Work worries

My office seems so empty right now. At my firm the staff accountants occupy actual offices instead of cubicles, but we share two to an office. Only the managers and partners have their own offices. Yesterday was my office mate’s last day as she is moving to Kansas City to be with her husband who is already living there. We had a nice happy hour for her last night after work as is tradition. Today her desk and the walls above her desk are bare. Even before when she was out to a client and I was in the office there were still things on her desk, but now it just seems so lonely.

In addition to yesterday being OM’s last day we found out that one of our managers will be leaving the firm at the end of the month and another staff member’s last day will be this Friday. Yet another staff member’s last day was supposed to be March 31, but she’s holding on to her job here until she can find another one. So that means four people that have more seniority than me will be leaving the firm, meaning my seniority just jumped significantly.

Having more seniority is fine – I’ve worked at this firm for three years now. However with so many people leaving at once, my work load is probably going to get much heavier. In addition, my regular summer client, one of the larger unions in town, has decided this year that all of their local unions would need to be audited and recommended they be audited by the same firm that audits the district council – us. This means about 20 new local unions (in addition to the 8 locals, the District Council, and the four employee benefit plans we already do for them) will be added to my summer work schedule. Granted I’m not the only person on this job, but this is my first year as the senior staff member as last year’s senior was promoted to manager. Thank heavens the manager is still on the job or I don’t know what I’d do. I know I’m going to have two other staff members to help me audit, but this client has become so large it may take a larger effort to get it done.

So needless to say, I’m starting to freak out a bit about work. I still can’t plan for these audits even though we now have access to the new materials because there are bugs to be worked out and decisions that need to be made on the new materials before we can use them. This summer is shaping up to be about as busy as tax season – especially towards the end of September when all of the DOL reports are due (and can’t be extended like tax returns can) and my manager will be gone as his wife is due with their second child then. Why did I decide it would be a good idea to stay on at this firm one more year?