Socializing personnel into accepting work hour norms has been fundamental to how accounting firms function, but is now challenged by contemporary work perspectives. Using 40 semi-structured interviews of personnel across hierarchical levels at a national firm and an international firm, we show how strangeness and contradiction expressed in work hour perspectives across different levels within both firms are reconstructed as compatible and complementary. Highlighting various firm adaptations, including alternative work arrangements, offshoring, and technological tools, our interviews suggest a major shift in firms’ approach toward work hours. This shift is fueled by work perspectives embraced by younger generations desiring work life balance and purposeful work, and enabled by technology supporting remote work and increasing work efficiencies. The question remains whether firms are evolving to genuinely embody work perspectives of younger generations or restructuring to rely on a smaller workforce willing to accept traditional work hour norms, or some combination thereof.

中文翻译：

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公共会计中跨层级工作时间视角的当代冲突

让员工接受工作时间规范一直是会计师事务所运作方式的基础，但现在受到当代工作观点的挑战。通过对一家国家公司和一家国际公司的不同层级人员进行的 40 次半结构化访谈，我们展示了两家公司不同层级的工作时间观点所表达的陌生和矛盾是如何被重构为兼容和互补的。我们的采访强调了各种公司的适应，包括替代工作安排、离岸外包和技术工具，表明公司对工作时间的态度发生了重大转变。这种转变是由年轻一代渴望工作生活平衡和有目的的工作所接受的工作观点推动的，并由支持远程工作和提高工作效率的技术实现。