The safe stewardship of the accountancy profession means tackling the challenge of career burnout and prioritising work-life balance for the next generation, writes Dr. Caroline McGroary, FCA
Like many professions globally, accountancy strives to be a beacon of excellence, with our members balancing multi-faceted roles as trusted business leaders and gatekeepers of the public interest.
Bestowed by decades of attracting and retaining the world’s brightest minds, this status ensures the safe stewardship of our profession from one generation to the next.
As we sit at this critical juncture in the history of our profession and contemplate our future, we are propelled to consider some of the greatest opportunities and challenges facing our profession and the next generation of business leaders.
In this article, we delve deeper into one such area of interest—namely the attractiveness of the profession to the next generation and the importance they are placing on well-being and work-life balance (or work-life harmony, as it is now commonly referred to).
To focus this debate, we explore the concept of burnout, a topic of major concern for those at any stage of their career and one that is firmly on the agenda of well-being teams across professions, particularly in April, during Stress Awareness Month.
Burnout and the next generation
The International Federation of Accountants (IFAC) describes accountancy as “the language of business”.
While this adage has been true for more than a century, our roles have changed drastically.
In addition to providing robust financial information, accountants now assume the role of business leaders, responsible for actively leading and transforming organisations across industries and regions.
Despite these changing roles, it has for many years been widely documented that working long hours, enduring stressful working environments and sacrificing personal time for work demands, is an “accepted culture” in the accountancy profession.
This was further reiterated in a recent study by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, which asked young accounting professionals about their experiences.
Recurring themes in the ACCA’s Global Talent Trend 2023 report included dissatisfaction with pay, a lack of interest in their work, burnout and concerns about work-life balance and flexibility.
This work further highlighted that long working hours—previously considered a badge of honour—now act as a deterrent for younger people wanting to join the industry.
These views align with Deloitte’s 2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey which found that work-life balance was the top priority among respondents who believe long working hours drive stress.
Based on these insights, we must challenge whether long hours, stress and burnout is an “accepted culture” in our profession and if so, properly consider the long-term effects on ourselves, our colleagues, our profession and the next generation.
We have learned that burnout can prompt early-career accountants to leave their jobs, and even the profession.
Recognising the potential cost of this, we need to gain better insights into the experiences of this group of professionals.
The value of such research was evident in a study of close to 400 junior accountants published in Australia.
Researchers Vincent K. Chong and Gary S. Monroe found that role ambiguity and role conflict led to job-related tension for these professionals, which in turn contributed to burnout.
This subsequently led to reduced job satisfaction and organisational commitment, with the final stage being intention to leave the profession.
The practical implications of this research were the insights it offered into the drivers and outcomes of burnout, and thus the potential means to better support employees and reduce turnover.
Learning experiences of trainee accountants
Reflecting on our role as educators of the next generation of our profession, we also need to consider the impact of burnout on the learning experience of trainee accountants.
In research conducted at Dublin City University by Professor Barbara Flood (a Chartered Accountant), organisational psychologist Professor Yseult Freeney and I, we uncovered some useful insights.
In our study of approximately 1,200 trainee accountants in Ireland, we found that these younger members of the profession reported feeling “exhaustion” on a regular basis.
This had a negative effect on their ability to attend lectures, and their interest in and enthusiasm for their studies.
Despite feelings of exhaustion, they were committed to cognitively engaging in their studies, however, as they recognised the importance of passing their exams for career progression.
The main concerns emerging from this research included the type of learning taking place at the trainee stage and how these experiences were shaping their view of the profession—some referred to “feelings of resentment”, “anxiety” and “mental drain”.
For Sinead Donovan, past President of Chartered Accountants Ireland, supporting and advocating for the next generation of accountants is a priority.
During her term as President, Donovan had as her theme the “next generation” (#nextgen).
She stresses the ongoing need to understand more about the challenges facing younger accountants and their more experienced counterparts, who act as crucial role models.
Donovan also expressed concerns about the findings of a recent study commissioned by the Irish Centre for Business Excellence (ICBE) Skillnet on future leaders’ perceptions, motivations, skills and needs.
The study revealed that future business leaders are “stepping out of leadership ambition...to avoid burnout at the top”.
“I would challenge the view that leadership roles needed to be overtly busy and always ‘on the edge’ of stress,” Donovan says.
“While I acknowledge that people still need to be pushed and challenged, the key is knowing when this becomes too much.”
The former Chair of Grant Thornton Ireland sees an important step in addressing this problem as “assigning responsibility back to the employer to help understand the challenges facing these future leaders, provide adequate support, and in turn, showcase how leaders can exist, and indeed thrive, without burnout.”
Tackling the ill effects of burnout on younger accountants will be “integral to the future of the profession,” Donovan says.
Tackling burnout: the employer’s role
Donovan’s view is supported by Gillian Bane, a fellow Chartered Accountant and founder of Well Work 360.
Bane established the workplace health and wellbeing consultancy in 2023 having herself experienced burnout in her career post-qualification.
“I wasn’t aware at the time that I was experiencing burnout and, in hindsight, had actually suffered multiple bouts before it stopped me in my tracks,” Bane says.
She highlights the importance of employer support and understanding to help tackle the causes and effects of work-related burnout, as well as the stigma that continues to surround mental health in the workplace.
“Employee support needs to be much more than offering employees coping mechanisms, such as mindfulness classes,” Bane says.
“It needs to be a combination of supporting the individual with ways of coping, monitoring work design and workload, improving team dynamics and leadership setting the culture at an organisational level.”
Supporting resilience in the profession
Chartered Accountants Worldwide (CAW) recently launched its inaugural global report into the resilience of the Chartered Accountancy profession—a groundbreaking study conducted by the CAW Wellbeing Taskforce in collaboration with The Resilience Institute..
This report examines the state of resilience and well-being within the profession, drawing on insights from a global survey of 697 Chartered Accountants.
While Chartered Accountants play a critical role in safeguarding financial integrity, the report found that their work often entails significant stress and complexity.
“This research highlighted some of the key strengths of the accountancy profession, such as curiosity, adaptability, creativity and a strong commitment to serving clients and colleagues,” says Dee France, Wellbeing and Support Lead at Chartered Accountants Ireland and Chair of the CAW Wellbeing Taskforce.
“That said, these strengths lie alongside challenges such as multitasking, avoidance, worry and sleep deprivation, which over time can reduce resilience, lead to burnout, fatigue and impact negatively on mental health.”
The profession now has a unique opportunity to lead by example, cultivating workplace cultures in which well-being is not an afterthought but an integral part of daily practice, France says.
Taking action to reduce burnout
There is acceptance that burnout is something that can be experienced by anyone, at any stage of their career, in any profession.
It is a multidimensional concept embedded in an ongoing complex psychological process, and associated with a range of consequences that—if not understood and addressed—will negatively impact our profession in the long run.
As accountants, we can clearly make the business case for why this topic is important and needs further attention.
Equally, as members of a profession built on a bedrock of trust, integrity, competence and respect for others, we recognise our moral obligation to take action and encourage our many stakeholders to engage in this important debate.
To this end, we seek the support of the accounting profession and other professions, academics, training firms, well-being teams and senior leadership teams to work together to:
- Better understand the concept of burnout;
- Explore the prevalence of burnout across organisations and professions;
- Seek to understand its root causes and effects;
- Provide tailored support and resources for those who may be suffering from burnout or “on the edge”; and
- Challenge the stigma that still exists around mental health and burnout, as well as acknowledging that it can affect anyone.
Collectively, we as Chartered Accountants are in a unique position to change the trajectory of our profession when it comes to tackling concerns like burnout.
In doing so, we will continue to attract the brightest minds and empower the next generation of accountants to go forward to lead our profession in the future.
Dr. Caroline McGroary, FCA, is a Lecturer at Dublin City University and a Council Member and Education and Lifelong Learning Board Member at Chartered Accountants Ireland
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