Bill Power's evocative and humorous article The Suit (Accountancy Ireland, June, 2002) highlighted the examination challenges of an articled clerk in the 1960s. I was reminded of WS Gilbert's HMS Pinafore"he wore clean collars and a brand new suit", for the pass examination at the Institute.
This piece - and it is only a glimpse - looks at the challenges in the training of the articled clerk of yesteryear and is set well before admission into the arena of competitive examination. It was a rigorous and comprehensive training in which auditing and accounting played just a minor role. The â??jobâ?? was largely unspecified, a model of looseness and thus a powerful preparation for the unpredictability of life equipping the would-be chartered accountant with character-building experiences not found in any text book and leading to the type of well rounded member which makes the Institute what it is to-day.
How times have changed and how much more sophisticated is the programme of education now. The current crop of budding accountants simply does not believe how the training process and the profession have changed in a generation. It is right they should be told so that their education is made even more complete and hopefully may help them become more "rounded".
Ireland of the early 1960s was a place the tourism brochures now write about "a land of easy pace, ready wit, colour" green in every way - when business was an opportunity to meet and talk about anything but business. It was a grand time - most were poor in everything except spirit and good humour.
Nonetheless anyone signing on as an articled clerk knew it was going to be a long haul and not much gold on the horizon. The first hurdle was the fee payable to your principal and effectively, if not generously, paid back over the 5 years of apprenticeship and described as wages. In my case the scale over five years was 10/-, 15/-, 20/-, 30/- and 35/- and the beauty of the system was that the scale never changed over those years. Indeed, there had been a horror story from an older clerk that at the last increase (probably pre-war) the employee portion of the social welfare stamp was introduced so the net wage increase worked out at minus sixpence. Here were early lessons on how to cap inflation, live frugally and develop true grit.
The first year of apprenticeship covered matters of domestic science, logistics, call and messaging services, (ahead of its time), procurement, filing and controller of office hours (held key of hall door). As mentioned, auditing and accounting did not play a part at this stage - education in those areas, if any, took place through correspondence courses. The School of Accountancy was our mentor being preferred to the Rapid Results College which sounded like a low fares airline and if successful would have upset office inflation - our principals depended on us to take at least five years to qualify, if ever.
A priority for the junior was tea-making including sourcing and purchasing the ingredients â?? thatâ??s where the domestic science and logistics came in. It was hard, very hard, managing all this with other duties â?? telephone answering, parcelling ledgers, delivering mail â?? and that on foot. This pressure was apparent one morning when our Principal passed the tea (and filing) room spotting the busy kettle filling the cabin with clouds of steam and exclaiming for all (especially the junior) to hear "will somebody turn off that f****** kettle." While junior was contemplating the necessary executive decision another message was assailing his ears from the office secretary aligning her sentiments with the boss (she always would) - another thing - the milk is out of date "go out again and get fresh milk." Here was a classic clash of priorities - the stuff fitting one for the deepwater decisions of multinational boardrooms. Right now lessons on delegation, distraction, diversion - "Mao TseTung is dead" - anything that might obscure the problem - was learned and applied: this was the coalface of the real business world.
Early forays into the mystical world of accounting came slowly â?? the intricacies of petty cash, the mental agility and stamina required for long tots, and the milestones of reconciling "the bank" and agreeing Trial Balances. Contemporary aspiring accountants probably think tots are children yet hours would be spent sweeping up and down columns of numbers - the father of the spreadsheet. Did we waste our time?
We were apprentice to many things, indeed, and year two brought us upstairs from the bedlam of the general office to the entertainment department. Here we were buried in ledgers, bank statements, journals, cheque and cash books which allowed cover for extravagant games of battleships. More vigorous pursuits included shove ha'penny, cricket (requiring waste paper basket, ruler and ball of selloptaped paper) and elaborate part-singing best remembered for touching renditions of Jimmy Browne and Cock Robin. These activities were confined to times when the partners were off site. One of the more memorable moments was an unusual expression of conscience by a clerk concerned to meet a deadline. His noble intervention was strangely well received and the upshot was an earnest and unanimous decision to "do ten minutes work." This spontaneous burst of integrity led to uncontrollable laughter, which, alas, filled the ten minutes until someone downstairs walloped the ceiling. We always knew when enough was enough - ¦or at least the office secretary did.
Later years opened up responsibilities in the complete preparation of incomplete accounts and engaging in correspondence with the Revenue Commissioners - alas, the days of real formation were over. Acres of auditing and accounting lay ahead - the harvest was extensive and, after all, we were now earning £1 per week.
Another dimension - and markedly different from to-day's behaviour - was the reliance on personal integrity. Whether it was a blind or not the word from the City was "my word is my bond." In auditing case law we studied judgements which placed emphasis on such integrity, accepting the word and statements of senior officers in a corporation. It smacked of parental practice at the time when queried by children about the whys and wherefores of some dictum or other fetching the reply "that's the why". People would have hauled to the Tower and been beheaded for suggesting that conversations might be taped never mind the practice of it. Papal infallibility wasn't the only version in vogue.
The period was not one of economic growth and gyrating stock prices "expectations were low and the way ahead was flat and predictable. Business breakfasts, strategy meetings, power point presentations and mobile phones would have been frowned upon such was the leisurely ambience of the time. However, the economy eventually succumbed to an inflationary bubble and then in revenge built up a head of steam like our over-worked kettle and spoiled the party - perhaps we could find some junior to "turn off that fâ***ing kettle."
Anthony BROPHY FCA is a management consultant based in Waterford and was a former Group Finance Director of Waterford Wedgwood. Mr Brophy launched Waterford as a leading cruise ship port of call in 1987 and, with his wife, Anne, founded SCOW â?? the Symphony Club of Waterford in 1989. He writes fitfully on a variety of topics for a variety of outlets.
Accountancy Ireland, Vol. 34 No 6 December 2002