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Accounting firms need to recognise the critical signs of burnout and chronic stress in their employees to ensure staff retention, an expert has said.
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Resilience coach calls for accounting partners to be more attentive
09 January 2025
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Burnout and stress levels have continued to significantly increase across the accounting industry, negatively impacting firms’ productivity and performance.
Research conducted by Springfox recognised chronic stress and burnout in accountants which in turn caused physical, emotional and mental exhaustion.
Springfox CEO Peta Sigley attributed this to job insecurity, organisational changes and performance pressures and how these elements could cause a decline in mental health.
“We know there’s been organisational change, particularly with the big four, and there’s pressures on performance and workload demand. The firms are operating with a smaller group of people, who constantly need to be doing as much as they possibly can,” she said.
“People are feeling isolated. We must be aware that people are working extended hours and this industry brings a degree of perfectionism.”
“People love doing a good job, but they don’t tend to operate well with boundaries around their time and how much work they take on.”
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Sigley noted firms must remove these pressures and open conversations with their employers about personal and professional expectations.
Conversations around pressure and the elements included within it would create a sense of relief and support, which would lead to staff retention, Sigley said.
Pressure aspects included self-criticism, perfectionist syndrome, cognitive overload, a sense of collapse, distractibility, emotional withdrawals and physical implications.
“From an accounting perspective, we really do pride ourselves on our intellectual ability, but it does collapse pretty quickly,” Sigley said.
“If accountants can’t handle something, it’s an emotional hit. First, it’s the thoughts – I feel tired, I feel stressed. Then there’s the physical, so you just keep going and numb out with practices at the end of the day that aren’t sustainable.”
It was recommended for partners of firms to establish a supply chain of performance to look at the competencies required for the alignment of the body and emotional thinking and identify how these flowed into emotional thinking and performance.
Sigley said wellness practices within the workplace were often overlooked and not viewed as a professional requirement.
However, wellness practices were a reflection of competent leadership skills and a work environment that had the capacity to build trust, operate with compassion and view their employees as important and worthwhile.
Sigley also noted that burnout and stress often weren't addressed properly because they are not technically a medical condition.
“Firms don’t talk about burnout because it’s not a clinically diagnosable condition under the DSM-5, it is a phenomenon,” she said.
“That doesn’t mean it’s not experienced by millions of people around the world. Opening the conversation is the first step for accounting firms and partners in helping their staff feel valued, seen and understood.”
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