Keywords
Citation
Parker, L. (2004), "The young professional", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 17 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/aaaj.2004.05917dae.003
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2004, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
The young professional
DOI 10.1108/09513570410554605
Keywords: "Accountability", Trial balance", Bank reconciliation", Father", Auditor", Books
Theme: The poem offers a reflection on the often long hours and heavy work pressures endured by young or junior business professionals, and sets them in a city environment of pressured workers rushing to and fro. It satirises the philosophical rationale presented to subordinates that they should work long hours for low wages in anticipation of superior career prospects and financial returns in the longer term.
Paper mountains.That's what they'd seemed like – piled high around the keyboard and monitor,Just like the cartoon on those 'workaholic' coffee mugs.Late nights and weekends – the usual mode of attack.And of course, de rigeur, no lunch breaks.Oh, and the mountains?Big as ever.Why keep swinging the bat?May as well take four balls and a walk to first base.Well that's what it felt like to Janice, anyway,Aimlessly stirring a long black in the corner café.The lot of the young professional, she mused.Yeah. Earn the spurs.World at your feet.Money and position later.Change the world then.Learnt a lot though, she mused.Bloody flash at the technicals now!A wicked tira misu is suddenly three-quarters gone.When did I order this? She thought,Vacantly pondering the swarming tide of pedestrians – all busy, all focussed,Of course.Or was it off course?This passing parade seemed not much different to her day.An almost trance-like conveyer belt.What did that old lecturer once say about the forest and the trees?Been pretty busy chopping trees lately.Yeah.Do trees stretch on endlessly? Probably.Hillsides of tree stumps for the money?And then came a moment of caffeinated insight.Could the chopping be a prelude to future planting?Back at the office, sitting down again at that desk,Tomorrow's lunch break suddenly held appeal.
Lee ParkerSchool of Commerce, Adelaide University, Adelaide, Australia