April 2008 - Posts
Before I continue - there's been enough misreporting on various other sites that I have to make this very clear:
Chartered Accountants in Canada do NOT get paid overtime at CA firms and are NOT going to be paid overtime.
More on that in a moment, but basically CAs are exempt under most labour laws - and that's the way the system works.
With that in mind, don't forget that not everyone at CA firms is a CA, or even a CA student.
Much has been written about KPMG not having paid overtime to people who, it turns out, were supposed to receive it after all.
KPMG's story was especially bad because, from what I've read, they had people who you might commonly refer to as a "technician" or "administrative support staff" doing work that is normally done by "client serving" staff, as reported by the Star and other media outlets.
As reported in the Globe, KPMG will pay out the overtime it figures it owes in an attempt to avoid getting hit with punitive damages in a class
action lawsuit which the lawyers still seem intent on fighting. This is because, anyone who took a course in business law will tell you, courts are generally gentler on you if you did something wrong if you try and make amends before the court forces you to do it.
Despite this move, though, the lawyers seem intent on fighting the case - it looks like KPMG's case isn't settled. But this is old news - we'll get back to KPMG's legal situation in a moment. What's new?
Well since the KPMG case surface, the other firms in the Big 4 thought
to themselves, "uh oh, have we misunderstood who's doing what, and
who's exempt? Is there a potential problem we need to fix?"
The court cases implied that they should rethink their definition of who is and is not exempt from overtime.
As a result, in the past two months two big announcements have slid into major Canadian newspapers from another two big firms.
Ernst & Young to pay overtime to non-accountants
As reported by Accman in late March, Ernst & Young reviewed who it was paying and realized the smart course of action was to voluntarily step up and pay people who weren't getting overtime.
E&Y's situation looks less extreme than that at KPMG, because its "support" staff were already eligible for either overtime or extra time off. But it realized that the IT groups had people who weren't considered accounting "profesionals" under provincial law - just smart and clever people not doing accounting designations.
So who does gets paid overtime?
Basically, staff or seniors who are not CA students, as well as those studying for the CGA or CMA. Members of the CA/CGA/CMA group are all automatically excluded from getting overtime by provincial law for reasons we'll get to in a moment.
How do I file an E&Y overtime claim?
Go to this site and fill in the appropriate form - sadly, Firefox is not supported, so either use your IE tab plug-in, or just load this link in Internet Explorer. Note - the deadline is May 15, 2008.
The site makes it clear that the money will be paid out to both current and former staff, so hurry up and hit the link even if you've left the firm.
PricewaterhouseCoopers to follow E&Y's lead - will also pay overtime
As mentioned by the Calgary Herald, PWC has come to the same conclusion. Take a growing IT group - everything runs on computers these days - which doesn't necessarily need CA students to get the job done - brilliant people who are comfortable computers can pick up business terminology quickly too - and you find yourself with a group of people who slipped under the HR radar.
Oops, they may not be exempt, but they've been treated the same way as everyone else.
How do I file a PWC overtime claim?
Go to this site and fill in the appropriate form. Note - the deadline is June 16, 2008.
Do I have to calculate how many hours they owe me for?
Fortunately, no. Since these are, after all, accounting firms, they have detailed records on file - basically, all your timesheets.
If you diligently reported all your time - spent on both client and non-client work - the system should automatically calculate how much you're owed.
Is there a catch?
Well if you were "eating" time - not recording work you did, you shot yourself in the foot. I don't know if you have a way of proving you worked more hours than your timesheets showed, but you better start looking through your files to see if there's anything which proves how hard you've been working if you didn't record it at the time. Can you even remember how many hours you did or didn't report?
Hopefully most people don't have this problem - in which case, the only catch is that the firm wants to be safe. That means they'll ask you to sign a release form when they send you the money, where you agree that "it's all good". That'll be the point in time when you'd better check the math to make sure it adds up.
Keep in mind, if you're in Ontario, that you only get overtime for hours over 44 per week. Thanks Mike Harris, we all hate you for that one. The rest of Canada, if I've been told correctly, gets overtime after 40 hours.
And of course, the same rules I described in the previous section apply across the country - if you're a CA - like me - or a CA student - like me one week ago - you are not paid any overtime in pretty much any Canadian province.
You'll find that both the PWC and E&Y sites include detailed descriptions of who is
and isn't eligible.
In
addition to accounting students, another important class of people is
also exempt: if you're a manager, you're no longer eligible
because managers "manage", and are by definition also exempt from
getting overtime pay - you're a Big Boy or Girl now, so goes the
government's thinking, so you
decide your own hours.
Read the Ontario Employment Standards Fact Sheet to see the proof - but you're probably asking - why is this the case?
You're a professional
Professionals, as defined by the Province of Ontario and other jurisdictions for that matter, work by thinking. The independence in inherent in generating value by using your brain instead of your other muscles means that you'll find yourself thinking about work even when you're at home
Is this difference a tad artificial considering the fact that you may be working side by side with people who are essentially doing the same thing? Why yes - that's the funny thing about the law, though.
Sometimes it creates arbitrary distinctions not due to logic, but because of what may best be described by economic history.
In a poignant comment Professor Godard at the University of Manitoba says:
“The accounting profession to me has always been close to the feudal
craft model. The senior partners are the master craftsmen, the
journeymen are the accountants who aren’t partners yet and the
apprentices are the accounting students. You work long hours under
fairly crummy conditions. You can’t find too many occupations where
that model still holds,” he says.
At least the lawyers involved didn't use that line, though, because that would make me start smirking. Lawyers, after all, are the other major occupation where that model does still hold, and in a much nastier way, if you've read the writings of Melissa and other young lawyers you'll instantly understand why it's better to be a CA student instead.
My interpretation of the situation is that as labour laws were developed, each group of employers did what they could to enshrine rights for themselves, or to keep employees from getting too many rights themselves. Employees of course fought for their own rights.
In the situation of CA students, you have a group of people who suffer for about 30 months, then pass their exams and apprenticeship and are then, as one of my friends put it, "FREE!"
Contrast this with the TTC bus drivers who just got forced back to work. They will always be doing the same thing for the rest of their lives, for roughly the same pay too. This gives them plenty of time to decide that they should form labour unions, band together, demand higher wages, and then collapse in a bout of nasty in-fightining - maybe.
If you know your tough times will be relatively short and you just want to get through them, you'll devote little energy to fighting the political system to change things - after all, you can always pick a different occupation and the rewards for enduring the apprenticeship phase are generally regarded as worth the cost.
CAs find themselves earning anywhere from $80k to well over $200k in 5 to 10 years, depending on the workload they decide to take on and where they live. Working for roughly half that amount for a short period of time isn't fun, but then, firms are spending tens of thousands of dollars on training too, and the professionals in this field have decided that the 30 month apprenticeship period itself teaches you so much that it's worth suffering a little overtime to learn a lot.
After all, you're not digging ditches - usually - or subject to random explosions, most of the time.
What about KPMG's lawsuit? Why are the lawyers still upset?
Lawyers often earn a percentage of the winnings from a court case. So if they could win punitive damages from KPMG, they win would be more successful. And everyone likes to score a big "win", so if you're the lawyer who forced someone to pay their client $40 million instead of $10 million you'll obviously be proud of their accomplishment - and depending on the local rules - may also enjoy a larger payout from the victory as well.
What now?
Speaking with colleagues at all the firms, there a few general reactions I've seen - a mix of positive and negative for sure:
- Well that sucks, because I'm a CA so I get nothing, and will continue to get nothing extra
- I'm from Quebec and I'm not a CA - my province's rules mean that I'm not getting anything anyway. Oh nuts.
- I'm happy for my non-CA friends - good for them!
- Well the firms are just doing what they're supposed to do, no big deal - they should've known about it already and done this sooner.
- The firms are doing what they're supposed to do, but they're
doing it well - addressing the problem as soon as they learned about
instead of wondering if it would go away.
The interesting question now, of course, is to determine how long
before Deloitte joins the other three - since they have a large consulting practice this could be a very expensive proposition for them. Lots of free vacation current employees perhaps?
Krupo sees a waterfall and tries to resist making an allusion to a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
Failed.
If you have questions, feel free to leave me a comment or e-mail me - there's links to do both on this page (hit "join" in the top right corner or here to start leaving comments - we don't do anything with your e-mail here other than contact set you up with it so we avoid getting blog-spammed), but for the best response, contact your current or former employer for their official response - and to establish a paper trail of your conversation, since I'm not a lawyer and what you have here is only general information to point you in the direction of the official statements.
Good luck.
Less than three years after starting work, I've received official notification - I'm a CA.
I found out from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Ontario - the ICAO - who are responsible for admitting Ontario CA students into membership as a Chartered Accountant.
Thank you to everyone who has supported me along the way, jumping through the hoops known as the UFE exam process and in getting the hours needed at my day job to get to this point.
It's nothing but good news today - the TTC strike is over too.
Oddly enough the news was sent out on Friday but I didn't check my e-mail until now.
Incidentally, I bought myself a new camera that day, not knowing the news.
You could argue I inadvertently treated myself to a "yay, now you've got your CA" present.
Sweet.
Ironically all three photos I'm uploading here were taken with my old camera during my last vacation rather than with the new one. The last two posts, though, were products of the new camera. If I hadn't traded the old one in I would've done some comparison shots, but you can trust me when I say the new one's insanely better.
You can't spell Jack in the Box without "CA".
Way back in university I developed an intense dislike for psycho activists.
You know the kind.
You say something innocuous. Say, for example, that they should buy the green bike instead the blue one, and they start screaming "HATE
CRIME!!!!!!" in your face.
Above: Alternate Strike Vehicle #1
The news from Steve Munro's blog is worth reading, especially the comment by an operator - click here - who explains that it looks like another conspiracy by the psycho activists.
As a T.T.C. Operator, let me give you my take on this situation.
I was shocked when I found out from Bob’s phone call that the
members voted against the contract. 3/3/3 increases, upgrades to
benefits, and most importantly, no concessions.
However, this wasn’t good enough for the maintenance department. They want guaranteed lifetime jobs.
The commission is buying new vehicles and like all new vehicles they
have warranties. The maintenance people don’t like this as they think
they will be laid off because the company manufacturing these vehicles
will be doing the repairs that are covered under the warranty.
I do not support the maintenance department at all. Everyone knows
the maintenance department is a joke. They are always complaining about
how hard and tough their working conditions are. Yet they might work
2-3 hours out of an 8 hour shift.
I'd normally be skeptical of such claims, except that it does jive with my past experiences with said psycho activists. The operator continues to explain how s/he believes this unfolded:
Yet about 50% of operators in transportation voted no to this offer
for it to be 65% No. I don’t believe this high figure is to support the
maintenance department. There was wording in the contract about
maintenence being about to transfer to transportation. Many operators
believed this to mean they (maintenance employees) would also take
their seniority with them.
Bob Kinnear sent out messages letting membership know this was
completely false (about carrying your seniority). Someone on the
executive started this false rumour to get operators pissed enough to
vote with the maintenance department for a No vote. I think Kinnear’s
message didn’t reach enough members before they voted.
I can’t see 50% of operators turning down this contract. This was
the second contract Kinnear worked on that was all gains and not one
concession (first being in 2005).
So operators knew they were getting a sweet deal, but a union executive (read: "psycho activist) felt that wasn't good enough.
I'm not well versed in union contract terminology, but I understand this to mean that the maintenance guys could switch to the transit department and bump transirt operators? Or something like that, anyway.
I think someone in the Executive is out for Kinnear and trying to
make him look bad. I honestly think Bob cares about transit very much
and doesn’t take any pleasure calling a strike.
I believe most operators don’t want to strike as we don’t want anymore abuse thrown our way than we already receive.
I don’t believe in striking but yet fully support Bob Kinnear. Don’t
look for Bob to get shown the door or kicked out. Not a chance that
will happen. Someone will pay and and it won’t be Bob.
If the union scuttlebut is true, then this is explosive news which you should keep in mind as you grit your teeth with rage towards TTC operators.
Above: Alternate Strike Vehicle, for families
Having quoted all that, the question remains - why strike so quickly - with 1/24th the promised notice being given - 2 hours instead of 48? Kinnear parroted a lame explanation about safety - but drivers I spoke with believe Kinnear got out-manuevered by other union executives, supporting the assertions made on Munro's site in the above comment.
What I see is the inflexible thinking of the extreme unionist mindset at play: yes, service ends at 2 a.m. on a normal day, but by ending neatly at midnight, you can start the strike at a given day, "on the dot at midnight", rather than 2 hours later, when people expect it to.
There are of course two major problems with this theory:
- lots of vehicles started to go out of service at 11:30 p.m., documented in the video linked to below,
- it smells suspiciously like a way to harm people relying on the service for a ride home.
Don't fool yourself - another kind of unionist mindset was also at work: the strike has to harm the people of the city to achieve it's goal.
Are you angry?
The TTC union believes it has succeeded. And in its own twisted way, it has one it's little battle - showing it has some kind of warped sense of power.
In the long run, the TTC union has shot itself in the foot, knee, groin, and elbow.
Simultaneously.
With the strike on, anger predictably exploded. Check out the shattered window at Spadina station.
If you're still hankering for more footage to boil you blood - after all, this Globe and Mail's article angry forum is already closed - you can check out this footage of the early hours of the strike featuring, among other things, a quick interview with some Etobicoke boys stranded at Yonge and Eglinton, which was illustrative of last night's chaos.
I haven't seen many more developments since last night's news - just the cover story on the Star confirming that the Ontario government may actually do something for once, and run to work on Sunday to restore order.
One of the two worst case scenarios has already been engaged: the public is angry, and the hotheads among us are definitely going to give the workers a hard time for the indefinite future.
The second worst case scenario is a punitive reaction from the government. Newspapers report hard economic times ahead.
Companies don't give generous raises in such situations, they cut back of lay off people. We need to strengthen the TTC, of course, so layoffs are the last thing anyone expects. But is it possible to imagine an arbitrator saying, "actually, 3% is too generous - the government can't afford more than 1 or 2%".
If I was an arbitrator, and had access to the current economic picture, I think this would be a very likely scenario - or even a wage freeze for that matter.
This is going to get worse before it gets better.
At least you don't have to hold tight - no crazy bus driver is going to whip you around a corner at high speeds for at least the next day or two.
It's been a good three weeks. Returned to British Columbia, saw an old friend in Seattle, meet new friends in Portland, then spent time in California, Las Vegas, New Mexico and Colorado before heading home.
And now that it's time to work, I found myself at the streetcar yard, with someone who I surmise was Ashley Hutcheson, taking photos at the TTC streetcar yard.
She was doing it for the Globe & Mail, while I was doing it for ACS.
In the culture of the TTC, removing your uniform shirt while operating a vehicle is considered beyond gauche. This operator was roundly mocked for his faux pas by the small crowd of operators milling about the Roncesvalles streetcar yard.
If
I had trouble paying the bills with my day job I'd give freelance
photographer a serious shot. I'm not yet an artist or a photojournalist
- yet, but I seem to have a knack for showing up at the right time in
the right place with my camera in situations where "something" is
happening.
But since the Big Media types also have their own people showing up to cover these stories - or they don't care about the random streetfights I seem to stumble across unusually frequently - you get to enjoy some footage of the early hours of the strike action. Plus I get to editorialize heavily.
Strike!
The TTC Union decided that a 3% a year hike isn't good enough.
Well, that and the risk of having jobs contracted out and other related aspects of life in the 21st century.
I extend them no sympathy for the risks of job losses - almost everyone lives with that, and if you're going to make puppy dog eyes at me I will not respond favorably.
It would be, in theory, a bit hypocritical of me to condemn their demand for higher raises though. On the one hand, I'd be extremely upset if my raise was a scant 3%. But then, I had to finish a 4-year university program, and massive internship, and various exams to demonstrate to the working world I have the skills needed to do my job.
TTC staff, though, don't have those challenges. I do respect their desire to get some decent cost of living increases, but holding the city hostage for even more is pushing it. If you don't like your job, quit. Or do as Homer Simpson does - instead of complaining or quitting, just do enough to get by as a slacker. Some will, of course, argue that the latter scenario is alive and well these days, and it probably wouldn't be too hard to find exampels of it either.
As amusing as it would be to see Toronto shut down by the TTC strike for a week or so, I can only really bank for, at most, a day or two of insanity in the city. Which is far too much for people living from paycheque-to-paycheque, though. They don't even find amusing chaos in all this, just a struggle to scrounge up enough cash to keep the rent paid and to keep from going hungry: it's too easy for pampered salaried workers to forget that some people don't get paid if they miss a day of work.
The CBC Radio 2 ad, "Keep Calm - Carry On" seems especially apt for a strike situation such as this.
Hopefully all this tough talk from the government will fix things up quickly. Either that, or pull a Reagan and replace the 9000-person workforce with all new hires.
The Americans tried their own more recent version of that in Iraq, firing the entire Iraqi Army.
And we all know how well that turned out.
At least most unionists here are unarmed, though.
Surprise strike at midnight
It's funny - check out two different articles at the Globe. One refers to passengers "chanting" outside a TTC station that just closed. The other article went through a more liberal editor who a direct quotation of the angry profanity in as well.
Amusing.
More stupid than funny were the two drunken men, above, who decided that the best way to protest the strike would be to decry the workers' lack of "dignity" (or was it "decency?"), and to then taunt the drivers into throwing eggs at them.
I should make it clear.
The two men walked up to the streetcar yard with two cartons of eggs.
TTC staff immediately thought the streetcars would be covered in yolk in moments.
Instead, the drunkards belligerently asked the TTC workers to take the eggs and to then throw them at the men. In drunken-logic-land, I think this meant that this would demonstrate how the men felt on the inside - that the withdrawal of public transit service was akin to being pelted by eggs.
Ah, alcohol.
There was not much left to document after that bizarre little episode. Almost all the streetcars had returned - many sporting "Not in Service" or "Short Turn" signs. Ironically those signs weren't in view above, but relatively few people ride the last 3 stops into High Park at night anyway.
Some drivers, to their credit, mentioned how they weren't charging fares for the last hour or so of service - knowing that their vehicles would not reach the passengers' final destinations in time.
It's small displays of kindness like that which win unions support.
Breaking the promise to give 48 hours notice before striking, however, appears to have been a huge tactical blunder on the union's part.
The public is angry - seething, really, despite whatever small mercies the drivers can come up with - and as a result a rumoured riot broke out at Kipling subway station. All the police in 22 division were called, so went the rumour, to deal with angry passengers who had swarmed the fare collector's booth demanding refunds. Since this is the end of the month, people were no doubt handing over in excess of $100 to get their May Metropass, the monthly transit pass.
My new camera - I upgraded it from an older model exactly 12 hours earlier - delivered some wonderful shots despite the fact I'm still learning its new features.
The local shop steward - important union guy - makes his statement for CityTV.
It was an amusing night, especially after making a quick circuit of the downtown areas where stranded club kids made their awkward journey home in high heels and other bizarrely uncomfortable footwear.
I'll definitely have to check out the streetcar yard during the day to see how packed it'll look.
It was certainly interesting to see huge waves of pedestrians wandering around downtown. Perhaps next time I'll photograph some of them too instead of waving around masses of pictures of parked streetcars and fast-moving automobiles.
What ironic timing, though, for the Ottawa Citizen to suddenly publish its article about riding the Toronto subway system and wha ta great thrill it is for provincial hicks from Ottawa - which happens to be Canada's capital city, I should remind you all.
Not only does the writer cheerfully confess that her simple love of something as advanced as a train moving underground throughout a city and how exotic it seems compared to the waterways of her hometown, but the newspapers editors showed some weak judgement - or unfortunate timing - by releasing an article on such a wonderful system at the very moment it was harshly yanked offline.
Last week I left town to go on vacation. I checked my voice mail to see if I missed anything important - e-mail can wait until I return! - and found that, yes, the world continues to spin without my assistance, which is good news of course.
I was, of course, intrigued to see so many messages from head hunters and recruiters though - I wasn't even looking for a new job and still am not, so to hear from so many unsolicited callers is always amusing.
So in terms of my day job, I don't have anything, really, to worry about.
In terms of posting things here, I'd love to post more photos, but I'm on an epic road trip which leaves me barely enough time to write e-mails to friends and family, let alone to post on here. Ironically, I already have a photo in my collection of the tallest totem pole in the world, in Victoria, B.C. I saw that on, last Thursday, and now I'm already in California.
I'll be in the Grand Canyon in less than 48 hours. I find it hard to believe, especially since I've been doing nothing but driving since last Friday, when I picked up a Pontiac in Seattle.
This is truly an epic road trip.
Coming back to the topic of the 'to do' list, I have at least two postings in queue for which I've received requests:
- What should you expect to do as a new hire in an accounting firm's Advisory practice.
- How you should go about blogging and living online once you work in such a place.
And I of course have my normal backlog of fun and interesting things to write about.
But that can wait until I return.
The weather here is absolutely wonderful and my photo library is, once more, going to explode with great shots taken from this road trip.
Time to get some sleep before making the run from the Pacific Coast to Vegas!
In a bid to increase diversity, a major Fortune 500 company hired a group of cannibals to work in their offices.
At the new-hire orientation session the kind HR representative explained that, "you're all members of our high-potential top-performing team. Although this office environment will be a shift to what you were accustomed to in the past, we will give you all the challenges and opportunities as the rest of our staff get. But please, remember to use the cafeteria and to not eat any of your new co-workers!"
After four weeks the managing director of the office invited the cannibals into his office for a meeting.
"Look, you're all working very hard and your group's productivity figures are higher than ever - everyone up to corporate HQ has noticed this, and we're proud of you. We noticed, however, that one of our secretaries disappeared in, mysterious circumstances. Do any of you know what may have happened?"
The cannibals looked at their feet, shook their heads, and said no, we have no idea.
The cannibals left the managing director's office and their team lead called them in for another meeting.
"Okay," started the team lead. "Which of you idiots ate the secretary?"
Uncomfortable silence.
"Well, it was me," one of them answered.
"You stupid cretin!" The team lead was furious. "For an entire MONTH you've been eating managers and no one noticed. And all was well. But nooo - now you had to also eat someone who actually does something around this office! What were you thinking?"
This is a translation of a joke originally shared in Polish regarding European Union Commissioners. Some types of humour work universally.
Here's the cool thing - here's an "original" English version of this joke, which I figure got translated into Polish, and which I just translated back into English. I found it by running a google search on the "for an entire month you've been eating managers and no one noticed" line.
Here's a better question - do you pay your interns a decent wage?
Accounting firms are decent in that their interns actually earn money.
Contrast with newspapers and magazines like the Walrus which, from what I hear, don't.
How.
Dreadfully.
Awful.
With that in mind, I link to this handy little article from Ask a Manager sharing three tips on how to manage interns.
The list clearly has a bias towards the mindset of the "I can't write humourous satire about foreign cultures to save my life" Walrus crowd - sharing the idea that you may have trouble criticizing someone if you're not paying them in the first place.
I still have trouble with this "work for free" concept. It certainly explains why their interns might decide they don't have to call in if they're not going to show up.
But I digress.
The article is, however, universally useful when it continues to drive home the point that there are other things which aren't obvious to everybody, which you should be prepared for.
Here's some of that original advice, verbatim:
"Assume interns won't know some really basic stuff about how things
are done and that you'll need to give more guidance than you might with
a regular employee."
This advice will definitely help reduce the shock you would otherwise feel when learning that not everyone knows how to use a fax machine.
Not only does this occur, but in fact the ability to use those accursed machines is becoming progressively less common in the very sensible "why don't you just scan it to PDF and e-mail to me" world we live in.
Just about everything you take for granted could be misinterpreted or misunderstood by someone fresh to the workplace. When you know and accept this fact, you become much more patient when explaining anything to those new staff members.
Take this sign on the train in the UK. It almost looks like they're encouraging you to put your feet on the seats. Or to at least make your leg hover in the air. Or "feet" is forbidden, but one "foot" is ok?
Misunderstandings like this no doubt led to the fall of the British Empire.
Your office will probably suffer no such disasters at the hand of your interns, but remembering that they're essentially still students fresh out of some possibly strict households - or crazy part-time jobs at fast food joints - will go a long way to understanding the psychology of your new colleagues.
Do they apologize profusely when something isn't 100% perfect? (Or, 105% perfect?)
Maybe they came from a very strict household. Maybe they had one of those crazy bosses. Or perhaps they simply watched the Devil Wears Prada one too many times and thought that your accounting firm
Regardless, cherish the fact that you have someone working with you who not only won't roll their eyes when asked to scan 200 pages of corporate literature into PDFs, but will in fact do so with enthusiasm and even excitement.
It's heartening to say the least.
Yes, you may need to teach them how to use the fancy equipment, but they're high school grads with some university under the belt. Show them how to do it well once and they'll remember.
And be happy that you got someone else to do that, so you can now apply your precious professional judgment on more of that awesome 'value added' work.
This was a disappointing April Fools, I must say. No one used the window washer's cart to leave rude messages on the anyone's windows and we didn't really do much in the office either, owing to most of my friends in the office being on vacation or at client sites - and even I was busy finishing up a few last minute tasks before running off on vacation next week.
So it'll be a slow month for posts around here too, as I'm not taking a computer on vacation either.
While I'm still around, though, I'll share a few tidbits. Today, a link to Francine's own link to the FT April Fool's gag.
What is the punchline?
Change audit reports to just have the following line, to state "clean" audit opinions with a minimum of disclaimers:
"These accounts are about right unless management have deliberately conspired to falsify them."
Brilliant satire.
Oh, and I had about 1200 pieces of spam hit my inbox last month, unless Google was hiding some from me - or adding some to boost the total - for some nefarious purpose.