M is for...

I guess I don't mention my day job very much on this blog. I find the most bloggable entries to derive from our personal lives rather than our business activities. Regardless, without the public accounting jobs that we have on island, we almost definitely would not have found a viable way to move here, so occasionally it's worthwhile to bring up what we do from 9 to 5(ish).

Recently, I assumed the role of Audit Manager at my firm. I've gotten the opportunity to jump right into the management team and take on new responsibilities that are both challenging and enjoyable. I won't bore you with the details (it's all still accounting, after all), but conducting training, redesigning  procedures, assigning work flows, and simply managing people (rather than just spreadsheets) has really provided a lift to my work experience.

Celebratory dinner with R&M (his birthday on the left; my promotion on the right).
MO makes the best cards. The kind you never throw away and keep permanently on display.

But I will say one thing: The "M" in Manager definitely stands for Meetings.

Oh my goodness. Meetings to plan training. Meetings to establish goals. Meetings to discuss client presentations. Meetings to prepare for meetings. Gone are the days of sitting down and ticking things off the list one-by-one. One guy said it right when he told me to plan for only 25% of my day to go as planned, and the rest will just get "eaten up by things that pop out of nowhere". This new role is going to send my lists into a tailspin.

But along with "Manager" and "Meetings", "M" also stands for Mockumentary.

My firm recently celebrated 10 years in Grand Cayman, throwing a terrific party for all our clients and business contacts on island. Although the featured entertainers from Zero Gravity Circus were flown in from Montreal and included acrobatics, stilts walkers, and a hula hoop act, I'd like to think that the BDO Cayman crowd stole the show with a mockumentary of how our office actually works.

It's a 20-minute feature, so grab your popcorn and check out a few scenes from a typical day in the office. Oh, and for you Office Space enthusiasts, I apologize to you now for my fairly inaccurate rendition of the classic scene.




A huge shout-out to CML TV for producing, directing, filming, and acting in this video. We'll never forget the belly-laughs we experienced in the process.

Congrats, BDO Cayman! Looking forward to Year 11!