I think there's a piece of us in each other, liberal and conservative, which is what makes us fight so hard against the other.

As an accountant by education and trade, I have to be very stern and tight fisted with my firm's money and spending. I won't give you an extra penny that you do not deserve, because one penny taken away from one person, means some one else has to pay for it. That's how I have to operate or else the vultures will come circling. When I first started my job, I was pretty loose with expense policy and allowed people a bit of leeway, if they could prove that their spending was necessary and vital. However, as times have gotten tougher and tougher, I had to be tighter as well. I hate having to proposed budget cuts, but I still do it, because it preserves people's jobs at least that's how I figured it. Every 50K, I can save from the bottom line means one person gets to hold onto their position, keep their houses, and even put food on the table. I am not a miser for no reason or to protect my own job, because to be honest, I am paid about the same as many of these same folks, no more and no less after so many years and promotions in my title and authority. I never asked for more money. Do I regret it? Yes, but I am happy to see other people keep their jobs in the last 3 years that I've been here.

On that point, you can say I have a little liberal inside me. I freely admit to caring about my firm's employees far more than personal paycheck. I guess those years of watching and reading A Christmas Carol, my favorite book/tv special at Christmas time by the way, has taken its effects on this conservative accountant.

I do care about the people I work with and I ask why should I not care about them? Is it so hard to honestly worry about someone's financial state if you're not a Democrat (I am actually a registered Independent ironically after 2010 and still can vote in the Republican Primary).

It might not look like I have a bleeding heart to some conservatives, but my heart does pump out blood like any human being and it is no different than a liberal's or conservative's heart. I dare say that of all the liberals and conservatives that I know, I can't count how many can honestly say that they have made the same sacrifices that I have and can make the same decisions I had to?

A lot of people like to second guess, so do I. Conservative friends told me I should have left this place years ago. Liberal friends chide me for firing people in a bad employment environment. Before you jump to conclusions, there is a reality that I have to live with and both sides have to live with. Nothing is perfectly black and white, neither the free markets nor a socialistic one can make life better without people like me playing our parts and doing our best to make irrational human judgment into coherent business

As long as mankind hold irrational behavior, I can only do my best to stabilize deteriorating circumstances.

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On my life:

I am taking my first steps to leave my current job after being told that we need to fire people, who basically did nothing wrong except have management without discipline or control over themselves. At least, I gave them three more years of income.

When I first started this job as just merely a Senior Accountant, the books were a mess. We have account receivables of over $520K, Account payable at around $370K, and operating cash at $20K. Cash reserves had been drained down to almost nothing. Basically, no one had billed anything out for our services, our vendors were screaming for money, and the payroll was barely being covered by the small flow of checks coming in every month. I turned that around, ended operational delay in billing cycles, set payable accounts with vendors after payment to net 30 days after their date, and changed the way we managed cash. I did some good things, but they were not enough. I can't change who runs a business, I can't change decision people make, and I can't change inevitable outcomes.

All I can say now looking back, I have done my best, no more and no less. I hope in this bad economy, I can find a place that is better and in need of my particular skills.