In Other News Water is Wet

As you might imagine, after either covering or consulting with the accounting profession for some 20 years, I’ve seen and read my share of industry-related surveys. I’ve seen polls on salaries and employment, technology, fraud, taxes and succession to name just a few.

And more often than not, I have taken something away for future use – usually when I’m teaching a live CPE session.

But I’ll have to admit in two decades of doing this I’ve never quite encountered a finding with such an absurdly obvious conclusion as I did last week.

One accounting publication featured an article co-written by a student and a professor at a Northeastern college which concluded that auditor productivity and quality declines when said employees are sick with the flu.

Let me repeat that – productivity declines with the onset of influenza.

What’s next, water is found to be wet?

Now, let me be clear – the flu is nothing to make light of.

The condition impacts nearly 60 million people a year and results in billions in lost wages and medical costs. The CDC estimates that the in 2019 the flu will cause employees across the country to miss an aggregate 17 million workdays. Two close friends of mine revealed it took them nearly two weeks to fully recover after they contracted the flu earlier this year.

Closer to home, I lost two great aunts to it during the tragic influenza pandemic of 1918.

When the Swine Flu panic of the mid-1970s hit, I got my one and only flu shot. I became so sick afterwards that I never went near a clinic again that offered free vaccinations.

But back to the topic de jour.

The report also stated that it took longer to file a report if afflicted with the flu.

Here’s a news flash- the walk from the bedroom to the bathroom feels like an eternity when your temperature is hovering at 102 degrees and your body aches like it’s just been blindsided by an NFL linebacker, let alone having to deal with the complexity of an audit.

Now to be fair to the authors, I can certainly understand the protracted timelines and increased costs to complete an audit if a CPA firm is working with a depleted workforce due to the illness.

But next time, give me information I can use in my CPE sessions that will make me look informed.

I’m not all that good at making shadow puppets.