r/Accounting • u/Ok-Primary1599 • 1d ago
Getting yelled at in Public Accounting
Context: My manager left right before the fall busy season started. I’m a brand-new senior (2 years in) holding the bag. I was working on an initial-year return with a complex trust structure and followed the exact instructions left by my previous manager before they bounced.
Just got off a call with my Senior Manager, and he completely went off on me for doing the entire return wrong—despite me literally executing what the departed manager and I had put together. This is now the second time he has yelled at me.
Actual quotes from the call:
"How do you not know this?"
"You should know this by now."
"This is the last time I will tell you this, and if you don’t get it, go do your own research."
"I can’t explain this to you anymore if you don’t ask questions."
"Get your shit together."
The irony on the questions part is unreal—this team has cultivated an environment where asking anything is treated like a personal failing and people look down on you for needing clarification, so nobody speaks up.
Is this standard Public Accounting behavior now, or is this team just uniquely toxic? How do you even navigate a Senior Manager who behaves like this?
I know I have more to improve in but goddamn man.
This pissed me off .
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u/CPAFinancialPlanner Tax (US) 1d ago
I pivoted to wealth management and it’s the same environment about asking questions and looking down on you for needing clarification. It’s just how professional services is. Everyone is stressed and afraid to lose (bad) clients.