Helping Each Other Out

Although once busy season rolls around it’s a very hectic time, it’s always nice to know that you have help and support around you. In my case, I have help and support just a few doors down – literally!

So I’m working on the audit of a mutual fund client at the moment. With mutual fund clients, we mostly work out of the office, as it’s more of a “paper” audit than an audit of actual, tangible items (such as if you were auditing a manufacturing company). This means that we get most of our required documents electronically, so we just print out what we need to, and go from there. Because the PwC Toronto office audits so many mutual fund companies, we have many engagement teams. These teams quickly take up the board rooms on our two audit floors, so the rest of us must book board rooms for our audit teams on other floors, such as our Advisory and Tax floors. This is what I had to do, so for the last 2 weeks, and until the end of the month, I am sitting on one of our Advisory floors with my team.

The nice part about this is that I’m coming to the same place everyday, so especially with our weather, it’s convenient because I get to leave my shoes and other things in the office. However, oddly enough, there are 3 other audit teams on my floor also working on mutual fund companies, and the seniors on those jobs are all my friends!

Having my friends (and other seniors) on the same floor as me is beneficial not only from a social aspect, but also because it makes it very easy to work together! Turns out that we are all having similar audit issues with our fund jobs, and by working together to solve problems, we reduce the amount of time it takes to complete the audit. Our managers also appreciate that we are working together to figures things out, as this saves them time, and it also ensures that we are all performing consistent, quality work.

Of course it’s also nice to be on the same floor as your friends, as I am able to walk down to any of the other 3 conference rooms and have a chat with my friends when I need a break. That definitely makes the day more enjoyable. So although it is a busy time for all of us at the office, it’s these little things such as working together and helping each other out that really makes you feel connected to those around you.

I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend, and see you next week!