15 Work-Stress Management Strategies for Stressed Accountants

Last Updated April 14, 2023

What do accountants and ballerinas have in common? Both follow a rigorous routine that can cause an unhappy work-life balance. From client expectations to managing personal life, everything hangs by the thread if you have stressed accountants as employees. 

A standard 40-hour weekday is rarely a standard unit of measurement when it comes to accounting. At the time of year-end and tax seasons, the major deadlines are hard to deal with when an accountant is handling a difficult client. 

The pressure to lower the fees, tax changes, and struggling to meet the accounting standards is much like juggling the balls. 

Not everyone can manage under work pressure. 

Chronic stress is not a myth or just a cry for help – it exists and can have a devastating effect on an accountant. 

In this article, we will discuss some easy techniques that accountants can follow to ensure avoiding stress at work. 

Currently, How Many Accountants in the US are Working? 

With their increasing role for the past seven years, the number of accountants has drastically increased in the United States. 

Till 2020, there were 1.27 million accountants in the US! While most companies employ in-house accountants, most SMEs are opting for third-party sources. Outsourcing accounting and bookkeeping services are common these days. 

Just imagine the stress levels among this many accountants. You’d be surprised to learn that most stressed accountants have elevated blood pressure levels or are diabetic too. This is not to scare you, but to reveal the stats that stress management for accountants is more important than ever. 

So when an accountant finds himself under the job-burnout radar or work stress follow these tips to enhance and manage work-related stress. 

15 Tips Stressed Accountants at Workplace can Follow to Avoid a Burnout 

1. Be contemporary and knowledgeable about the industry: 

Failing to keep up with developments in the accounting field can contribute to work stress in the accounting field. For instance, Internal Auditing 4.0 is gaining traction, yet some internal auditors continue to operate in the traditional manner. The first piece of advice on how to manage stress is to follow commercial trends. The professional publications of accounting groups like ACCA are a good external source of information that can help you keep up with the developments.

 

2. “No” is a Powerful Word 

Accountants facing stress have a hard time saying no to work their coworkers can’t manage, out of the way client requests, handling a spooked client or etc. 

This does not mean that one shouldn’t be doing any of these things but truth be told, saying yes too often is damaging. As a result, an accountant feels stress at the workplace. They get frustrated by their job responsibilities more quicker. 

For instance, online bookkeeping services in Dallas give the perks to professionals to choose the work of their choice remotely. It helps to reduce the workload immensely. 

It’s important for accountants to identify the job priority. Once they do, it will help them to fulfill their obligations in a better way. 

 

3. List of jobs 

What do tax accountants do? If you are a tax accountant, then you surely need to organize your clients and future jobs accordingly. 

Usually, a tax accountant minimizes and eliminates tax payments, arranges audits, and so on. Stress comes easy to them because of the line-to-line assignments and projects that keep floating side by side. 

Just like the author of Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity, suggests, 

“Your head is for having ideas, not holding them”

Rather than wasting time on ample tax projects, choose your clientele carefully. Make a list of jobs that you can fulfill in a specific time period. Then you can prioritize the tasks. Even for accountants, the work must be doable. So if the list seems overwhelming to you, break it into more steps. 

 

4. Be tech-savvy

Both at work and at home, technology is here to stay and will continue to simplify our lives. If you haven’t started learning how to code as an accountant, you’ll be doing your career in accounting and yourself a huge disservice. Be eager to learn more about technology, and you’ll eventually be able to close the productivity gap at work. What are you waiting for? Infotech accountants have already reaped the rewards of adopting technology. Starting with spreadsheet apps like Microsoft Excel, you can work your way up the computer knowledge base. The admiration and praise you receive from your peers just for being a technology accountant are sufficient to ease all work-related tension.

5. Take a vacations

You’ve likely heard the saying “all work and no pleasure.” Working without taking a vacation hurts you in every material way, but it is the only thing you probably haven’t heard. Additionally, working without taking a vacation is extremely improper in terms of preventing fraud. Many believe that vacations must be extravagant. If you have a family, you may simply take a trip to a far-off hamlet and treat yourselves to some local edifices without having to spend a fortune. I realize that accountants are cost-conscious, but investing in your future health is a worthy investment by any measure. Taking care of yourself should be your top priority. This includes getting enough sleep, eating healthy, and exercising regularly. These practices can help you feel more energized and better equipped to handle the demands of your job.

 

6. Exercising is the Key 

Constant work cancels the positive energy. Being a stressed accountant means you are also not giving enough time to your health. It’s one of the contributing stress factors. Mind and body are interconnected, so you need not ignore your well-being. 

A sudden burden to expand your energy for an extra task can affect the accountant. Accounting firms must keep the health of their accountants, CPAs, and bookkeepers in check. So, preaching a positive health regime works for every professional, especially accountant. 

Catering exercise at the workplace even works. It may sound like a delirious proposal at first for an accounting firm, but in the long run, the positive effects will be prominent.  

 

7. Resource Option 

Does an accounting firm offer resources for stress management? An accounting firm that organizes or encourages stressed accountants to attend webinars, wellness programs or yoga classes, etc is setting a good example. My Count Solutions happens to be one of the accounting and bookkeeping firms keenly interested in providing adequate resources to manage stress levels. 

Accountants who utilize these options tend to be happier at their workplace and have reduced anxiety or stress levels. If it’s a remote firm, like My Count Solutions, online discussions are a helpful gesture. 

When you want to find a small business accountant you should also discuss the workload and their workplace policies to learn more about the accounting firm. This way you can learn about the company policy and also not stress about work expectations. 

 

8. Practicing Mindfulness

Accountants should practice mindfulness at their workplace. 

Taking a moment to reflect on your surroundings helps you to stay calm, focused, and centered even if you work under pressure. The way you respond to an emergency or surroundings is up to you. Accountants can use apps like Calm and Headspace that help them to practice the art of mindfulness.

Mindfulness is the practice of being present and fully engaged at the moment. It can help you reduce stress and improve your focus. Try to incorporate mindfulness exercises such as deep breathing, meditation, or yoga into your daily routine. At the workplace, it is possible to practice mindfulness. Give yourself the mental break you need to be more productive. Take a 10-minute break a day. See how you feel afterward. Assess the work productivity too.  

 

9. Be funny and laugh at yourself occasionally

Laughing is a really effective stress reliever that is sadly frequently overlooked. Sometimes all it takes to diffuse a potentially stressful situation is a little comedy. This is another crucial piece of stress-reduction advice that you must really consider.

 

10. Speak up 

As the preachers would tell you, silence seals one’s fate. These evangelists are not mistaken. In our life, there are times when we feel the urge to talk to someone. A stress-related time explosion is waiting to explode when emotions are bottled up. Talk to your close allies about the problems you are experiencing. Yes, sharing your issues with those who are close to you might occasionally be exploited, but sharing some difficulties selectively is still necessary if you want to avoid feeling stressed.

 

11. Sleep well

Despite the fact that doctors have repeatedly advised us that getting a good night’s sleep will solve the majority of our health problems, we often choose to disbelieve them. However, we won’t give up on attempting to discipline ourselves to get enough sleep. According to doctors, we only need 6 to 8 hours of sleep each day to stay healthy and avoid sleep-related illnesses.

 

12. Don’t overpromise

Accountants frequently overpromise on what they will deliver in their efforts to secure a job or attract clients. This is an extremely risky strategy since it backfires when the outlandish promises are not met. Overpromising and underdelivering are preferable to the opposite. Setting realistic goals can help you avoid feeling overwhelmed and stressed. Break down your tasks into smaller, achievable goals, and celebrate your progress along the way.

 

13. Seek work-life balance 

Every accountant should make an effort to embrace the current trend in the workforce, which is to seek work-life balance. Workers are now calling for a more flexible work-life balance, which is wonderful because if other employers follow suit, it will significantly aid our effort to lessen stress for accountants. Taking breaks throughout the day can help you recharge and reduce stress. Step away from your desk, take a walk outside, or engage in a hobby or activity that you enjoy.

 

14. Do Not Avoid Delegating 

To accomplish more you need to do less. This is the art of delegating. It’s a lot more common for stressed accountants to keep doing more than they should. Maybe you are really good at managing taxes, but it does not mean you need to be an all-doer. If you are a manager at the workplace then you can handle the workload by equally distributing it among the assistants, vendors, contractors, team members, and so on. Focusing on mundane tasks is easy but when delegating, help accountants in your team to gain the right experience. The feeling of empowerment is known to reduce stress levels as well. Effective delegation also is related to creating early strategies for tax preparation and other services. Provide detailed instructions on how things need to be done. It is also a contributing factor in lessening stress.

 

15.  Focused Schedule

Last but not least we have successfully identified one of the key factors to increasing work performance. 

According to the study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology,

“Tasks shifts cost you almost a 40% increase in your productive time.”

 

Any interruption can make it impossible for the accountant to focus on their dedicated task. Hence the importance of scheduling is crucial. For a high level of thinking, specify an hour or two every day. It can be the first half of the second half of the day. 

Close the office door, fire up your laptop, and put the phone in airplane mode. To reduce work stress, accountants need uninterrupted time to schedule their work, organize tasks and update their to-do-list. 

Also, encourage your team members to practice this. If you want to handle the tax season with efficiency you have to reconcile an effective methodology that works for you.

 

Take Away

No matter how much-dedicated an accountant you are – the job can become tiring. Accounting firms are responsible to ensure their employees are working in a healthy environment. My Count Solutions takes care of the staff guaranteeing that stress is the bare minimum. 

Alongside client satisfaction, the accountants and bookkeepers are equally taken care of so that they can work efficiently and to their full potential during the hours of audits, etc. 

To hire remote accountants and bookkeepers, you can contact customer representatives to talk in detail.