The myth of the tedious accountant.

[reddragdiva]

What is it with the myth that accountants are dull, grey people?

I think I have known one accountant in my entire life who is arguably like this. All the others — yes, you accountants reading this — are goddamn freaks. More so than other people. In the nicest of ways. But nevertheless.

Accountancy does not interest me. But that's not a statement about the people who do it.

1. What is the origin of this myth?
2. Why are accountants in fact goddamn freaks?

Edit: Note that computer geeks are in fact this boring. We just control enough of the Internet that people mistakenly assume power equals interesting.

Comments

[vatine]

I think the origin comes from the fact that a good accountant has to be incredibly detail-focused and meticulous to do a good job. And, obviously (or, well, maybe not) anyone who can do that for sustained periods of time is incapable of being anything but fastidious, detail-oriented and all-round dull.

As for why they're all goddamn freaks, I suspect they need to balance their private and professional life to some sort of "on average, normal".

[hellsop]

.. and that accountants talking shop is remarkably dry. Further, there's a public perception that there's only one possible right result of the work, if it's done right. Much like some people think that chess is a dull game because there is no randomness and no way to cheat.

[karen2205]

I think similar is true of all professions - think about your steroetypical image of lawyers and ask yourself how many of us fit that stereotype.

[nanaya]

The lawyer stereotype particularly annoys me, because it's actually evil and amoral rather than just boring. Pfft.

I always wanted to do a seminar about radical or adventurous lawyers in history!

[reddragdiva]

I was going to note that almost all the lawyers I've ever known personally have been lovely.

[tisiphone]

I have known the odd dickish lawyer, but that's because they were dicks, not because they were lawyers per se.

[reddragdiva]

Actually, I've just recalled one stereotypically dickish lawyer, who was way dickish before becoming a lawyer. When they got into law, I thought "wow, I can hardly think of a more stereotypically suited person."

[tisiphone]

Precisely.

[nanaya]

I've known a fair few dickish lawyers, but again same reasons AFAICT.

I think some people do start to believe their own hype, though.

[nanaya]

The same can be said for librarians. They're the precise opposite of dull, perverted eccentric radicals that they are. And no, I don't know either, I guess some people think books and numbers are just boring.

[reddragdiva]

"All librarians are perverts" approaches a combination of stereotype and wishful thinking, though.

[nanaya]

Not all, just lots. I know some who aren't, but they're still eccentric and often radical.

[the_siobhan]

It's camoflage.

[auntsarentgents]

Yes. At $WORK I know one other suited and booted accountant who is Very Much A Goth.

[reddragdiva]

You don't work with elijahtc, perchance?

[gths]

The worrying thing is that I've been contemplating that as a career change. If only because they seem to make decent money for that and I may not be too bad at it, even if it bores at my soul...

[tisiphone]

I have actually considered this as well (though I've no idea how to go about it), but I think I'd have to go in for forensic accountancy, as adding up accounts doesn't thrill me nearly as much as skewering evil businessmen.

[reddragdiva]

Forensic accountancy is way cool. A really threatening grey suit.

[vatine]

I know someone who's an internal forensic accountant for a banking concern. She hits people with swords in her spare time.

[emarkienna.livejournal.com]

I think there's a general negative stereotype of anything involving numerate subjects being boring. At school, maths is seen as boring[*]; at University, the student paper would love to poke fun at mathmos, scientists and especially compscis. Obvious other example for jobs would be computer programmers - and again, this isn't anywhere near true for almost all the programmers I know.

[*] Although tiamatlady, an accountant, just said to me that maths is boring. I disagreed of course.

[reddragdiva]

Actually, computer geeks are that boring.

[ideological_cuddle]

I reckon that's more that you know a lot more computer geeks than the average person does, so of course they seem boring.

[reddragdiva]

I meant "interesting to me, boring to everyone else". This stuff is stultifying to people who don't understand it, even if you could reasonably claim they need to.

[ideological_cuddle]

Isn't this exactly the same mistake people make about accountants, though? Computer geeks talking shop, boring to everyone else, interesting to other computer geeks. Accountants talking shop, interesting to other accountants, boring to everyone else.

In neither case does it say anything about accountants or computer geeks doing other things.

The one difference I can think of is that geek is "in", in a similar way to librarians. Accountants -- leaving aside Monty Python -- haven't ever really had their moment in the sun.

(Personally, I don't think any of the accountants I've met have been particularly boring. Same goes for librarians. I've even known some of both I'd happily have gone beyond mere conversation with.)

[reddragdiva]

For me, maths is like novels: an interesting thing to have done, but not something I'm much good at doing. Despite having some degree of aptitude (I kept getting put into local Mathematical Olympiad competitions in school), and recognising its usefulness to forming me into a well-rounded and capable member of society, the actual process of learning to do this stuff has always been tedious, grubby and painful. I got halfway through second-year electrical engineering maths before finally crashing out forever.

[damien_wise]

I'd have to agree. Dealing with a small sample here but: husband of tinapop (AKA txxxpxx) is an uber-accountant (CPA?), and doesn't conform to the "boring" stereotype. And horngirl may work as accountant but is, as you say, a goddamn freak in all sorts of amazing ways. :)

[sharplittleteeth]

Heh: Beyond the boring grey: The construction of the colourful accountant

[gool_duck]

I think it's propaganda: accountants need to be trusted with other people's money. They want people to think of accountants as reliable, meticulous, not-adventurous. That translates in some people's minds as 'boring'.

[flick]

What is it with the myth that accountants are dull, grey people?

Because many of them are. I would suggest that the accountants that you know are generally either a) people who can get along well enough with computer geeks to work with them or b) very bright people who work for high powered big city firms doing exciting work with big companies and international travel.

How many small town, provincial accountants do you know? The sorts of people who spend their lives doing brown-paper-bag work on poxy limited companies. That work is generally incredibly dull, and it's not unreasonable to say that, after thirty years of doing it, so are the people involved.

Then again, I have been known to have incredibly tedious conversations with fellow accountants about things that we professionally find quite interesting; lawyers and coders and teahcers and who-knows-what are the same!

[mstevens]

Edit: Note that computer geeks are in fact this boring. We just control enough of the Internet that people mistakenly assume power equals interesting.

I question your claims!

[mstevens]

I am pleased to report that I have recently engaged the services of an accountant who appears to have purple hair. And has good odds of being on your friends list, I suspect.