That time a senior accountant told me to stop asking 'why' and it backfired on him

I was about 6 months into my first corporate job at a firm in Cleveland, and I kept questioning why we did a certain monthly reconciliation the same old way. My lead, a guy named Dave with 20 years of experience, pulled me aside and said 'just do it like I showed you, kid, don't overthink it.' Well, I finally traced the issue to a duplicate entry that had been costing us about 3 hours of rework every month for years. Has anyone else had a boss shut down a good idea just because it wasn't their idea first?

3 comments

3 Comments

emmag221mo ago

@david562 totally nailed it with that audit story. I've been there too. The trick is to frame your "why" questions as "hey, I noticed something weird here" instead of challenging the process. That way Dave types don't feel like you're attacking their 20 years of experience. Once you find the proof, you can politely show it to them and let them take the credit if they need to. Saves your job and fixes the problem, which is the whole point.

mila_harris20d ago

50 errors from one guy ignoring a suggestion? that's brutal but honestly not surprising @emmag22. i've seen managers dig in so hard on their own process that they'd rather fail loudly than admit someone else had a better idea. your framing tip is gold though, that subtle "noticed something weird" approach saves so much drama. dave types are so used to being the expert that even a gentle "why" feels like an attack on their whole career. letting them take the credit is the ultimate pro move too, keeps the peace and gets the fix done without anybody losing face. still, 50 errors is insane, that's not a minor oversight that's a whole system failure waiting to happen.

david5621mo ago

Had a buddy whose boss ignored his suggestion to automate expense reports, then got chewed out when an audit found 50 errors.