Category: News

Dave Scudder Resigning as McGladrey Managing Partner

McGladrey has announced that this busy season will be managing partner Dave Scudder’s last. Technically, Scudder is the MP of McGladrey & Pullen but honestly, we were confused about the whole situation after the rebranding.


From the press release:

The McGladrey & Pullen, LLP Board of Directors announced today that Dave Scudder, managing partner and member of the Board, has decided to resign as the managing partner of the Firm effective April 30, 2011.

“Dave is highly respected by the partners and has lead the Firm through significant change,” said Jerry Bourassa, Chairman of the McGladrey & Pullen Board of Directors. “He has contributed tremendously to the success of the Firm and has been an exemplary leader.”

The Board has commenced a selection process to ensure a smooth and timely succession and transition.

“I believe the Firm is well positioned to continue its success in serving our target markets including private equity groups and their portfolio companies along with our public and international companies practice,” said Scudder.

Scudder will continue to assist in the transition through at least June 30, 2011, and will continue to represent the Firm in various professional and industry organizations during this time.

So you could easily conclude that DS just figured it was time to move on after spending the last 24 years at the firm. You could also easily conclude that with all the excitement that has occurred at firms with various forms of “McGladrey” in the name may have taken its toll with Scuds or perhaps with the McGladrey board. Then again, they could be making room for another golfer that isn’t Natalie Gulbis.

Reactions and speculation are welcome at this time.

Attention Any Accountants-cum-Future Obstructers of Justice Who May Have to Take Extreme Measures

Having a good document shredding company on speed-dial is a must for any accounting firm. Because of the sheer volume of documents that need destroyed, there’s room for plenty of competition but as is the wont of our society, it can be fierce out there and businesses have to pull out all the stops to get a leg up on their rivals. Thanks to our former sister site, Dealbreaker, we’ve now learned about a business who may be offering a new feature for any of you that don’t have the stomach for ugly this business can be.


Now sure, maybe you’ve got a Dahle 20835 EC on site or maybe a Kobra Cyclone is more your speed but what if you really need a problem taken care of?

You can’t possibly rub someone out on the hallowed grounds of a Big 4 firm now, can you? Best to call some experts.

Compliance Auditor Found Dead at Work… a Day After She Died

As many of you sacrifice your lives for the greater good of the profession, slaving away day in and day out to meet that all important April deadline, just remember it could be much worse: you could be dead in your cubicle for a day before anyone actually notices.


Via KTLA:

An L.A. County employee apparently died while working in her cubicle on Friday, but no one noticed for quite some time.

51-year-old Rebecca Wells was found by a security guard on Saturday afternoon.

She was slumped over on her desk in the L.A. County Department of Internal Services.

“I came in Saturday to do a little work, and I saw them when they were taking her out,” co-worker Hattie Robertson told KTLA.

Wells worked as a compliance auditor in the risk management division of L.A. County Internal Services and had just become a grandmother a week before her death. Prior to her position with the county, she was a tax auditor for the California State Board of Equalization. The Imperial County Coroner’s Office is still in the process of an investigation.

L.A. ISD provides computer, telecommunications, building maintenance and repair, purchasing and contracts, fleet, mail messenger and printing services to departments in L.A. County.

Accountant with Frightening Mugshot Pleads Guilty

Remember this guy?

If you recall, Hector Sanchez swiped $40k from his church to spend in “casinos and restaurants” which is arguably the lamest thing you could do with forty large of a God’s money. What about spending it on a facial to soften that nice bone structure? Yeesh.

Ex-church accountant pleads guilty to stealing $40,000; some of the money spent in casinos and restaurants, officials say [NJ.com]

More Appeasement in Obama’s Proposed Budget

President Obama presented his nearly $4 trillion budget, proposing to cut more than $1 trillion from Federal programs over the next ten years, with $200 billion in cuts to occur over the next two years. Although these cuts may appear, at first glance, significant to the average American, in light of the recently enacted tax cuts of $858 billion over the next two years, that $200 billion of proposed spending cuts leaves $658 billion of thoted for.

In balancing our national budget, Obama and Congress are focusing on the wrong side of the financial equation. The projected deficit in 2011 is $1.65 trillion; however, the whole non-defense discretionary spending budget in 2010 was $477 billion. Even if all non-defense discretionary spending were eliminated, there would still remain a deficit of over $1.1 trillion. The math is clear that Congress cannot eliminate deficit spending by budget cuts. Taxes will need to be raised.


Some of the cuts that President Obama is proposing in his budget include $300 million for community block grants, $2.35 billion for low income home energy assistance program, and $400 billion from a five-year domestic spending freeze, as well as reductions in pell grants, graduate school loans, community access, etc. But all of these cuts do not come close to offsetting the lost revenues from the extension of the tax cuts to the rich.

A pattern has emerged in Obama’s dealings with the Republicans. Obama agreed with the Republican argument to give tax cuts to the rich to help the economy. Now he is proposing to cut programs for the middle class and the poor to balance the budget. In doing such, Obama is moving the political fulcrum to the right. His approach of pre-emptively offering something—whether it be tax cuts for the rich or budget cuts affecting the poor and middle class—instead of negotiating a quid pro quo, is effectively pushing the Republicans further to the right, seeing the prospect of gaining even more ground.

Although compromise is demanded in politics, leadership cannot be defined by compromise alone. There are principles worth fighting for; and leaders must be willing to mobilize public opinion in support of those principles. Since our political system is rigged because of campaign finance and lobbying, a leader professing change and reform needs to present a different narrative to the populace. Churchill, Teddy Roosevelt, and Franklin Roosevelt recognized the value of the bully pulpit. Despite his rhetorical skills, Obama has failed to do so. His posture of appeasement will in all likelihood allow the Republicans to balance the budget on the backs of the working class and low income Americans to the benefit of Wall Streeters and Multinational Corporations, who offshore jobs, brought about the financial crisis, and robbed trillions from the American people. Since Obama is seeking re-election in 2012, and is charting his own course, he will not lead the American people to the Promised Land.

America needs major tax reform. The extension of tax cuts to people who need them the least was the last thing Congress needed to do. Some Democrats want to cut $40 billion in subsidies to the oil companies for five years; however, Republicans refuse to cut these subsidies to the oil companies, preferring to cut programs for the poor and middle class. Moreover, in spite of two wars costing $120 billion per year and an inflation adjusted military budget larger than those in the Bush years and the Cold War, neither party desires to cut military spending, which constitutes 58% of the discretionary spending budget.

Reform will never come from Congress nor a President like Obama. It will require people outside of Washington working with allies inside Congress in order to stop this disconnect between what is transpiring in Washington and what this country needs. It will require people coming together as they did in Egypt in a pro-democracy movement. The question is, can and will the people of America come together before it is too late.

Be Prepared for a New Flood of GOP ‘IRS Agents Will Be Invading Your Homes’ Rhetoric

President Barack Obama proposed increasing the budget for the Internal Revenue Service by 9.4 percent to hire more than 5,000 new employees, most of whom would pursue tax cheats. The president’s fiscal 2012 budget released today sets funding for the tax-collection agency at $13.3 billion, an increase of $1.1 billion from 2010, the last time a full appropriation was made for the IRS. Almost half of the increase, or $460 million, would support the agency’s tax-enforcement programs. Under the plan, the IRS would focus on fighting tax evasion through the use of offshore accounts and cheating by corporate and high-wealth taxpayers. It also would seek out fraudulent tax preparers. [Bloomberg]

Vault Survey: 47% of Accountants Have Had an Office Romance

Are you missing out on some manufactured romance today? Wishing you had that special someone in your life so you could finally show off your handmade greeting card talents? Just wishing you could break the dry spell? Look no further than the cubicle next to you! Our friends as Vault, being acutely aware that today is the mother of all manufactured romantic days, have released their annual Office Romance Survey and this year’s results found that 59% of the 2,000+ people surveyed have participated in an office romance.

Now, we all know plenty of people that have decided to dip the pen in the company ink and during busy season when people are spending night and day with each other the desire to nibble on a love newton is especially tempting. But surprisingly, the number of accountants that admitted to an office romance was not nearly as high as you would expect, with only 47% saying they handled a co-worker’s assets.


Now, if that number seems a little low maybe it’s because there is a rule of three effect going on here but there’s really no way to tell. A few more details from the Vault survey:

• “[If you] felt uncomfortable because of co-workers’ intra-office romantic relationships”: 27% – “Yes”; 73% – “No” – Way more of “They’re cute together!” as opposed to, “Get a room!”

• “Felt that a co-worker gained a professional advantage because of a romantic relationship with a co-worker/superior”: 36% – “Yes”; 64% – “No” – Sleeping your way to the top must not work like it used to. Or maybe it never did.

• “Based on your previous experience in an office romance, would you participate in one again?” – 71% said “Yes” – Um, yes, the sex was worth it.

• Fourteen percent dated a supervisor while 30% dated a subordinate. – Title is good for something!

• Nearly 22% of respondents had “a tryst at the office.” – With a cleaning woman? On the desk? Should I not have done that?

• Twenty-one percent have an “office husband/wife.” – No sex involved here; just like a real marriage!

• Twenty-six percent of those surveyed said their company has an official policy regarding work relationships while 28% don’t know if their company has one. – Or choose not know.

• Thirty-six percent have known a married co-worker to have an affair at the office and 18% have known a married or seriously involved co-worker who had a romantic liaison while on a business trip for the company. – “Known” as in, “I’m pretty sure because just based on the way they’re acting, they’re definitely getting it on”? Or walking in on a break-room make-out session?

So Happy Valentine’s/Singles Awareness Day! Discuss your workplace romance adventures (the more awkward, the better) in the comments and try to get your beloved something a little less cliché (red roses, again?) or self-serving (Victoria’s Secret) this year.

Former McGladrey Employee Rates Experience at Firm as Below Average; Cites Stress Level, Getting Fired While on Vacation

On Tuesday, I brought you a rundown of a survey I recently took on my Big 4 experience scoring it a 5 – on a 1 to 5 scale – for the days spent inside the House of Klynveld. Today, from the mailbag, a former McGladrey tax pro who pegged his experience at Mickey G’s a bit lower than that:

Per yesterday’s newsletter [Ed. note: which you can subscribe to here], I worked at McGladrey from 2002 – 2009. I would rate the experience as a 2 on a scale of 1 – 5 (with 1 being the lowest).

On the positive side I was able to complete the [Midwest University] MST (distance-learning) which they fully financed, as well as gain valuable tax experience which helped me get my next gig as a Tax Analyst for a private company.

On the negative side: getting laid off on the following Monday after busy season. Even worse, I was taking my first vacation day in 4 months and was informed via courier who delivered the information to my house. It took a while for me to get over that extremely cold termination but I now realize it was a promotion in disguise!

Also, the stress level in my office was very high leading several in the tax department to have health issues (chest pains, high blood pressure, etc.).

Eliot Spitzer Would Like You to Find Your Spine

Noted john and co-star of Parker & Spitzer, Eliot Spitzer, has a few choice words for everyone out there that helped facilitate all the corporate malfeasance from the last few years. Specifically, when your clients want to do something that you know is sketch and you gave them a pass before? That shit has to stop. And not with the attitude of “pretty please with sugar on top – no – Sugar, the brunette from last time.” For real, this shit has to stop.

“Facilitators — and we’re all part of it — lawyers, investment bankers and accountants. Our purpose is to be hired to justify the actions that are being taken by CEOs and others to run their businesses, and over time what has happened is that we have lost our backbone. We have lost our willingness to stand up and say, ‘Stop.’ There are a bunch of reasons for this. I’ve been in private practice and I know how those pressures are. We don’t like to look at our clients and say, ‘No, you can’t do that. I’m not writing an opinion letter that justifies that valuation.’ We don’t like to write a letter to the CEO saying, ‘No, you don’t deserve a 50 percent bonus.’ Those things don’t happen very often because we succumb to the pressures of our clients.”

Spitzer Calls Accountants ‘Facilitators’ for Corporate Abuse [AT]

Report: Bomber of Moscow Airport Was an Accounting Student ‘Pumped Full of Drugs’

For the love of everything good and holy, we know some of you are depressed but please don’t resort to this:

Forensic experts have determined the identity of the suicide bomber who killed himself and 36 other people at Domodedovo airport – an accounting student from the North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, Moscow media reports said Friday. The forensic researchers, going by DNA evidence taken from the scene, identified the bomber as a 20-year-old who apparently was ‘pumped full’ of drugs before he carried out the January 24 attack.

Accounting student was airport suicide bomber, Moscow media say [M&C]

Busy Season Problem of the Day: Approaching a Co-worker About Their Disgusting Bodily Functions

Over at our British sister site, AccountingWEB UK, the following problem was put to the group:

We have an employee at the practice where I work who constantly makes a pretty horrible snorting sound with the back of her throat. It happens all year but is worse when she has a cold, which she does at the moment.

Several colleagues have asked me to have a word with the partners to ask them to say something to her about it because they find it so distracting and even nauseating. Incidentally it’s an open plan office so it’s not like people can avoid hearing it.

So my question is, if I did have a word with the partners, is there anything they could actually do about it? And if not, should I tell them anyway just to get it recorded and so that I can tell my colleagues that I have had a word? Nobody feels close enough to her to talk to her quietly themselves, which would have been my instinctive first suggestion.

Okay, so after getting over the weirdness of idea of “recording” of this conversation just to prove it to your co-workers, we admit that this is serious work environment issue. We’ve all been there. That certain someone who, for whatever reason, feels necessary to dig deep in the far ranges of their physiology to get some phlegm out but just can’t seem to EXCUSE THEMSELVES to do so. Or see a doctor, because you know, there might be something seriously wrong that COULD KILL YOU.

And it doesn’t stop with the throat clearing. What about the the co-worker that sounds like Tony Soprano when they eat?

What about the dude that’s obviously enjoying those four to six sodas a day because you can hear him slurping from three cubicles away? And then there’s the subsequent burping. And not like frat boy burping; we’re talking about the gas that he tries to internalize quietly but it’s actually more annoying and disgusting than if he belched the entire alphabet. YOU FEEL ME?

So what to do? Well, first off, despite your desire to FLIP OUT and scream at the offender(s) in question, they probably aren’t even aware that they are causing you to throw up in your mouth a little bit every day. But you certainly don’t want to embarrass the person (maybe some of you do) and buying noise-canceling headphones for the entire office isn’t really economically feasible, so what’s the solution? Here are some initial thoughts:

1. Slipping he or she some Emily Post.

2. Quit your job.

3. Humming at audible levels. (We realize the risks associated with this approach but desperate times, amiright?)

4. Hiring a “personnel monitor” whose sole task is to quietly address these issues with the offender and to issue written warnings, fines and punishments depending on the repulsion level, number of individual co-worker complaints and simultaneous offenses (e.g. slurping and burping).

Seems like a good start. Now it’s your turn.

Are Accountants Really That Depressed?

Apparently! Health.com churned out “10 Careers With High Rates of Depression” and lo and behold, Financial Advisors and Accountants made the list of “fields […] in which full-time workers are most likely to report an episode of major depression in a given year.”

Stress. Stress. Stress. Most people don’t like dealing with their own retirement savings. So can you imagine handling thousands or millions of dollars for other people?

“There is so much responsibility for other people’s finances and no control of the market,” Legge says. “There is guilt involved, and when (clients) are losing money, they probably have people screaming at them with regularity.”

Over at CPA Success, Bill Sheridan writes, “That strikes me as a simplistic and overly dramatic conclusion, with no mention at all of the opportunities CPAs have to help their clients improve their personal and professional lives. But what do I know?” We agree with Bill, that the write-up doesn’t really portray accountants accurately, some might say, “bullshit” but stress is part of your job. Does that mean everyone feels like running into sick room and sobbing every day? Well…maybe some of you. There are plenty of people that thrive on the stress and then there are those that bottle it up until they finally quit with a melodramatic sendoff.

Everyone knows that working long hours for weeks on end can eventually get to even the toughest of white-collar warriors but your run-of-the-mill stressed out accountant typically has methods for dealing with the the busy season blues. Some people exercise; some people get their religion on; some people drink/smoke/snort themselves into oblivion. Do those things work? Sure, sometimes. But we’ve all worked with that person who you expect to suddenly not show up. Are there more of those people than there used to be? Hard to say. Maybe we should talk about it. Let it out; it will feel good. Plus, we’re cheaper than a therapist.