Redefining Fun…
At my work today, we’re having an internal audit. They are fun…if your definition of fun involves pain and possibly torture (and maybe it does…we don’t judge here at Patrick Says). But whee! It’s over tomorrow, there’s that.
Let me give a couple phrases you should not be saying during an internal audit. If you say either of these phrases more than once, it’s probably not going well:
- ‘Oh yeah. I can explain that.’ – You’ve just been questioned on something and the explanation is going to take more than 60 seconds. Wrap it up quickly, my friend. The BS detectors with auditors start going off at the 90-second mark.
- ‘Just so you know, before it comes up…’ – You’ve got something so bad coming up that you’re trying to soften the blow. Good luck. You can pad it all you want, but the auditor is still going to hand you your ass at the end of the day.
I don’t think I’ve used either phrase more than once…okay…maybe twice. If it goes bad and I don’t make it and you see me somewhere next week selling plasma lifts, please give me a reassuring pat on the back and a ‘I feel ya, dog’. It’s the right thing to do.
October 26th, 2007 at 6:34 am
I feel your pain! We have internal audits going on here too… What’s worse is that OUR audit doesn’t start for a couple more weeks, but we keep getting drug into other departments’ audits!
October 26th, 2007 at 11:55 am
We have auditors in for our clients all the time. Some are from the IRS some are from the state for unemployment issues or sales tax. We even have audits for our clients for insurance purposes. One auditor conducted a sales tax audit that lasted for over 3 weeks! It was almost like having a new employee LOL My boss gets nervous during audits, you just never know what will go down. Glad it’s over for ya!
October 26th, 2007 at 6:00 pm
special. kind. of. hell. i hate our internal audits because we knowingly ignore 90% of the recommendations. so every year we get hit for the exact same things…
October 27th, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Repeat write-ups are serious in our audits and people get canned for that kind of finding. I work hard to make sure anything they find is completely new!