“Well, isn’t that what we’re ultimately paid to do, to work as a team? But if we weren’t told about this in the meeting yesterday, then how are we to know that?”

Ivan stared at Chip and knew better. Chip just didn’t want the extra workload. He argued about everything, things that it didn’t make any sense to complain about.

Amy Ashford, a tax veteran in her early forties, spoke up to stop Chip’s nonsense.

She said, “Well, I did hear about it, and I assumed that we would have our meeting before the week was out, and lo and behold, here we are. So we should all be on the same page now for next week.”

Dwayne nodded to her. “Thank you.” He looked as if it had been a long day for him already, but it was only 10:37 AM.

Amy turned and addressed Chip before he got a chance to spit any more needless venom.

“Chip, although I see your point that auditing should be the ones to tell a company how it can benefit by tightening up within its own ranks, since we are their accounting firm, it’s still considered our job to do everything in our power to find them every way possible to save money. Otherwise, why should they continue to choose us over any other accounting firm? It’s all about going that extra mile for the client,” she stated.

Ivan spoke up. “That’s about it.” He knew the deal like the back of his hand. It was what Barry Mitchell had always told them: the rich will bully their way to heaven, and unless their company could tax the middle class to stay afloat like the government did, it was in the best interest of the company to stay in the good graces of those who could afford to write the larger checks.

However, when the meeting was adjourned, Chip was not at all pleased with Ivan’s acceptance of the matter.

He pulled Ivan aside for privacy and addressed him in low tones. “Hey, man, I mean, don’t you get tired of all the extra ass-kissing they force us to do for some of these dickless clients we’re under contract with? I mean, let’s get real here, man. How much of that money do we even see for this extra work that we all do?”

Ivan remained silent. Chip had a point. They remained under salary no matter how hard they worked on taxes.

Ivan told himself, That’s exactly why I have other plans now. I’m gonna look out for me as hard as I look out for them.

But instead of telling that to Chip, he answered, “I understand what you’re saying, man. I do. But at the end of the day, our job is to save our clients money. That’s all it is.”