How to stop letting accounting stress ruin my life?
Accounting burnout comes from intense work pressure that physically ages professionals and forces them to question the meaning of tedious tasks like audit. This chronic anxiety drains personal well-being and makes it impossible to separate self-worth from a job that feels entirely meaningless.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1quitting abruptly without a job lined up
- 2Treating the job strictly as a source of income rather than letting it become a personal identity.
- 3Switching to finance
- 4Coping with humor and sarcasm about physical aging
- 5Checking out mentally and caring less about the work
- 6Pushing back on management by asking what goes on hold before taking on new tasks
- 7Escalating priority issues to the project board, sponsor, or executive level
- 8Doing the bare minimum to avoid getting fired and emotionally detaching from the work
- 9Setting strict boundaries to stop work at the end of the day and keep it out of personal life
- 10Quitting the role or transitioning into consulting or a different technical lane
- 11working late nights and weekends
- 12taking vitamins and adding meditation
- 13quitting or terminating contracts early
- 14adopting a 'zen' attitude or 'quiet quitting'
- 15saying 'no' and holding stakeholders accountable
- 16Capturing tasks and reminders in writing and planning the next day before leaving
- 17Building systems and using software or spreadsheets to reduce risk and claw back time
- 18Outlining boundaries like enforcing no work after dinner and scheduling downtime
- 19Outsourcing non-value-add administrative tasks
- 20applying to other companies for a better salary and role
- 21venting frustrations or giving up on communicating feedback
- 22starting an independent small practice
- 23Switching back to a previous career path or industry
- 24Enduring the work environment while feeling emotionally and mentally drained
- 25Treating the job strictly as a paycheck while finding meaning and purpose outside of work through hobbies and social connections
- 26Scaling back effort and mental investment at work, such as limiting work hours and taking regular breaks for walks
- 27Prioritizing self-care, exercise, therapy, and building up a financial cushion or savings account
- 28Intensively networking and applying for alternative roles despite a competitive job market
- 29Reframing the work to focus on making an impact on one person's life at a time
- 30Switching to a corporate job or pivoting from direct service to advocacy
- 31Limiting work time to 40-45 hours a week
- 32Seeking help from a therapist
- 33Attending seminars on compassion fatigue
- 34Taking time off and focusing on retirement savings and personal boundaries
- 35Switching to a new program if failing twice
- 36Trying to get good sleep ahead of time
- 37Planning time and moving on when encountering unexpected questions
- 38Doing light review and trying to relax
- 39Going out for a drink or dinner with friends
- 40Deleting social media/Reddit until results
- 41Talking to coworkers to hear about their past mistakes
- 42Owning the mistake directly and bringing a plan to fix it
- 43Writing a procedure document to prevent future occurrences
- 44going for a walk around the neighborhood
- 45doing silent reading time
- 46using lighthearted and playful activities to disarm anxiety
- 47Targeting industry or corporate accounting roles straight out of school instead of public accounting
- 48Working in public accounting temporarily for a few years to build experience and open doors before transitioning to industry
- 49Leveraging public accounting internships strictly to test career fit without committing long-term
- 50taking a long break or nap
- 51wearing a hand brace and using herbal patches
- 52venting on online forums
- 53trying to start out with good positive energy
- 54Reframing the exam as a test of handling ambiguous scenarios rather than something to predict
- 55Reminding oneself that it is only an exam and can be retaken if failed
- 56Taking liquid magnesium or other supplements
- 57Listening to binaural beats with good headphones
- 58Meditating for 30 minutes regularly
- 59Consulting a primary care physician or psychiatrist for anxiety and depressive disorders
- 60Working countless hours per day
- 61Setting aside a portion of income into a tax pot and building investment capital for security
- 62Im actively applying to other jobs
- 63all I can do now is work on an exit strategy
- 64have you tried just not picking up calls/emails after 5pm?
- 65Taking time off
- 66Finding a different job in the same field
- 67Leaving the career field entirely
- 68Accepting that preparation is complete and letting go of control
- 69Relying on the reassurance that there is always next year if they fail
- 70keeping a box of tea and chocolate in the classroom for colleagues to take silently
- 71watering plants and talking to them to vent stress
- 72Venting online or to colleagues about the lack of empathy and societal stigma.
- 73Warning family members and children away from entering the teaching profession.
- 74taking daily naps and sleeping extra hours on weekends
- 75consulting a doctor and getting annual blood tests
- 76taking iron supplements and hormone control pills
- 77considering switching to a new career
- 78supplementing pre-made curriculum materials here and there
- 79doing whatever you want and have the mental capacity for
- 80trying to compartmentalize
- 81doing the bare minimum at work
- 82looking out for yourself and setting boundaries to avoid letting work consume your life
- 83engaging in hobbies and physical or mental outlets
- 84attending therapy and practicing meditation
- 85taking anxiety medication
- 86setting up strict morning routines and taking walks
- 87consciously trying to stop thinking about school and reminding oneself that it is just a job
- 88Planning extensively until midnight to prepare for classroom management
- 89Accepting that you will never be fully ready for teaching and trying things out to find a flow
- 90pushing through the stress without resting
- 91calling off work to care for oneself
- 92Taking a half day and logging off early
- 93Deleting work communication apps like Outlook and Teams from personal phones
- 94Choosing to care less about late client deliverables
- 95Switching to doing books for small businesses independently
- 96Moving to another role or firm
- 97Accepting the conditions for the resume line
- 98leaving public accounting for industry roles
- 99seeking professional help from a health provider
- 100disclosing the condition to employers for accommodations
- 101using a doctor's note to work from home or take days off
- 102Quitting the job
- 103Feeling apathetic
- 104Going to therapy
- 105Looking around for alternative jobs despite a bad job market
- 106Setting firm boundaries and refusing to answer calls or work outside of scheduled hours
- 107Slacking off at work to match the pace of colleagues
- 108Phoning it in while looking for a new job
- 109Starting your own business
- 110Asking management which project to put on the back burner when given extra work
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Man has shaved off 5 years of his life achieving that”source ↗
“I hate my job. I’m an HR Generalist and I hate it. No amount of money is worth being severely stressed out every single fucking day.”source ↗
“The only day I’m able to enjoy is Saturdays as Sundays bring so much anxiety for the week to come I can’t enjoy anything else.”source ↗
“I cry at least once a week.”source ↗
“I’m severely depressed due to this job. Burnt out is beyond an understatement, there’s not a word created yet to describe the despair I feel Sunday-Friday.”source ↗
“NO - the issues are companies that abuse the project manager role and add the role of product owner, Scrum Master, Projectmanager and IT-Expert all together. All of the sudden you are not managing 1 or 2 projects, no you are managing 5 projects, 3 initiatiaves, 6 stupid BAU problems, complaints from Cyber (WTF do i know about header configurations?), 5 reports and 2 audit findings, while fighting legal, data protection, bureaucracy and management.”source ↗
“Sometimes it feels like im firefighter, fighting a forest fire with my littel bucket of water and the moment i put 2 flames out, 8 new ones show up. Right now i just want to let everything burn”source ↗
“As a first year teacher I am floundering pretty badly. I have nonexistent classroom management, I am definitely confusing my students a little, and I basically have had no plan this whole time.”source ↗
“The stress has been eating me alive for the past month with me vomiting multiple times a week in the morning before work and dissociating after work.”source ↗
“I was at a conference last week in a breakout session about HR issues and the discussion turned to burnout.”source ↗
“During the discussion I opined that the thing that is withering is that it never ends.”source ↗
“I could build 10,000 homes and there's still be the unhoused.”source ↗
“I could launch 10 more social enterprises and there's still be lines of unemployed and destitute.”source ↗
“And payroll is there every two weeks staring you in the face and then it's the budget and then and then and then.... and near the end of my little soliloquy I had to abruptly stop because I realized I was about to break down and cry in this room full of strangers lol.”source ↗
“Yeah, I know I'm pretty toasty right now but I'm assuming someone out there has a story of where it finally got better.”source ↗
“no one really talks about how exhausting this job gets until you’re living it.”source ↗
“Every hair follicle”source ↗
“Is there anything worse that being told that it's fine for your job to be tough because "YOU BECAME A TEACHER SO YOU ASKED FOR THIS!!!!"?”source ↗
“Going "you asked for it" in response to someone being stressed in a low paying job is the single worst thing I hear from everyone.”source ↗
“Fellow teachers, admin, instructional coaches, it boils down to "You deserve to suffer because you chose to teach."”source ↗
“Had an interview for a public accounting internship today and I think it confirmed public just isn't for me lol.”source ↗
“The whole place just felt off to me too. Interviewer had zero sense of humor, everyone seemed super serious, and I just couldn't see myself fitting in there.”source ↗
“I feel you completely, OP. I wish I could say it gets better, but often times, I think I’m Sisyphus carrying this rock that I didn’t even ask for in the first place, lol.”source ↗
“I made a payroll mistake and I have major anxiety over it.”source ↗
“I’m sick to my stomach. I beat myself up very hard when I make mistakes and dwell on them for a long time.”source ↗
“I’m really nervous to talk to my boss.”source ↗
“Just a reminder to everyone. Stop caring, the client dropped it off late anyways.”source ↗
“Have some lunch beers and take a half day. Delete outlook and teams from your phone.”source ↗
“I no longer have any personal time, can’t sleep due to the stress of juggling 3 people’s workloads. I tried to take a week vacation but it was filled with emergency calls and two weeks of cleaning up others messes directly after.”source ↗
“I’m the most requested tech for any projects but also can barely make it day to day.”source ↗
“The more I realize how meaningless audit is, the less of a shit I give.”source ↗
“never in my years of teaching, I have never seen the amount of burnout/trauma/meltdowns I've seen from other teachers.”source ↗
“we're expected to care for everyone's else's feelings, but we never have time to work on our own feelings.”source ↗
“My main concern is that this job is slowly making me sick. I have started to have really concerning mental health symptoms, specifically severe anxiety, due to this job. I've also had some really dark thoughts which has scared me a lot.”source ↗
“I'm trying my best to find another role, but the market is really competitive right now where I live (Sweden).”source ↗
“Been there very recently. The very difficult tech job market makes this even more stressful now.”source ↗
“I burnt out on nonprofit fundraising work after I was laid off due to federal funding cuts.”source ↗
“The pressure during COVID was intense, and I wasn’t up for round 2.”source ↗
“Things have changed so much that even getting through a single day feels like a struggle now. The targets we’re asked to meet feel impossible, and with little support or guidance from management, the pressure has just become too much. It feels like I’m dragging myself to work every day, and my mental state has gone far beyond burnout at this point.”source ↗
“It’s funny but accounting brings me so much stress and anxiety that I don’t know how anyone would get something like this tattooed on them. It’s a source of income, not my identity.”source ↗
“For me it’s not just an emotional reaction, it’s a bodily reaction. Like when you have a near car crash and your whole body is elevated and on edge, can’t think about much else.”source ↗
“It’s like this from the start until the end of the day.”source ↗
“I want to be angry but looking at John is like looking in a mirror.”source ↗
“I had 18 active projects (yes, proper projects) of various sizes, complexity and costs and I would spend my whole day running from meeting to meeting and I would literally start my project administration work typically at 5:00-5:30 pm and I was usually working a 12-15 hour day.”source ↗
“I watch the daily struggles of our PM and the guy is fucking drowning all the time, he’s just expected to handle everything, everyone dumps on him, he gets blamed for everything, expected to read minds and be everywhere all at once.”source ↗
“I honestly could have written this myself. Today I logged off early and said f#$k it. There is no more faith that my organization will provide tools or guidance for my position.”source ↗
“I'm barreling towards burnout and have openly expressed it to my manager, fairly certain it went on def ears as the work load is to great. Not sure what I'm going to do, but a job I still love may make me quit.”source ↗
“I recently quit as well without anything lined up for many of the same reasons but on the sales side.”source ↗
“i have always known that being a PM is usually about having all the accountability with almost no authority. But these last 6 months have been hell.”source ↗
“7 years after graduating, I'm on my 6th job.”source ↗
“I'm sick from sheer stress. I never took breaks between gigs. My last vacation was 2016.”source ↗
“I also developed a RMI strain on my hand. I can't even JOURNAL right now 🥴”source ↗
“Suffered burnout at the end of 2023. Won an award that year. The thought of going back makes my stomach tight. The body doesn’t lie.”source ↗
“currently losing my mind over a major project that has poorly defined scope, extremely unrealistic expectations, and is nearing impossible to plan/execute”source ↗
“My panic attacks peaked when I answered every Slack pings at 2 AM.”source ↗
“I hope youre serious because I'm 33 and about 40% grey now!”source ↗
“I bitch and moan constantly: 1) I am way past the point of burn out and am sick of cleaning up after others. 2) I am complaining because we can be better.”source ↗
“sometimes I feel like they are trying to make the environment uncomfortable enough for people to leave on their own as it's cheaper than firing them.”source ↗
“I just feel like I hit a wall and like a pretty big one.”source ↗
“I sleep less than 5 hours a night, I usually only eat one meal a day, and I don't take more than like 300 steps a day.”source ↗
“On top of all of that I feel like I'm self isolating and it's gotten to the point where people are calling to check in on me and I don't message or call them back because it feels like a hassle.”source ↗
“I was one of those techs. I was fixing other people's fuckups. I was reporting the fuckups to my manager. Nothing happened. I wasn't getting praised for it. I wasn't getting raises. So I applied elsewhere and dropped a bomb on them that I was leaving for a $30k raise”source ↗
“I've been grinding toward a promotion at my job for the past year.”source ↗
“I've never cried at work so much - out of stress and just exhaustion.”source ↗
“I didn't even really get denied a promotion, I denied even getting a shot at a promotion.”source ↗
“I deeply, deeply regret pouring so much of myself into my job at a time when I could have been focused on planning my wedding”source ↗
“I just resigned for all related Salesforce ecosytem (support, functional admin, QA) last June and have no work as of today.”source ↗
“I get so frustrated that miserliness and capitalism hold us back from making the world a better place.”source ↗
“I feel this. I took a PM role 10 months ago and I absolutely hate it. Work life balance has gone out the window (something I need to change) and I hate the thought of going to work every day.”source ↗
“When bedtime approaches, as many of you know, our brain start cycling all of the things that are still unsolved and all of the problems/stressors of the day/lives. She starts thinking of the next day and already knows that she will be an anxious waking up.”source ↗
“Been there with the 3am panic spirals wondering wtf I'm doing with my life”source ↗
“Teachers often warn their own children away from the profession because they know what their children would be facing.”source ↗
“I loved my job at the big MSP, however, after I realized there was no end to the madness, I found myself burnt out. The leadership just kept adding work and no solid resources. I ended up leaving out of frustration of the lack of leadership”source ↗
“Bruh I feel you. I’m feeling so burnt out after this week. Like I just don’t want to do this shit any more.”source ↗
“New high school teacher, can't sleep from anxiety”source ↗
“Now, this year, I am scared to death that anything I do will give students the okay to run amok and make my job hell.”source ↗
“Either way, I plan and plan my classes until midnight and then don't fall asleep until maybe 3 AM.”source ↗
“Any other teachers insanely fatigued? I feel like I can’t get enough sleep. I nap daily and sleep 8 hours a night, but by Friday I still crash early and sleep most of the day Saturday.”source ↗
“30 concurrent projects, how can I get anything done.”source ↗
“My mind is constantly playing with me, making myself work countless hours per day, as I just know I may not get this opportunity again, and as a result of not resting, everything I do is just a big mess.”source ↗
“What I can’t stop is that it will constantly be in my head that I’m being left behind.”source ↗
“How do other business owners cope with the risk that your business may not make profit or could end any day?”source ↗
“I'm a little anxious, because I'm modifying them a little, adding to them, putting in some of my own physical papers and work for them to do, but I don't have premade powerpoints or the like because Amplify has all the stuff they want me to use.”source ↗
“I don't want to overwork myself and burn out (burn out more, the 12 hours, six days a week work I've been doing for 5 years before becoming a teacher are still heavy on me now), but I also don't want admin or others to think I'm shirking and not trying.”source ↗
“I literally have the whole year laid out for me, but that's making me more anxious, somehow?”source ↗
“since I’ve started teaching, I’ve been what feels like overly anxious (after school, before school, during the weekends but luckily not during school hours).”source ↗
“I’ve tried engaging in some hobbies and it works for a while but then I start to think about school stuff and I just get stressed again.”source ↗
“Exhausted. Completely exhausted.”source ↗
“I’m just a mere data point, but I was able to get off my anti-anxiety medication when I left public if that tells you anything”source ↗
“I’m exhausted at this point. The anxiety is consuming me slowly and I just want it all over with. My goal is to get out there and give it my best that’s all”source ↗
“Working conditions for workers have been declining for like half a century, I don't see how that will improve and I'm sure as hell not betting against that trend”source ↗
“my stomach is in shambles every morning before work and my appetite is non existent.”source ↗
“I didn't expect coming back to district work to take this big a toll on my mental health.”source ↗
“Am I just going through it now, or is this a real thing?”source ↗
“I was an admin for a decade before my break... yes, I know I need to get to therapy but damn I was unprepared.”source ↗
“Worried I won’t get depth when i write it, still got a lot of rc, even an NC on the most recent case feeevack, hope I can get this”source ↗
“i feel like im more exhausted from being stressed than the actual studying part. the uncertainty of what will be on the exam is what’s driving me insane tbh.”source ↗
“Is anyone else freaking out about the CFE?”source ↗
“I can’t seem to calm my nerves and I am very scared about level 2 depth”source ↗
“I suffer from really bad anxiety. I overthink everything. I heard that public accounting really screws with your mental health which if why I’m concerned.”source ↗
“I think pivoting might be necessary because I come home so overstimulated and decision-fatigued, some days I feel like my family is just second shift.”source ↗
“35 kids and 17 IEPs in a kindergarten classroom with kids who have the attention spans of a donut is really taxing me.”source ↗
“ended up having a mental breakdown from working nonstop.”source ↗
“not feeling ready at all. i don’t know if i should defer it at this point.”source ↗
“Very SCARED!”source ↗
“Day 2 really worries me on getting depth”source ↗
“I’ve been in public for 3 years. In both Audit and Consulting. And somehow, i’m not able to break into industry”source ↗
“in the same boat...”source ↗
“I’ve been freaking out all week”source ↗
“I'm graduating this semester, and trying to find something that checks any of my boxes is damn right miserable right now, so I can't entirely blame them”source ↗
“one of my ex colleagues was one of the best in my cohort but had to quit a year in because they didn’t know how to say no and was way too anxious about what mgrs would say if they logged off.”source ↗
“My health has taken a nosedive since I started as a teacher. To the point where I’m not sure if this job is worth it.”source ↗
“Since starting I have been diagnosed with GERD and EoE. I’m not sleeping well, I feel like shit basically all the time.”source ↗
“I can’t quit yet. I depend on this job to pay my bills. So I am looking for advice for how to deal with health breakdown caused by stress.”source ↗
“the emotional labor part never stops, even when the actual teaching does. some of my coworkers leave campus looking like they just got back from war”source ↗
“I’m sick of having no energy to the point of looking for a new career after 15 years teaching.”source ↗
“Yeah, I'm super lucky I have the support I do, I'm just having the anxiety attacks and panic.”source ↗
“My anxiety was causing that and it’s why I quit.”source ↗
“Literally me rn except I’m in government. I’m too burnt out for life atp.”source ↗
“Public does open doors, but long term the money is not worth watching your kids grow up through an office window”source ↗
Where this came up
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