The Exact Amount of Time You Should Spend Working Every Day

According to Fast Company, the Draugiem Group says they've hit upon the exact number.

Draugiem, a social networking company, used the time-tracking productivity app DeskTime to see how the most productive employees spent their time. The results were surprising — the 10 percent of employees with the highest productivity spent LESS time working than the average employee, taking a 17-minute break for every 52 minutes they spent working.

Fast Company wrote: "Employees with the highest levels of productivity worked for 52 minutes with intense purpose, then rested up, allowing their brains time to rejuvenate and prepare for the next work period."

When Julia Gifford of The Muse posted the study's results, she said those 17 minutes were generally spent completely away from the computer, whether the employees were taking a walk, chatting with coworkers or reading a book. She said the study shows the importance of reassuring employees that it's okay to step away from the desk without worrying about appearing lazy or unproductive.

Fast Company offered the following tips to ensure you're getting the breaks you need:

• Schedule breaks into your daily calendar
• Set a timer to remind you when to take your break and when to return to work
• Make realistic to-do lists
• Prioritize tasks, setting three major tasks to focus on for the day and adding others as they pop up

What do your most productive employees do during the work day?

Young Professionals Corner: Tips for Staying Positive at Work

Editor's note: This is the latest in a series of guest posts from young VSCPA members dealing with topics of interest to young professionals. If you'd like to write or have a topic you'd like a future blogger to cover, please email VSCPA Academic & Career Development Coordinator Tracey Zink.

     

By Shelly Verougstraete, CPA

Team Accountant, Joyner, Kirkham, Keel & Robertson, Richmond

It is easy to stay positive at work when things are going well but we have all had those days where nothing seems to go right. Even with long days (and sometime nights!) at the office, it can be hard to stay positive. With deadlines, endless phone calls, and emails, happiness can disappear. However, there are some ways to stay positive in the most difficult situations.

1. Treat yourself – Go for the Venti latte. Grab a square of chocolate for an afternoon treat.
2. Stay away from the Debbie Downers.  Stay away from the actively disengaged people at work. These are people that are negative about everything. They will bring you down and drain any enthusiasm you have left after a long day.
3. Talk to your colleagues – Letting your struggles build up inside is a recipe for trouble. Sharing your issues with a co-worker can help ease your mind and who will receive beneficial encouragement from others.  You  might also find that a co-worker can help you out too!
4. Challenge negative thoughts with positive ones - Negative thoughts can seem hard to avoid or erase.  Negativity is all about your mindset. Try to find the bright side of the situation.
5. Smile! – Simply smiling, even when you are in a bad mood, can boost your happiness. Smile at a passing co-worker. Smile as you answer a client’s question. Smile even while you are by yourself. Check out this blog post on the science of smiling. (https://blog.bufferapp.com/the-science-of-smiling-a-guide-to-humans-most-powerful-gesture)

Smiling cannot only improve you attitude, but help you become more successful and possibly live longer. If that is not a reason to smile, I do not know what is!

Shelly Verougstraete, CPA, is a team accountant at Joyner, Kirkham, Keel & Robertson in Richmond. She is a graduate of Longwood University.

Setting Yourself Apart From the Other 100 Accounting Students

Editor's note: This is the latest in a series of guest posts from young VSCPA members dealing with topics of interest to young professionals. If you'd like to write or have a topic you'd like a future blogger to cover, please email VSCPA Academic & Career Development Coordinator Tracey Zink.

By Alice Yeh
KPMG

Although the title of this blog indicates a mere 100 competitors that you have to be concerned about, I assure you that this figure is highly understated. Depending on your school, your accounting program most likely consists of more than 100 students, many of them eyeing the job you’re interviewing for. However, I have one piece of advice that will transform you into the diamond in the rough-compatibility through flexibility.

Most interviewers do not put your hard accounting skills to the test. On the contrary, they are there to inspect you as a person: your personality, your work ethic, but most of all, your compatibility with their company. However, the key is not to study your PowerPoints on federal taxation every night before you climb into bed. Being able to recite the Codification backwards will not help you handle a demanding manager or difficult teammate. You need to prove to employers that you are a well-rounded person.

The only way to make yourself a flexible person that can adapt to any environment is to invest your time in other areas besides academics. Put yourself out there and take up leadership positions. The only way to learn how to deal with a variety of personalities is to practice. What better way to hone your flexibility skills than through an organization that you are passionate about or a sport that you love. So make yourself irresistible for employers through your compatibility through flexibility.

Young Professionals Corner: Stress Management

Editor's note: This is the latest in a series of guest posts from young VSCPA members dealing with topics of interest to young professionals. If you'd like to write or have a topic you'd like a future blogger to cover, please email VSCPA Academic & Career Development Coordinator Tracey Zink.

By Jasmine Gao, CPA
Mangham Associates

We never live in a stress-free world. The stress to meet a deadline, to pass an exam, to get long with people, or to become the person we want to be has long existed in our life and grown up with us. Stress management is never something new and it can be very personal. I grew up in a highly competitive and demanding academic environment, where I was ranked in everything I did as a child. Even worse, I’m a natural perfectionist. You would expect the stress level to be off the charts for somebody like me. Luckily, my stress levels are never out of control.

Realizing that stress is an integral part of life is my very first step to cope with it. Thinking that stress comes from me moving closer to my goals will actually make me feel stronger. However, I have to admit that sometimes just having a positive attitude is not enough. I also have some stress relievers that I find useful and I’m highlighting a top few:

1. It’s ok to cry
2. Talk to family and friends
3. Learn to say no
4. Take a walk outside
5. Spend time doing a hobby
6. Listen to music

Stress is a fact of life. While it’s not something that we all happily embrace, it can be reduced to a healthy level that motivates us to become the better selves. Have faith in yourself and you can achieve more with stress being your friend.
Jasmine graduated with distinction from University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce with double concentrations in Finance and Accounting and a double major in Financial Mathematics in 2011. She is working as an investment analyst with an endowment management firm in Charlottesville. She is responsible for sourcing and evaluating investment ideas and performing market and asset class research. She passed all three levels of the CFA exam and will be eligible for the CFA Charter upon completion of the required work experience.

Young Professionals Corner: Starting Off Strong

Editor's note: This is the latest in a series of guest posts from young VSCPA members dealing with topics of interest to young professionals. If you'd like to write or have a topic you'd like a future blogger to cover, please email VSCPA Academic & Career Development Coordinator Tracey Zink.

By Theresa Lee, CPA
AOL Inc.

After graduation and a well-earned vacation, it is the time of year when recent accounting graduates join the workforce and public accounting firms have classes of their newest associates starting.  Here are a few Dos and Don’ts to help you have a successful start to your career:  

Do: Ask questions. Learn from your peers, the staff who are one year above you, your seniors, managers and partners. Try to ask questions to the appropriate level and think through your questions before you ask them. You will learn a lot by thinking through how you would approach an issue and then having your supervisor explain how their resolution is different.  

Don’t: Complain. Every accounting role comes with long hours depending on the time of month or year. Keep a good attitude. Trust me, not one of your supervisors wants to be at work at 10pm. And absolutely no one wants to be at work at 10 p.m. with a team member who complains about working late. You are all in this together and keeping a good attitude keeps the team moving with less distraction.

Do: Select the correct method of communication to get your message and the tone across. Learn how your company uses in-person meetings, phone calls, e-mail, and IM for various purposes.  Also consider your audience when communicating.  

Don’t: Take offense when you receive review comments. You are new and have a lot to learn from on-the-job experience. The person who gave you those comments can do the work themselves much faster but choose to take the time to leave review comments, wait for you to clear the comments and bring up questions, and then check that the comments were cleared properly. Review comments are a teaching method. Should you really complain about your supervisor investing time and effort in your professional development?

Don’t: Be “that” guy or girl at the company happy hour. Participate in company and department events, especially charitable events and sports teams, but do not be the person who has one too many.  Try ordering a drink you don’t like so you can maintain the appearance of participating in happy hour while remaining in control.

Do: Admit when you make a mistake. Bring it to the attention of your supervisor immediately and in a professional manner. This means laying out the facts, the impact of the mistake, and proposing a plan to fix it. Everyone makes mistakes. Strong performers know how to communicate their mistakes and address them before they become problems.  

Don’t: Get overwhelmed with work, put your head down, and try to work through the night to finish your growing to-do list. Ask your supervisor or mentor for help prioritizing your work. If something takes you significantly longer than you think it should, you are probably spinning your wheels. Stop and ask for help.  

Do: Volunteer to help out, even if you have no idea how to do the work or it is a mundane task. This is a great way to learn something new and show your initiative. Mundane work has to get done and you will stand out for your good attitude and willingness to help the team. You might even get picked to work on the next exciting project. Hard work does pay off.

Theresa Lee, CPA, is a certified public accountant and a lead accountant in AOL’s Advertising Revenue department.  She has an master's in business administration in finance from The George Washington University and a bachelor's in business administration in Accounting from James Madison University. She has six years of experience in public accounting performing audits of technology, government contracting, and private equity clients and two years of experience in internal audit prior to joining AOL. She lives in Reston with her husband.

Young Professionals Corner: Work-Life Balance and My Experience as a Working Mother

By Marian Millikan, CPA
Senior Tax Accountant, Cherry Bekaert LLP

Editor's note: This is the first in a series of guest posts from young VSCPA members dealing with topics of interest to young professionals. If you have a topic you'd like a future blogger to cover, please email VSCPA Academic & Career Development Coordinator Tracey Zink.

At the start of my public accountant career, I remember learning in an orientation class how important a “work-life balance” was in allowing an individual to experience perfect harmony between their work and home lives. This lasting impression left me eager to figure out the secret formula so I could obtain the perfect balance of happiness.

Two years later, I was happy with my job and home life, but moments that I felt completely balanced were rare. I had considered giving up on my search for the secret formula, but then I realized how you interpret “balance” is essential. There doesn’t have to be a 50/50 split all the time. Sometimes work can take priority (tax season comes to mind), and other times, like vacations, family and friends should be your main focus. The perfect work-life formula is never constant, and will almost never be balanced 50/50.

Although balance can be different for each individual, the key to my work-life “balance” formula is two things: organization and prioritization. For instance, I need a calendar to track my work projects, social events, family appointments, and everything else. Once everything is on the calendar, I prioritize conflicting tasks to determine which is most important and must be accomplished at the expense of the other. Proactively making this choice helps me avoid making last-minute decisions that cause tons of stress, regardless of whether or not the “correct” choice was made. Any working parent can relate to a time when they found out about a party at their child’s school (or God forbid an early release from school) the day before, and had already scheduled an important client meeting for that afternoon. Whenever double bookings occur, it always seems Murphy’s Law is in full effect, and your spouse is out of town or the babysitter is sick. It only took a few instances for me to learn to put my child’s monthly “schedule of events” on the calendar as soon as I got it. Prioritizing these events has saved countless hours of guilt and apologies.

If you have a smartphone, a great resource is using a calendar app that allows you to share calendar updates with family members the instant they’re added. I can see all of my husband’s events, and he can see mine. This has proven to be a great tool for my family, as everyone knows when events are planned, when critical personnel are out of town, and who has been assigned to pick up which kid at what time.  I use Cozi (www.cozi.com), but there other great tools out there, too.

Another valuable lesson I learned about prioritizing work and life tasks happened in my first few months as a working mother. I had just committed to completing a tax research and analysis project by the week’s end when I got the dreaded call from daycare: my daughter had a fever. Not only did she need to come home immediately, but my daughter wasn’t allowed back at school for a minimum of 24 hours! Even though this meant two work days turned into two unexpected days out of the office, I was determined to complete that project as promised. I worked through the night and every second she napped. Despite feeling exhausted, I turned the project in on Friday, and was proud of myself for doing it all! I felt like super woman, super employee, and super mom all wrapped up into one. When I gloated about my time management skills to my manager and how I accomplished this herculean task despite the odds. He looked at me a little puzzled and simply replied that I could have had another week to complete the project without a problem. Apparently, all I had to do was ask. So I learned another important work-life balance lesson: if you feel overwhelmed with either work or family, get yourself out of the “I can do it all” mindset and ask for help. More often than not, work and life can be flexible!

There will be times where you have to increase your effort towards family, and there are times that extra effort goes towards your job. It isn’t sacrificing one for the other, but managing the priorities of everything simultaneously. This approach makes me happy, fulfilled, and most importantly, keeps me sane. I feel like a better employee, coworker, wife, and mom. Work-life balance can’t get any better than that.

Marissa Mayer, Yahoo and Work-Life Balance

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer caused an uproar last week when she decided that all of her company’s remote employees needed to be working in the office by June. According to a source, Mayer made the decision because many of the company’s remote employees “weren’t productive.” The initial memo announcing the decision stated that “speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.”

Will Mayer’s move pay off? Recent research suggests that it might not. A just-released study (PDF) from Stanford University found that workers randomly selected to work from home were 13 percent more productive.

Telecommuting has been on the rise in recent years, and not just in Silicon Valley. (Although it’s worth noting that Yahoo competitors Google and Facebook discourage remote working.) With fuel prices remaining high, the ability to work from home could be a major employee perk in many industries.

What do you think? Does your company allow employees to work from home? How has it affected productivity?