Are You Sitting Next to a Lout?

Are accounting firms so desperate they'll hire even self-centered clods?

The question came to mind the other night when I pulled into my local convenience store. A car was parked across three or so spaces, preventing me from parking my own car in front of the door.

"Why is that car parked that way?” asked my 10-year-old, who was in the backseat with a friend.

“It belongs to somebody who doesn’t care whether anyone else can park in front of the door,” I told her.

We go in, I grab a gallon of milk, and at the register my daughter points out there’s a pile of gum packs lying on the floor in front of the counter. The clerk says he knows all about it. "That little kid who just left knocked them over," he tells us. "Her mom said, ‘Leave them. We don’t have to pick them up.’”

Guess which car they were driving?

"You'd make me pick them up," says my daughter. I agree and tell her I'll help her pick up the gum now. Even though we didn't spill it, we'll do a good deed. My daughter's friend chimes in: “If I knocked over the gum, my mother wouldn’t even help, she’d just make me pick up the gum by myself.”

Naturally, I wonder where the sideways parking, gum-leaving woman works. It's what made me wonder if it was at some accounting firm. After all, these days firms sometimes just want a body behind a desk.

So, back to my question: Are firms desperate enough to hire the self-centered? Can you be oblivious to the needs of others and still make it in accounting? How many of these idiots do you work with - or for?

Post your answer below.