Introduction

In 2025, CPA firms face a crisis that is quietly undermining their productivity and ability to retain top talent: employee burnout. Burnout is no longer just an individual’s challenge—it's a systemic issue affecting firms of every size. While busy seasons and demanding standards always shaped public accounting, the intensity and consistency of burnout has dramatically increased in recent years.

Causes: Why Are Accountants Burning Out?

Research shows that over 70% of accounting professionals suffer from burnout, with long hours, manual and repetitive work, and shifting client demands as central drivers. The main triggers include:

• Long hours and compressed busy seasons: Many accountants work well beyond regular business hours, often late into the night during tax and audit season. The profession’s “badge-of-honor” culture mistakenly celebrates this relentless pace. 

• Manual and repetitive tasks: Entry-level roles are still dominated by repetitive work like reconciliations and data entry, causing monotony and disengagement. Automation helps but has paradoxically led to expectations for even faster response times.

• Talent shortage and increased workloads: Accountants are forced to keep up with evolving tax laws and provide instant client responses, leaving little room for error or recovery.

• Lack of work-life boundaries: Technology has erased the line between work and personal time. Emails and notifications continue after hours, making true downtime a rarity.

Effects: Productivity and Retention in Jeopardy

Burnout’s consequences go beyond missed deadlines and short tempers:

• Decreased productivity: Burnout impairs cognitive ability, creativity, and decision-making—leading to rising error rates and poor work quality. Firms lose productive hours and see dips in overall performance.

• High attrition and talent loss: Burnout is cited as a leading cause of staff turnover; as many as 42% of firms report significant retention issues directly linked to burnout. Replacing a burned-out CPA can cost a firm up to 200% of their annual salary when factoring in training and lost institutional knowledge.

• Low morale and disengagement: Fatigued accountants become less motivated, less engaged, and more cynical. This pattern fuels a negative working environment and can tarnish the firm’s reputation among clients and recruits.

• Risk of errors and compliance issues: Exhausted staff are more prone to mistakes, which can threaten financial reporting and compliance quality, increasing business risk.

Remedies: What Firms Are Doing (and Should Do)

Forward-thinking firms are breaking the cycle with a multipronged approach:

• Embrace automation and technology: Modern CPA firms increasingly adopt cloud-based platforms, robotic process automation (RPA), and AI tools to relieve employees from repetitive tasks and improve accuracy. Firms that leverage these solutions report up to 17% higher growth in advisory services and reduce manual workload by up to 30%.

• Work-life balance initiatives: Sustainable change requires more than lip service. Top firms create “communication windows,” set clear after-hours policies, and encourage employees to disconnect completely during off time. Strategic scheduling—protecting core productivity hours and honoring recovery periods—helps curb burnout.

• Flexible working models: Hybrid and remote-first cultures attract and retain talent who value balance and autonomy. These models also enable firms to tap into a broader talent pool.

• Career development and support systems: Regular one-on-one check-ins focused on wellbeing, team-based workflows to distribute tasks evenly, and leadership that models healthy boundaries are essential. Some firms outsource routine tasks to free up internal staff for higher-value work, while others promote mentorship and peer support programs.

• Ongoing education and skill enhancement: As job requirements shift, upskilling in data analysis, advisory skills, and technology helps accountants avoid monotony and feel more engaged.

• Normalize breaks and downtime: Leaders must take and respect actual breaks—not just remote working from vacation spots—and set the tone for their teams. Protecting personal time is not indulgence, but a necessary investment in productivity.