20 Tips for Surviving Tax Season
From pizza to ice cream, and gym classes to free massages, CPA firms are looking for ways to keep their staffs happy, sane and productive. How does your firm handle it?
by Rick Telberg/At Large
CPA firms across the nation are finding new and innovative ways to relieve the stresses and pressures of tax season. Here are some my favorite tips for surviving tax season, with thanks to those listed at the bottom for volunteering them.
1. Close one Friday afternoon and have everyone go to a matinee movie. Snacks and popcorn on the firm, of course.
2. Bring in a massage therapist for free 20-minute sessions for every staffer.
3. Free buffet lunches and dinners on weekends and late nights.
4. Cap the hours. Don't let a staffer work past, say, midnight.
5. Cap the days. Five-and-a-half is about the usual human limit.
6. Give staffers time off to do the regular things in life, like catch school plays and take their spouses to dinner.
7. Keep the peace. No screaming or yelling, moaning, groaning, or whining allowed. Send unhappy people home fast, with pay, before the tension spreads.
8. Make Saturdays special. Free food. Hire a birthday clown. Bring in the kids for pony rides in the parking lot.
9. Ice cream parties in the afternoon.
10. Free gym passes for the duration.
11. Let people work their best hours. Some can come in early and leave; others may work best at night.
12. Open up a nap room and encourage people to use it when they need to.
13. Offer "concierge services." Hire a "runner," someone to take care of the personal needs of staffers while they work, like a trip to the dry cleaners, the pharmacy, picking kids up at school, dropping the car off at the mechanic, walking the dogs, etc.
14. Remember to thank everyone for their hard work.
15. Raise your fees and pay bonuses. Nothing says thank you like a nice, fat check.
16. A Friday afternoon ping-pong tournament.
17. A weekly raffle for a gift certificate to a local store.
18. Bring-your-pet-to-work day.
19. Schedule a night where the musicians among the staff can bring in their instruments and jam.
20. Keep reminding people, it's only 105 days long and it all ends on April 15.
Here are a few more for April 16th:
1. Join other local firms at a bar.
2. Hit the golf course, sun or snow.
3. Hold a barbecue for staff and families.
Thanks to: Ed Stinson at Gould Stinson & Gray in Kalamazoo, Mich.; Judith Bloom; Karen Boor; Chuck Parker; Michael Parker (presumably no relation); Carol Duck, Tom Ryan, Bill Jordan, and Bernadette Hardcastle.
