Skip to main content

Should I Cancel My Plans Because Everyone Else Is Still Working?


Junior Auditor Series: #02

The Birthday Party She Almost Missed

Nurul had promised her best friend weeks ago that she would be at her birthday dinner on Thursday evening. The reservation was for 6:30pm, and everyone else had already confirmed they were coming. That week she was covering three sections on the Rosemont Trading file: bank reconciliations, prepayments, and accrued expenses. None of it was due until Friday. She still had some working paper documentation to complete, but it wasn't much, and she was confident she would finish it well before Friday.

At quarter to six, she started packing up her laptop. Then she looked around.

Most of the team were still at their desks.

She slowly sat back down and picked up her phone. For a moment, she wondered whether she should message her friend to say she might be late, or perhaps not come at all.

Wei Ling noticed.

Wei Ling: You okay? You've been staring at your phone for five minutes.

Nurul: My best friend's birthday dinner starts at half six. But everyone's still working, so I don't know... maybe I should cancel.

Wei Ling: Is anything of yours due tonight?

Nurul: No. I've still got some documentation to finish, but nothing's due till Friday. I should be fine.

Wei Ling: Then go. Nobody's going to think less of you for leaving.

Nurul still wasn't completely convinced. On her way out, she stopped by her senior's desk.

Nurul: David, is it okay if I head off? I've still got some documentation to do, but I'm confident I'll complete it before Friday.

David: Of course. If I needed you tonight, I would have told you. Enjoy yourself.

As Nurul walked out of the office, she realised she had spent far more time worrying about leaving than anyone else had spent thinking about it.

What's Actually Going On

Audit genuinely asks for extra hours, especially when deadlines are close. Nobody should pretend otherwise.

But that wasn't what was happening here.

None of Nurul's sections were due until Friday, and what was left across all three was small enough that she already knew she'd finish in time. The instinct to cancel her plans wasn't driven by the work itself. It was driven by what the room looked like at quarter to six.

Many junior auditors quietly assume that staying late is what good auditors do. In reality, seniors are usually paying far more attention to whether work is progressing than to who leaves the office first. A missed deadline is far more likely to be noticed than a junior who leaves on time with a manageable amount left for tomorrow.

Why This Feels So Personal

For a first-year auditor, this is rarely about the birthday dinner itself.

It's the fear that leaving while everyone else is still working will be seen as not pulling her weight, even when what's left in her own sections is genuinely manageable.

That fear has very little to do with what David is actually thinking. It has much more to do with how new Nurul still is at interpreting the signals around her. A busy office can easily look like an unspoken expectation, even when nobody has asked her to stay.

Left unchecked, this habit becomes expensive.

It teaches a junior to treat every evening as equally urgent, whether or not anything is actually due. That isn't sustainable. When the work genuinely does require extra hours, they have little energy left to give.

What Nurul Can Do Differently

Before cancelling personal plans, it is worth asking one simple question:

What is actually left, and is it due today?

Nurul already knew none of her sections were due until Friday, and that what remained was just documentation, not a section barely started. That was real information. Seeing everyone else still working was simply one observation. By itself, it didn't mean she was expected to stay.

Next, ask the senior directly instead of guessing.

"I've still got documentation left to do, but I'm on track for Friday. Is there anything you need from me before I go?"

That simple question removes the uncertainty completely.

There is an important difference between staying because the engagement genuinely needs you and staying because leaving feels uncomfortable. Learning to recognise that difference is part of becoming a good auditor.

There will be times when audit genuinely needs Nurul to miss dinner, postpone holidays or work well into the evening. Those weeks are part of the profession.

But she shouldn't volunteer sacrifices that nobody has asked her to make.

Before cancelling any personal plans, don't ask whether everyone else is still in the office. Ask whether the work genuinely needs you to be there.

 


If moments like this feel familiar, Is This Normal? goes deeper into the self-doubt and unwritten pressures every early-career auditor faces.

 

Your Audit Mentor

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Senior Keeps Changing Her Mind

Junior Auditor Series: #01 The Message That Confused Her Mandy was in her second year of audit and had recently been assigned to audit a software company. Her senior told her to test 15 contracts for appropriate revenue recognition in line with IFRS 15. Mandy completed the testing, documented her results, and moved on to the next section. Three days later, her senior called her while she was at the client's office. Senior: Hi Mandy, we need you to test 40 contracts instead of the planned 15. Mandy: Sure, I can do that. Can I ask why the number went up so much? Senior: Robin found out from the client that some of the terms in certain contracts with customers were revised, so let's just play it safe and cover more ground this time. Remember to scrutinise the terms for the delivery of the software and all other services that come with it. Mandy: Oh, okay. I'll get started. Mandy had tried asking, but she hadn't really got an answer. 'Play it safe' and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

I Feel Defeated But Not Sure If I Should Quit

Audit Manager Series: #02 The Week She Stopped Recognising Herself Wen Qi had four clients on her plate that quarter, each at a different stage of audit. Falcon Textiles' audit was ongoing. Northgate Pharma had a long list of outstanding review points not yet cleared. Brightfield Tyres was racing toward its reporting deadline. Summit Realty, her first-year client, was still getting used to working with her team. None of that, on its own, was unusual for a manager at her level. Then, over about ten days, everything seemed to happen at once. Her partner pulled her senior off Falcon Textiles to help cover another higher-risk audit, promising he'd sort out extra support by the end of the week. The week passed. Each time she asked, the answer was some version of still working on it. With Falcon short-staffed, Wen Qi absorbed the gap herself, on top of Brightfield's looming deadline and Northgate's outstanding review points. She was in the office past midnight most days...
Post a Comment
Read more

Should They Not Already Have Known?

Audit Senior Series: #01 The Walkthrough That Never Happened Farid was reviewing the inventory file for a manufacturing client. He was looking for the team's notes on obsolete and slow-moving stock identified during last Friday's year-end stocktake. There weren't any. He called Ravi, the second-year junior on the job, over to his desk. Farid: Where's your note on the physical identification of obsolete and slow-moving inventory from the stocktake? Ravi: We didn't get to it. The warehouse team wanted to finish early, so once the counts were done, we packed up and left. Farid: You know we always do that walkthrough, right? Especially for this client where the obsolescence risk is high. Ravi: I know. I just, we were the last team still there, and they kept asking if we were done. I didn't want to hold everyone up. Farid: So you knew, and you skipped it anyway. Ravi: Yes. I'm sorry. But the client said they'd compiled the list and would give ...
Post a Comment
Read more