Inside the pressure cooker: Taking care of yourself and your team during tax season

Editor: April Walker, CPA, CGMA

(Part 1 of a series, “When the Numbers Don’t Add Up”)

The numbers always add up — until they don’t.

Every January, firms across the country shift into a rhythm both familiar and relentless. Calendars tighten, inboxes overflow, and somewhere between the first engagement letter and the 15th coffee refill, the tax season begins to blur into a single, unending workday.

Tax professionals push forward, convincing themselves that the long days and nights are temporary, that it’s “just a few weeks until April.” But behind every deadline lies a quieter truth: The cost of the season isn’t measured only in hours billed. It is measured in energy spent, relationships strained, and people stretched too thin to remember why they do this work in the first place.

This first column in a “When the Numbers Don’t Add Up” series explores what it means to lead from inside the pressure cooker. It’s about protecting the people behind the spreadsheets, recognizing when the team’s energy is flagging, modeling balance when chaos peaks, and building a culture where resilience isn’t luck; it’s leadership.

Tax season will always test your systems. But at what point does the system break, and what can you do to prevent that? Busy season burnout isn’t just a morale problem; it’s a quality problem, a retention problem, and an identity problem. When people are depleted, review cycles slow, the need to rework assignments rises, and the best talent quietly starts scanning LinkedIn. The hidden cost shows up in next year’s staffing plan long before it shows up on a profit–and–loss statement.

Understanding the pressure cooker

Busy season’s technical challenges are measurable; the emotional ones are not. Hours are predictable, deadlines fixed, Code sections immutable. The real strain comes from perfectionism, responsibility, the quiet fear of letting someone down, and the desire to meet or exceed the expectations of those relying on you.

Tax professionals are wired for precision. That same drive for accuracy can turn inward, breeding anxiety when the workload outpaces our limits. Combine that with long hours, constant interruptions, and tight review cycles, and the result is predictable: fatigue, irritability, and disconnection.

Behavioral scientists call this cognitive depletion, the erosion of decision quality and empathy when mental energy runs low. In the firm environment, it shows up as terse emails, missed details, or that hollow feeling of running on autopilot.

Leaders often underestimate how contagious this fatigue can be. When partners or managers push through exhaustion, their teams follow suit. When partners or managers ignore stress, it becomes the culture. Recognizing the symptoms isn’t weakness; it’s the first move toward change.

Leadership mindset: Modeling calm in chaos

The best leaders aren’t invincible, but they’re aware enough to recognize and address the chaos with pace and tone. A team’s emotional temperature mirrors its leader’s. When leaders operate at a frantic hum, everyone else tunes to the same frequency.

The traditional model of “leading by example” often glorifies overwork: staying later, replying faster, grinding harder. Yet what’s being modeled isn’t excellence, but rather depletion. True leadership requires modeling calm, not constant motion.

A subtle but powerful shift begins when leaders give their teams permission to pause. This permission can come in a simple form. Blocking time for a walk, setting a no–email window after hours, or admitting “I need a reset today” signals that boundaries aren’t optional; they’re professional necessities. We all talk about setting boundaries for ourselves, but true leaders also give their teams permission to set boundaries. It is important that you as a leader respect those boundaries.

One useful habit many teams have adopted is a pulse check. Once a week, leaders ask a simple question: “How’s your energy today?” It’s not, “How’s your workload today?” The language matters. It is a simple twist on a commonly asked question. As a leader, how often are you worried about a team member’s workload and not overloading someone? Just a simple change from “workload” to “energy” reframes the discussion around their mental and emotional capacity, rather than their performance. Responses like “I’m running low” or “I’m solid, but others need help” open space for empathy and redistribution of work before burnout takes hold.

Leaders who normalize this kind of honesty build stronger teams. When care becomes operational, not ornamental, productivity and trust rise together.

Practical strategies that work

No single fix can tame the chaos of tax season, but small, deliberate practices compound into resilience. Here are approaches that the authors have seen work well to reduce burnout and improve team connection:

Plan, plan, and plan

Busy season is called that for a reason. It is the time of year when we shine, but it also can cause tremendous burnout. A well–planned–out busy season can help reduce burnout and improve team connection. Of course, things do not always go as planned, so be prepared for that. Hopefully, you created a clear plan and set clear expectations for all interested parties: staff and clients. The worst thing you can do is go into tax season with a laissez–faire attitude toward the season’s workflow.

If you haven’t done so already, a good place to start is by setting clear expectations: with clients about when they need to submit tax return materials and with staff regarding the tax season workflow. Stick to those expectations no matter how hard that may be.

Having a clear plan for tackling the work of tax season also sets a clear path for your team. If you didn’t go into this tax season with a clear plan, making a note of that for extension season or next year is a good step.

Structured resets

Tiny breaks make a measurable difference. Try 10–minute “micro–pauses” midweek during peak filing months. Everyone stops working — no email, no review, no phones. The purpose isn’t leisure; it’s reset.

Adopt rituals such as “Friday huddles” or “decompression mornings” after major deadlines. Even a standing calendar reminder for a team stretch or quick trivia session can punctuate the monotony.

Consistent and predictable pauses train teams to breathe collectively, reducing stress without sacrificing output.

Communication rhythms

Silence is the enemy of balance and result of stress. When stress rises, communication often shrinks and assumptions grow. Leaders can counter this with rhythm and clarity:

• Morning alignment calls: Fifteen minutes to confirm top priorities for the day. Not a meeting about meetings, just focus setting.
• Wellness check posts: Quick, lighthearted digital prompts (“What’s keeping you sane this week?” or “Rate your caffeine level from 1—10”) that spark humor and humanity.
• Rotating lunch partners: Pair team members for weekly lunches or virtual chats to preserve informal connection across levels.

Communication routines don’t just improve efficiency; they remind everyone they’re part of something larger than their individual workload.

Be ready to act when you can on communication from your team. Too many times, leaders take in their team’s comments and never act on them. While this open communication is a good start, failing to act on any of the team’s comments will only lead to more distrust in the firm.

Protected time

The promise to “rest after April 15” is an illusion. Waiting until the end means recovery starts too late.

Instead, leaders should make recovery part of the schedule during busy season. Protecting time could mean blocking one afternoon a week for personal tasks, banning internal meetings after 5 p.m., or establishing firmwide “focus hours” where messages pause.

Even small acts, like scheduling visible exercise blocks on the firm calendar and normalizing self–care, can help. When people see leaders practicing balance, it legitimizes their own boundaries.

Protected time is a leadership signal: Rest is not reward — it’s maintenance.

Peer support and psychological safety

One of the strongest buffers against burnout is belonging. Team members that trust one another can admit when they’re overwhelmed. That transparency transforms potential crises into shared problem–solving.

Creating that environment requires intention. Peer mentoring, rotating “accountability partners,” or informal buddy systems allow staff to check in on one another. The key is safety: no judgment and no penalty for asking for help.

Peer mentoring is a great tool if done well, but there are some things people are not willing to talk about with a peer. Provide employees with a confidential outlet for help with personal issues, stress, and burnout.

The moment a teammate says, “I’m drowning,” and hears, “Let’s figure it out,” something shifts. That’s how trust forms, not through posters or promises but through quiet, consistent grace.

Measure what matters

There is an old saying: What gets measured gets managed. We know this saying all too well as accountants. Data can reinforce well–being or erode it. When firms track only billable hours, they reward exhaustion and grinding out work. When firms track engagement, retention, and feedback metrics, they build sustainability.

Some leadership teams have introduced “capacity dashboards” that blend utilization data with energy surveys or anonymous feedback. It helps identify when a department is overloaded before turnover becomes the indicator.

Others use postseason reviews to rate each tax cycle not just on revenue but on morale. The insight gained from those reviews often shapes staffing, automation priorities, and client selection for the following year.

If something is worth valuing, it’s worth measuring, and that includes the team’s health.

Physical health can help sustain mental health

Many studies emphasize the need for sleep, nutrition, and exercise to maintain a healthy lifestyle. Ignoring these needs affects your physical health and also has an enormous impact on your mental health. If you eat poorly, you feel bad. If you sleep poorly, you feel bad. If you sit at your desk all day, you feel bad.

As a leader, you can encourage your team to take care of themselves physically to protect their mental health. During busy season, consider introducing a “walking challenge” to encourage team members to stay active during a period that can often require many hours at the desk. This creates a great opportunity for team members not only to keep their minds engaged but to engage in a friendly competition they can talk about in casual conversation.

Sleep is one of the most important things we do each day. Never reward someone for pulling an all–nighter. This is the opposite of what leaders should encourage.

Technology and flexibility as relief valves

Technology can either amplify stress or relieve it, depending on intent. When used well, technology — such as workflow and management tools, AI, and automation — frees teams from repetitive tasks and reduces decision fatigue. Used poorly, technology simply accelerates chaos.

The key for effective technology use is what replaces the time saved. If it’s immediately consumed by more work, nothing changes. If it’s reinvested in recovery — time for training, connection, or even quiet focus — the technology becomes a wellness tool.

Flexibility, too, has become both an opportunity and a challenge. Hybrid work allows for better balance but can lead to isolation. Leaders must be deliberate about digital connection, using video check–ins, virtual celebrations, and shared acknowledgment of wins.

Stories that illustrate the shift

Across firms of all sizes, certain activities have consistently produced positive results:

• Midweek “reset hours” when client calls and internal deadlines are not allowed. Teams use that time to regroup, clear inboxes, or simply step outside.
• Leadership coffee chats with no agenda but with open spaces where staff can voice concerns, share small victories, or vent safely.
• Internal story-sharing forums where employees anonymously post reflections from the season — funny, candid, even chaotic moments that remind everyone they’re not alone.

These aren’t grand programs or costly initiatives. They are signals that people matter more than the pace and quantity of their work. In many cases, such efforts have directly correlated with higher retention, improved client feedback, and faster postseason recovery.

Recovery and reflection

When the last return is filed and silence replaces the steady ping of notifications, leaders face a choice: Move on quickly or stop to learn.

Those who pause build stronger systems for next year. Include your team in the tax season debrief. Ask them the following questions:

• What did you expect this tax season?
• What happened, compared to your expectations?
• Which clients are taking from your joy?
• What ideas or processes do you suggest we implement to achieve a better tax season?

Gather this data and act on it. Demonstrate to your team that their voices matter and they are heard. Involving them in the process improvement will let them feel “bought in” to the process.

Some teams gather informally, mixing laughter with lessons. Others run structured postseason surveys to identify pressure points, communication gaps, software issues, or uneven workloads. The findings guide training and scheduling for the next cycle.

Reflection isn’t indulgence; it’s infrastructure for improvement. And it’s not just for the team. Leaders should self–audit as well: Which boundaries slipped? Which habits held firm? Did I communicate empathy as clearly as expectations?

Without that reset, stress compounds year after year until it becomes culture. Reflection keeps the slate clean.

The leadership equation

Leading through tax season is emotional labor. It means holding composure when clients panic, offering encouragement when energy dips, and projecting steadiness while managing personal fatigue.

The myth of the unflappable leader is fading. Teams no longer expect perfection; they crave authenticity. A simple acknowledgment like, “I’m feeling the pressure too, but here’s how we’ll handle it,” builds credibility far faster than stoicism.

Effective leaders act as translators, turning uncertainty into clarity and fatigue into focus. They don’t absorb everyone’s stress; they distribute resilience.

The measure of great leadership during busy season isn’t the number of hours worked; it’s how many people want to return next year.

From survival to sustainability

The “When the Numbers Don’t Add Up” series begins with inner work — how leaders protect themselves and their teams. Future articles will shift outward: redesigning client relationships, modernizing workflows, and building a culture where well–being and profitability coexist.

Everything starts here. Without a healthy internal foundation, every process improvement collapses under the same human strain. Self–care reflects effective leadership.

Tax season has always tested endurance. The difference now is that leaders are finally acknowledging that endurance alone isn’t enough. Sustainability of energy, empathy, and engagement is the new professional skill set.

The human ledger

Every firm maintains two ledgers. One tracks the billables, extensions, and reconciliations that define the work. The other, the invisible one, tracks energy, trust, and purpose. Most of us were never taught to read that second ledger, yet it’s the one that determines whether a firm truly thrives.

As leaders, we owe it to our teams to balance both: to treat recovery as part of productivity; to model calm instead of chaos; and to remember that excellence and exhaustion are not the same thing.

The next tax season will come faster than any of us expect. The deadlines won’t get lighter. The legislation won’t get simpler. But the way we lead can change everything.

When we start measuring success not just by the returns filed but by the people who return the following year, motivated, connected, and proud, we’ll finally have a season that truly adds up.

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Contributors

Mark Gallegos, CPA, MST, is a partner with Porte Brown Accountants & Advisers in Elgin, Ill. Shannon Hudson, CPA, MST, is a partner with Altair Group PLLC in Bedford, N.H. Brandon Lagarde, CPA, J.D., LL.M., is partner, Tax Services, with EisnerAmper in Baton Rouge, La. April Walker, CPA, CGMA, is lead manager–Tax Practice & Ethics, Public Accounting, for AICPA & CIMA. Gallegos, Hudson, and Lagarde are members, and Walker is staff liaison, of the AICPA Tax Practice Management Committee. For more information about this column, contact thetaxadviser@aicpa.org.