Press Room
25 March | 2004
Rachlin featured in the Palm Beach Post: "A Perk a Day Keeps CPAs' Nerves at Bay.
By Alex Clifton, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

The next few weeks will be grueling for your friendly neighborhood number-cruncher. In accounting firms across the country, late nights and seven-day workweeks are the morale-crippling norm as the April 15 deadline for federal income-tax returns approaches.

But more and more employers are finding ways to keep the troops happy. They've come up with massages, movie tickets, lunches, dinners and snacks, with a few smoothies and Frappuccinos thrown in.

Accounting firm executives say these little perks keep their employees more productive.

At the Stuart offices of Miami-based Rachlin, partner Dave Ralicki brings in a massage therapist every Tuesday afternoon, runs bingo games with movie tickets and gift certificates as prizes and keeps the office refrigerator stocked with snacks and drinks.

"Really, we try to get whatever people ask for," Ralicki said. "Those last 30 days or so, everyone gets kind of goofy and we need something to keep us calm."

During the height of tax season, Ralicki's employees work up to 60 hours a week. There are 200 employees companywide, with offices in Miami, West Palm Beach and Broward County. And like most accounting firms, there's a big party on April 15.

"I know it sounds crazy, but it's kind of anticlimactic when you're operating at such an intense level for so long, then suddenly you're down to 40 hours a week again," he said. "But we have a nice party and we sit around and tell our war stories."