Audit Senior Series: #02
The Weekend Wei Ling Lost
Marcus was midway through fieldwork on Denton Retail Group when Grace called on Thursday afternoon.
Grace: The CFO needs finalised numbers ready for the board meeting this coming Monday morning instead of next Wednesday.
Marcus: That's tough. Too short a notice. Can we get anyone else to help us cover this?
Grace: I already tried. Nobody's free. Can the team work through the weekend?
Marcus didn't answer straight away. He was thinking about Wei Ling, who'd asked for this exact weekend off three weeks ago. Her sister was flying in from Perth, first visit in two years.
Marcus: Let me see what I can do.
He sat with it after the call. Grace wasn't being unreasonable. She'd already tried to get help and come up empty. Marcus knew whichever conversation came next would disappoint someone. He caught himself wondering whether saying yes so quickly had made him part of the problem.
That evening, Marcus found Wei Ling packing up.
Marcus: Wei Ling, I need to tell you something about the weekend.
Wei Ling: Okay.
Marcus: The deadline moved to Monday. I need you in Saturday and Sunday.
Wei Ling: My sister is flying in Saturday. I told you about this three weeks ago.
Marcus: I know. I asked Grace if anyone else could help us. There wasn't anyone free.
Wei Ling: Is there any way around it?
Marcus: Not that I could find. I'm sorry.
Marcus: Let's get through this weekend first. I'll work on it with you. Then we'll make sure you get some time back afterwards.
Wei Ling didn't say anything for a moment. Then she nodded, picked her bag back up, and said she'd message her sister. Marcus went home that night carrying something he couldn't quite name. He hadn't caused any of this. He still felt like he had.
What's Actually Going On
The hardest part of becoming a senior isn't reviewing working papers. It's becoming the person who carries pressure in both directions. Managers expect deadlines to be met. Juniors expect to be protected where possible. Most days those expectations sit comfortably together. Sometimes they don't, and when they collide, they collide inside Marcus, not in some meeting room above him. This isn't a flaw in the structure. It's the structure doing exactly what it was designed to do. The pressure lands on the senior because that's where it has to land.
Why This Feels So Personal
Grace decided the deadline had to be brought forward. The CFO decided the board meeting mattered enough to justify it. But neither of them is standing in front of Wei Ling when she hears it. Marcus is. When the only face attached to a decision is the one delivering it, it's easy for both people in that conversation, Wei Ling and Marcus himself, to blur delivering the news with deciding it. He didn't create the problem. But standing that close to her disappointment makes it feel like he did.
A Few Ways Seniors Respond
Some absorb it personally. Marcus could have told Grace the team would manage, then quietly did Wei Ling's work himself over the weekend so she never found out. It looks like protection. But Wei Ling never learns that asking for help was even possible in a situation like this because Marcus hid the whole situation from her by solving it invisibly instead of showing her how it's actually handled. And Marcus ends up doing two people's work alone.
Some don't feel stuck at all, because they never really try. A senior in Marcus's position could tell Wei Ling, 'Sorry, there's nothing I can do,' without ever asking Grace whether anything could change, and without any sign he understands what that answer costs Wei Ling. It sounds like being stuck. But in reality, it's someone shying away from uncomfortable situations.
What Marcus actually did is the most appropriate response, not simply because he told the truth. Anyone can do that. He read the situation properly before acting on it. He understood what the weekend meant to Wei Ling, understood that Grace genuinely had no other options left, and weighed both before deciding how to handle it. He asked for help first, so the decision he eventually delivered was based on a real answer, not a guess. Then he owned the outcome instead of pushing it onto Grace or onto Wei Ling. That combination: reading a situation clearly, weighing what different people actually need, and living with the result, is what signals someone is ready to lead a team. Not just that they can complete a checklist.
From a Partner's Perspective
When a senior asks me for more help before accepting a deadline like this, that tells me something I actually pay attention to. It's not that I expect the answer to always be yes. Most of the time, like with Grace, it isn't. What I'm watching for is whether the senior checked before assuming. The ones who don't check often build up resentment quietly. Months later, they leave, convinced nobody ever offered help. When I look back, the truth is usually simpler. They never actually asked.
I also notice how a senior delivers bad news to their own team. Marcus telling Wei Ling exactly what happened, what he tried, and what didn't move, looks small on the surface. But it's exactly what I'm looking for when I'm deciding who's ready to run a bigger team, or take on more clients. Anyone can pass along good news. Very few people can deliver a genuinely unfair outcome without hiding behind it, or making someone else the villain for it.
If I'm honest, by that stage in someone's career, it's rarely the technical work that gets them promoted. It's whether I trust them to sit in exactly the position Marcus was in that Wednesday, and still come out the other side with both people still trusting them.
Grace still had to ask, and Wei Ling still lost the weekend, regardless of how Marcus handled the conversation. What actually matters is whether the senior in the middle quietly absorbs the pressure alone, passes the pressure straight through without any deliberation, or does what Marcus did: reads the situation, considers the consequences, and then makes and owns the call. Leadership in audit isn't about making everyone happy. Sometimes nobody walks away happy. It's about becoming someone both sides can still trust after delivering an answer neither of them wanted.
Curious what this same relationship looks like from the other side of the desk? Is It Them? (Part 1): Working With Your Audit Senior explores it from the junior's perspective.
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