Firing a Client

Welcome to Accountants LawPod, where accounting professionals and law firms converge, hosted by Lynda Artesani, Sarah Prevost, and Stephen Libhart. Welcome to Accountants LawPod, where accounting professionals and law firms converge, hosted by Lynda Artesani, Sarah Prevost, and Stephen Libhart.

Welcome back to the podcast, Everyone. And how are we all doing today? We all seem to be in a silly mood based on the conversation we had for the last 30 minutes or so.

It's Squirrel Friday at the LawPod.

We gotta get Steve one of these.

Yeah, all I have is a Daffy Duck. I have a rubber Daffy Duck, but its head fell off, so I can't even use that. I know, I need to go to Disney World so I can get a new one.

Oh, his head fell off.

His head fell off, but I still keep him because somebody special gave him to me.

So. Did you put the head back on at least?

No, it's like one of those rubber things.

Oh, no.

I think he got too hot in the window because one day I went there and he was all bent over and his head had fallen off.

And I was like—

So this is different than last week when we were all stressed out anyway.

I know, right? Different, different this week.

Totally.

Yeah.

We're not supposed to be stressed out at this time of the year. This is our good time of the year where we don't have to—

Yeah. Yeah. Are you pretending or something? Yes.

I'm totally acting.

Steve, how has your week been though overall? Just in general.

Well, he's up there.

My week?

He's up there.

How has my week been? Oh, it's been a good week.

Okay, good.

Been getting lots of things done. This kind of segues us into today's subject, but we do have one client who just makes a lot of schedules meetings with us and cancels all the time. We all get those.

Fire him.

That's the topic of the day. How do you fire a client? Actually, and I just let go of two. I don't call it firing. I call it letting go. I release them back onto their own because it just You know, obviously the main reason why you wanna release somebody, if they're not paying you, that's a great reason. Like we— I do—

Yeah.

I get to prepay you and put the credit card in, and then if the credit card fails, and then it's an existing client, so it kind of drags on and you're like, oh, I've had them for 10, 15 years or whatever. Well, I'll just give 'em some space and grace. And then it becomes, all right, I gotta stop the work because I'm not being paid for it. They don't respond. So at some point, and if they do come back and pay you and then it happens again and then it happens again, at some point you just have to like, this is too stressful for what I'm making off of this and I need to let it go. And that's usually what happens.

Well, it's like the disengagement. I mean, that's what attorneys have is a disengagement. If the services, I guess it would be interesting to hear from an attorney's perspective of what would commence something like that where it's not a good fit anymore.

And doesn't our contract— our contract actually speaks to the fact that either party can get let go and stop.

Right.

Right.

We don't lock or box anybody in. Like, you're tied to us for a year, and we price accordingly. So we're not— I know I've heard some accountants will give a lesser price if they lock in for 2 years, or they'll do some kind of a deal. Where I've seen it. I forgot the accountant's name. He would actually do the cleanup. And this is the danger with doing this. He would do a cleanup and the requirement was he kind of priced that out per month and the cleanup's kind of included in that price to go forward. But then what if they let— what if they want out or they stop paying you? How far are you going to go with chasing payment? And I've always been in the school of thought, you just don't ever sue a client. But I've seen it. I think it was on Michelle and Hector's group where somebody was saying like they wanted to sue their person that hadn't paid them, their client. And what are the steps to go through? And there was a lot. It was a big long thread because a lot of people jumped in. Some people were in the same position as me. Just don't sue a client. But then there were other people like, no, they— how much do they owe you? Yes, you should go after it. So it's kind of— I guess it kind of depends on the circumstances.

So Steve, you said you had somebody this week that you feel will be leading into our topic. So you have an existing client that's not honoring just the relationship. I mean, to me, I think—

Well, yeah.

Transactional versus relationship.

I don't want our listeners to think that we're all out to fire our clients. But with that said too, if you're attorneys out there, you have to let clients go. You know, that happens sometimes. They're just not a good fit. And, yeah, you know, some things that cause me to think about that are when they abuse our staff, you know, they'll be kind to us. But then when they get behind the scenes with our staff working on the file and they get really feisty with them, you know, I have to stop and jump in then and say, you know, this— it's okay to take your attorney hat off and put your business hat on and we're here to support you and So, you know, using those phrases to try to build it back up and preserve the relationship. But, you know, ideally it's up to them how they behave and how they listen to us and how they, how they treat us like professionals as well, because I'm real big on that. I mean, Sarah, you and I both come from the hotel business. We were trained that way. You know, it's, it's we'll do everything we can to keep the client happy. But there are certain barriers. Or, you know, I've only had to in the 24 years now that I've been doing this or whatever with law firms, I've only had to let 2 people go. So I'm usually pretty good. I'm usually pretty good at preserving the relationship. But the one I let go completely just cheated on her trust account and we couldn't have that. And the other one I let go was during COVID and people were just crazy then anyway. And she just— she would just stalk me, you know, 24 hours a day with questions and Finally, I was just like, you know, I can't have you asking me why I didn't answer my phone at 5:00 this morning. Those are not our office hours. And, and I was in line at a Trader Joe's store and she called and started yelling at me about something. And I just right there in that line, I just, you know, because that was back when the days where you had to wait to get in the grocery store during COVID I just said to her, you're fired. I can't do this anymore. And she's like, you can't fire me. And I'm like, I just did. Yeah, I said I just did. And every once in a while she'll pop up every 6 months or so wanting to have another meeting and come back. But so that tells me we were doing good work, but just didn't fit our scenario.

So I think—

That's saying it kindly.

Yeah, my thread is I'm big on this is a relationship versus transactional, right?

Right. I like that.

That's what I kind of like to lead with because I am— we are putting a lot of heart and soul into this.

Yeah.

But also, I really feel like it's not just on our side, any professional service.

Sure.

The services that our clients offer, there has to be value. Obviously, the difference is with attorneys, anytime you write them, there's a charge on an email if that's how they bill. So you get that kind of the beauty of that is you get that buffer, right? You get that stopgap like, oh, every time I write them, I'm gonna get a 0.25, you know, automatic kind of thing. It's gotta be the same mutual respect the other way. And if that's not, depends on how we've leveled our engagement of services. But to your point, Steve, there— Yes, we can be available and we care. To a point, it is your business. Can't care more than you, but I'm also not the backstop to all the emotional worries either.

There you go.

Figure out a better way to handle it. So, right. Yeah, it's like that with anything. Like, I know that's why I try to think of like the position. What is this position that we're all facing? Your life circumstances are not going to deem my urgency for you. They're urgent for you. There is a protocol and a way that we need to handle this within business. This is business.

And I think really, when you think about letting go of a client and being in business for as many years as collectively the 3 of us have been in business, I mean, the main reasons, especially when working with lawyers, I would say, is nonpayment is going to stand out first if somebody's not—

Absolutely. Starts the ball rolling. Or consistency of payment.

Consistency.

They'll pay in chunks like, oh, I didn't pay for the last 3. No, we don't do work like that. That's not how we operate.

And then compliance, Sarah. We let go of a pretty good-sized client due to compliance because they weren't compliant. They wouldn't listen to us. They wouldn't follow what we were trying to explain to them what was happening in their file, and they refused. They flat out refused to fix it. And at that point, and I think She was also kind of not just the compliance piece, but also intermittent with giving us the documents we needed. And that's the other piece, because funny, now I got a new term for it, ghosting. They ghosted you. They just don't respond timely. And then when they do respond, it's a ball of fire. I need this done right away.

Exactly.

And it's hard for our staff. We can't— and obviously, and disrespecting staff would definitely land in the category of maybe having to have the conversation. And if it doesn't change, then they have to be let go. If they're just disrespectful overall, not just— if they had an issue with a staff person, yeah, you could probably move the staff person, but disrespectful overall. And you can figure that out pretty quickly in the way they talk to you.

I mean, if you think about it, like any law firm, any employer, Regardless of law firm, right? Any employer, your staff is somewhat of an extension of you and not all parties work well together. So if, yeah, if something happened from our side that wasn't, we'd like to say, oh, that's not the best way we would handle that. Let's look to having somebody else take this over. That's fine. We can easily do that. But we are, in general, our staff is so supportive. Are so in love with the work themselves. They enjoy it, and the clients, they take pride in their craft. Um, so, and yeah, so it's not like a churning kind of thing. I feel like maybe the stage of life where we are in general, um, it's so hard to— when you look at bigger corporations— to identify the individuals separate from the larger corporations. damn them or shoot them or whatever that is, you know, kind of feeling. And really it's the human being that's just on the phone trying to get their job done. And hopefully they're reasonable to hear you out. So—

You can get a fiery message and they're coming at you like they're just cutthroat coming right at you. And usually it's directed at you or me and not towards the staff. And then sometimes we're fortunate to have the partnership, and obviously Steve can call us anytime if it happens to him.

We do.

Right, get that second set of eyes on it and interpretation from that third party where they're looking at it going, you know, and then we always step back and go, okay, take a deep breath. Don't answer today or immediately because you want to respond, you want to slap back.

Well, you know what, Lynda, you do want to do— that's human nature.

No, put it in a Word doc.

I'm going to type it back really fast. Yeah, I'll do that. I'll type it in a Word doc and save it and then— Tone it down.

Hold it. Hold it.

What was going on with that person? What was happening in their world that caused that? What was the circumstances around it? So you're not going to fire for something like that unless it's really egregious. I don't think you would do that. But we've had our fair share of attorneys are direct. They'll come right back at you if there's something that they don't like. I had one recently this week that sent me a message. Actually, it was a week ago today. And sent this message about these books are wrong. There's something wrong. You're not doing this right. It was not very nice tone. And it bothered me so much that I pulled the records up, pulled the financials, and I thought, are you looking at July? I hadn't reconciled that month yet and looked at it, had no eyes on it. And he was like, I just— he didn't say what he was looking at.

Yeah.

I want a meeting with you. Made the meeting, come into the meeting. I sent him, so it bothered me enough. I went through the reports, I reconciled July, I went through all the records, I combed through them, I went through everything. I made a video explaining what each thing was and gave them to him. And then I met him on Tuesday and he said, Lynda Artesani] Lynda, I'm so sorry. I looked at all your records. They're perfect. I was looking at the, uh, the cards, you know, the performance center in QuickBooks. I said, oh, don't look at that. That is so—

Yeah.

You don't know how that's default preset.

Oh man.

Had me making $350,000 and I was not making that. And I knew I wasn't. And he said, it looked like that was me made in one month. And I thought your records were wrong. I said, do not go by that. And that's the second client that we've had. Oh, that has looked at that default performance center and went off the rails because they don't understand it. They get all these graphs and charts that don't make sense, and it was not set properly. And I don't know, like, I don't know if I change— I have to find this out. I don't know if I change the dashboard and if I can put it in cash basis and all the things it needs to be for what he needs to see. I don't know, am I changing it? Does that change his?

I don't know. I think it's user. It's user dependent, Lynda. I don't—

So if he's not set at default, I can't even change you.

You'd have to have him on a screen share and then just go ahead and fix that. I know.

It's just dumb. But that's how I feel about the Performance Center right now, because that's the second client that had that happen. One with our—

Well, that's why we use the different apps to create different reports for the clients. And then you have to steer them off that way. And I've told clients that's a very That's a very generic screen that you're looking at. That's not, that's not the whole picture.

You don't want them in QuickBooks at all.

Right.

But if they are in it, and this happens to be somebody that I think the week, I call them the weekend warriors that have nothing to do on the weekend and they just, I'm gonna go through my QuickBooks. And then on Monday morning or Sunday or Saturday, you get this long email, move this to this category, move this to this category, or you got this, you know, I was just like, whoa. And I just, to me it was kind of shocking because this is a very nice person and the way he constructed his email was very rude to me. And then he apologized. But, you know, it's like, you know, but I'm new to him, so kind of new, not, I don't have 10 years with him, but it's just like, I don't know. And that's the circumstances that can burn and fuel a bad relationship, which can then lead down to firing. Right.

And. Yeah.

When it comes to firing a client, how do you handle it? Do you call them, email them, Zoom message them, Messenger message them? I mean, there's lots of things that you can do.

I think when I get to that point where I'm really thinking about it, I talk to 'em on the phone or face-to-face.

Oh, it's a conversation.

It doesn't scare me to do that. We're all human beings. If we can't even talk to each other, that tells you a lot right there. You know, emails can be, misleading. You know, it can— you can go down a different rabbit hole that wasn't even intended. So I don't do— I don't like to do it that way.

We had one that we sent an email to, and we were real clear, we are disengaging with you on X date. And he knew it, and his answer back was, wow. He wrote, wow, and can we talk about this?

Yeah.

And at that point, I was so mad, I'm like, I don't even want to talk to you. I don't want anything to do with him anymore. And Everybody's like, oh, I feel bad. And it worked out.

So yeah. I think it's just, it kind of goes back to in my brain of just relationship management.

Yes.

To your point, like what you were saying, Lynda, we get these, we do, we all get these and clients get these.

Yeah.

Attacky emails. And I'm trying this stage in my life. It's like I want to be based on facts, less of the emotion. If I am really upset, I could just write, I'm pretty disheartened by this, or I'm upset by this. Open the door for communicate. I don't know what's happening in your world. And I feel like we're at this stage in this market space that we live in where everything is just text-oriented and less— it isn't nice. And I wish we could get back to nice. I'm definitely one of those people. I'd rather pick up the phone and call you than even sit there and have to craft and write the whole thing. Yeah.

You pick up the phone. And we've told staff that. I've heard you say, why are you going back and forth? Just talk to them.

Yeah, I've done that before too. I'll say, did you call them? And they'll say no. And I'm like, pick up the phone and call them. Really? You're human. They're human.

It's okay.

Get it over the conversation when you do that.

Yeah.

It's almost like you now care about them enough to pick up the phone and have the human contact of talking, right?

Yeah.

That you took the time out as opposed to writing and writing and writing. And it's just making it worse and worse. Sometimes it's like salt in the wound. It just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.

Well, I'll tell you, I love my friends over here at Gusto because when this happened, I was really challenged by Our mutual— one, something for our mutual client this week, and I was really— I was writing back and forth, and the lead person just went ahead and said, hey, look, I'm just gonna book time on your calendar and just put it on there so we could have a quick Zoom because it was just easier for me to get in front and explain what am I missing, because I'm clearly— I'm seeing what you're saying, but I'm not seeing the whole picture, and you've got the other side of the story. And within that 30 minutes, we got that resolved and two other things resolved. And I was like, well, thank you. And then off I go to the next meeting.

Well, you know, that made me think of something too. Quite often we, we being all of us, will get a client, a new client or what have you, that has been through an experience that wasn't positive with another bookkeeping or accounting firm.

Oh, yeah.

And so they bring, they bring that luggage with them. And they're angry even though they just hired us. They're angry. And so— and sometimes it takes months to diffuse that, to build that trust. And so to your point, Sarah, it's how you handle people and that relationship. This is relationships here, you know, where there is a fine line where we're not on your staff. Okay, so you need to respect our hours, we'll respect yours, those sorts of things. But really, give us the time to build the trust here. We're not that other firm.

You know, that's sort of separate identity.

Yeah. Sometimes they were burned so bad from the bookkeeping firm that it takes a lot to— I mean, I had that happen with a client that he was burned really badly. The bookkeeper stole from him. So I had to really walk on eggshells with him to start with.

Yeah, it's just terrible.

So afraid of that happening again that they had done everything they could to make sure that it wouldn't happen again. But they were fearful and they didn't know me from Adam when I walked in the door and started working with them. And they were so nice, but so was the other person. So the trust was gone when I came in. I had to work to build that back up.

Yeah, I'm a good networker.

But there are people, bad people out there. I mean, you know.

Well, and sometimes you have to remind them that, you know, we do 99.99999% of your transactions correct and that 1/1,000,000th of a percent that we did wrong causes this whole panic on their side. And you have to go back and say, wait a minute, you know, that one error does not mean there are others.

That everything is wrong, right?

That everything's wrong.

Yeah. Yeah. I, you know, in general though, I do. I feel like when you know that going in, Yes, you have to price for the extra time for explanation. Just anticipate it, you know. And then additionally, I do feel strongly that, you know, I don't mind. It's— please, I'm not saying I'm 100% accurate or my— please, let's have a conversation about what you'd like to see differently. But what you said earlier, we are not dictated to. The whole spirit of this engagement is that we are in a mutual relationship and we're looking to backstop your backend and to ensure that you're getting financials in a timely fashion or the things that you need to drive your business. That's the relationship.

Yeah.

The attacking, the questioning of hours and time spent, if you really feel that the value's not there, Go ahead and fire yourself. By all means, walk out the door. That's fine. But that's not how we engage, right? And so I really, we, I feel like ultimately, and it's hard in small business because we're all at the front line. Every single business is at the front line. But those extra things that you do, Steve, and you keep track of, how convenient for people to forget. Yeah. And justify those away. No, I'm sorry, that took me 8 hours extra time for me to get everything you need, compile it the way you wanted it so you could get that loan and you just conveniently forgot about that relationship? I'm here to remind you.

Yeah.

That's not gonna work for us going forward. So it just, it strongly goes back to, and maybe this isn't about how to fire, but how to really reengage and engage in a meaningful way because that's really what this is about. And that's what the services we look for as valued clients and us giving you that service. We are your partners. We are not in the space to operate in this other way. If you need that, though, there are services out there and I've heard people going to them. They've burned the bridge with me. Oh, I'm going to have it way better over here. And then I find out later. Oh, well, looky there. Doesn't work. But you chose to be so rude and dogmatic and just intentionally mean. No, we're done. I poured my heart and you didn't recognize it. Well, that's gone.

Well, there's two tools in the toolbox. One of them I mentioned a while ago, and that's where you tell them, take your attorney hat off. And I don't have a problem saying that. Let's take the attorney hat off today and let's talk like two grown-up people. When you reach that point, number two, the second tool— excuse me, the second tool in the toolbox is the firm administrator or the person at the front desk, depending on the size of the firm. Make friends with those people because they hold the keys to the kingdom. And so it isn't beneath me. I'll call sometimes. I'll call that person and say, hey, how are things going over there? You know, thank you for this bank statement that you sent. And they'll just dump all over you. Oh my God, she's just crazy and she's driving me nuts. And then I sit here going, okay, it's not us. You know, and, you know, if it's a, if it's a relationship that you can preserve, sometimes maybe you send them some flowers. Hey, hope things are going better for you or, or whatever. Because like you said a while ago, we don't know what's going on in their world. They don't know what's going on in our world. But dang, I'll tell you folks that are listening or watching this particular podcast, we care about you or you wouldn't be in our stable of work. Mm-hmm.

Right.

You know, because there's enough work for us out there. And I'm not saying that we have— we're on this pedestal, but what I am saying is that, you know, there's enough work out there for us that we can replace it pretty easy. But we took you on because we believe in you and what you're doing as a law firm. And we really like that. We like that a lot.

You know, I have this client, Steve, that man, I just love him. Like, I'll randomly text him because I'm thinking about something and I'll just say, I hope you're having a great Saturday. Here you go. Or something will pop in or just from like, let him know like, hey, did you know that our team is talking about all these efficiencies for you? Just wanted you to be aware. I love that. I love that because I know it excites him and excites us. I get excited for the improvements in the work product and the way to lift him up. I love the energy of this individual. It's just, it's really exciting for me. And I find that's where my heart goes.

He's like the hidden gem of customers. If you ever, like, if you could create the perfect client, it would be him. He's that one.

The best part is he owns it when he's like, oh, I just bomb, just change my— stop, stop, stop, stop, stop, stop. And so anyways, it's very sweet, but we, it is a true relationship and it's nice to be on the outside of it because if obviously for an employee, how do you feel confident to share these things? You need that advisor service, you need that guidance. All of us need it. I mean, we need it in our own businesses. This is what we do for each other. So I feel like this is like really how to reengage or how to deepen your relationship. In these professional services and trust if the tenure's there or the space is there to be able to learn how to trust each other and communicate well with each other.

So— Well, and I think part of it too is constantly educating them on what we need from them and when we need it. That can be, you know, a song that you sing all day long every day to them, but that builds that relationship because once they realize that the product they get back is really good because they were part of that process instead of just, oh my God, I need to get these things to them. It's Sunday afternoon. Well, I'll get them sent by Wednesday or whatever. I mean, you understand what I'm saying. But if you can create that sort of symbiotic relationship with them where we're both feeding each other, they see the results and they trust then.

You know what I love, Steve, that you're saying this? I don't know, Lynda, if you feel this way, but You know, I've— some clients have been with me since my son was a lot younger, and now they're hearing me say he's going off to college, right?

Yeah.

Wow. And that— and then I realize when they pop up and I'm like, oh my God, you just had your first child when I— shortly after I met you. Or Lynda, you've— I know that you've had this for— and it's, it's amazing. Like, we've talked about this privately, but I mean, I don't know, Lynda. I feel like sometimes when I'm telling you this, you're like, oh, I've heard that before. I've been that person before. It's exciting.

Clients that are aging out where they're getting ready to retire. I've had them for 25 years or more, right? And it's like, yeah, they are at that. They were older than me when I started working with them and they're starting to look at selling or whatever. It's just, it's part of a cycle. And so clients come, clients go, but The firing of a client is definitely not a fun circumstance, and it's usually something that's— you've exhausted all efforts to get to that point.

Exactly.

Basically, it's not something that you do lightly, and having to do it professionally. So tip of the day, right? If you're listening, if you do it professionally, ultimately they'll talk to other people. They will not brag about being fired, but expect that they'll be surprised. Correct. They're surprised both ways. Usually they have a feeling, right? Because we've always had a feeling if a client's gonna be leaving us, if it's not working out. And then just do it professionally. Do it ultra professionally. Give them space.

Okay.

Grace to find somebody new.

Yeah.

Maybe you can help them find somebody that might be a better fit. So if it's a problem with not fitting in with your firm, maybe it's, you know, and a lot of times it can be that you just don't feel appreciated. As Steve mentioned, you don't feel appreciated or you're not feeling that they're not getting the value. They're not feeling the value that you know you're providing. So maybe that system doesn't— person doesn't work out with your firm, but might work out with somebody else. But if you do it professionally, you always hold your head up high 'cause you never know when you're gonna run into somebody at the mailbox or out on the road or at the supermarket or just in general, you know, you're on a trip and all of a sudden there's your old client. You wanna make sure that you did it in the right way, provided them the documents, give them the chance to download all the documents that you've shared before you archive away their, their matters and details. I think that's the most important things when you're exiting a time with an attorney-client. You just want to make sure that you do, because we have professional relationships with them. They're professional, we're professional. It's the best way to do it.

So there's no— Always take the high road.

Yeah.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Well, this is a really good topic actually.

Well, you know, another thing too is don't be afraid when it comes to that point where you're feeling like it's not going to work out. To, to pick up the phone or go to lunch with them and just say, say to them, every time the phone— when a call comes through and I see it's you, I get on edge. And this is why. It's okay to tell them that because they know that, you know, same with us. They might say, well, you never return my phone calls. And I'll be like, okay, well, well, tell me when I didn't return it within 24 hours. And they can't. You know, but it's the kind of service that we're providing where we have permission to take it to that human level when it gets to that point. And you can agree, you can agree to disagree, or you can agree that you need to go your separate ways, or you can lay down groundwork for a better future for the relationship.

Better check-in period, a better process, something that makes it more confident feeling between the two of you, or— Yeah.

Yeah.

There's opportunity.

Maybe before you fire, you actually sit down with the person and just talk through it. Hear their perception of it.

Yeah.

Hear their story and understand what you see. And then having that conversation back and forth to let them know why it's not working, where it's failing, and maybe you can fix it. Maybe the fix is to end it, but at least that way you've had that open door communication with the client. I think that's, that's being respectful.

That's very respectful and professional.

I love it.

I love it. And it gives you the opportunity to hear from them, whether it's correct or not, what their challenges are with you and what may— Yeah, you can learn from it. You can either be validated that you're either crazy or you're not.

Yeah. A lot of people want to be right. I'm like, why do you need to be right in the relationship? Why can't this just be a relationship? You know what I mean? Yeah, it'd be an interesting way to handle it going forward.

Well, and, you know, bless their hearts, attorneys are really in an emotional, mostly emotional type of work. And, you know, they have to tell—

In the practice area.

They have to tell clients no. They have to tell client— they have to listen to the deep dark side sometimes of their clients depending on the type of law they practice. You know, that's very emotional and very draining for them. And so if you as a bookkeeper or accountant are looking at the type of attorney you're working with and stop for a minute before you react and get emotional yourself with them, stop and think for a minute, what are they dealing with? And that, that goes back again to why I say take the attorney hat off. Let's talk like people here, you know? Yeah.

Well, it was a good topic.

Thanks again for a good conversation. This was good.

I don't know how this one came about, but this was a good conversation. I think it would probably help a lot of people out there that are listening.

It was therapeutic for me to get it off my chest.

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Oh, and you know what I was thinking?

What were you thinking?

I was like, well, maybe I should fire myself from— for the rest of the day so I can enjoy the afternoon.

Sarah, I'll do it. You're fired.

No, Sarah, you're hired. You can't leave.

What is this? Oh, that was fun.