their mama hustle. Current results are that my children claim they never will become a CPA.
Along with travel, they are assigned administrative tasks such as sorting spreadsheets, researching projects, and studying accounting and tax concepts. I highly recommend implementing a perpetual Take-Your-Child-to-Work-Day.
Seven: Have Compassion
My experience described above was one of immense privilege. I have a home partner and we have two incomes. Many families have a single parent and only one source of income. Additionally, many have responsibilities for taking care of older friends or relatives in addition to themselves and families. Many people deal with chronic illnesses, yet still need to work full-time. These individuals are my heroes.
We need to provide better support and understanding to everyone in our life and work environment. Compassion is a missing commodity in society and especially in some offices. Our sense of community is fractured. We see others through the lens of a social media post or in a quickly formed judgement and stereotype. We must view our work teammates with humanity, understanding, and compassion. Extending empathy towards our coworkers and friends can move metaphorical mountains.
What can we do?
1. Listen when our team members tell us about their personal lives and challenges.
2. Provide support when times get tough. Set up a sign-up for meal or grocery deliveries. Offer to cover an assignment. Offer a listening ear.
3. Create an environment of compassion in the workplace. Ensure team members can communicate if they are having an “off” day or are experiencing major life stressors.
4. Always take credit where credit is due but do not forget work teammates who helped create the “win”. We lose nothing in our accomplishments by acknowledging that we did not do it alone.
We still have a long way to go as a society in accommodating a feasible work-life balance. Had I been offered affordable and flexible child-care and been provided paid maternity and sick leave, I could have remained and made great long-term contributions to the company. Childcare, eldercare, and household tasks still fall predominantly on women, also recognizing the amazing men and non-binary individuals towing a huge load of responsibilities.
However, In My 21 Year Career, I have Seen That Meaningful Changes Can Be Made And Implemented To Help Us Experience More Joy In Both Our Home And Work Environments.
