The Secret Diary of Nick Sladden, Aged 50 3/4

Monday, 16th May

Do sharks complain about Monday? No. They’re up early, biting stuff, chasing things, being scary – reminding everyone they’re a shark. I had already decided that I was going to adopt this mentality for the week ahead so I’m up early, and in the absence of much spare time this week, I need to get ahead with my fitness. I jump on my indoor exercise bike, pedal frantically for 16km, have breakfast and get some audit work done before my first Teams meeting at 8am.

Then the week really starts, because it’s #RSMWeek . The first event is a broadcast and update on the firm given by our CEO, Rob Donaldson. The standard of the broadcast is higher than ever (production by the amazing Clare James and her team - highly recommended!), which makes me slightly nervous ahead of my own appearance on Wednesday. Over the years, like most people, I’ve had that voice in my head nagging away and sowing the seeds of doubt, but as I’ve gained more experience I am getting better at quietening the negatives. I keep telling myself that it will be alright on the night and try to dismiss the annoying voice.

My theme for today could be about investment: investing in my fitness, The Duke of Edinburgh's Award investing in young people, and finding a little time to invest in my family at the end of the day.

I’ve invested in doing a little fitness, so now I'm off on the HighSpeed1 train to St Pancras International to get the tube to Green Park and arrive at Buckingham Palace for 1pm. When I cut across from Green Park into Pall Mall I can see the preparations are already well underway for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations where the grandstand is in place. I'm attending this event in my role as chair of trustees of the RSM UK Foundation and today is the first celebration since the onset of COVID-19 for recent DofE gold award winners. The RSM UK Foundation has provided annual funding to the DofE in excess of ￡200,000 for a number of years now and we’re all immensely proud of the 20,000 young people that are enabled as being part of the scheme. Days like this will stay in my memory for a long time. It’s great to see my colleagues celebrating their gold award as we tour Buckingham Palace.

It’s a very British affair and the band are playing. I have the honour of being introduced to Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex and Forfar and managed to keep my sneezing and hay fever under control for the five minutes that he speaks to our gold award winners and me.

We were really lucky with the weather and with half an hour before the event closed, I decided to undertake a tour of the gardens to get some photographs for my wife, who is a gardener. I know that I will be interrogated when I get home as to what type of plants and flowers were on display. My knowledge is pathetic about horticultural matters: I classify things as "trees", "bushes", "flowers" or "weeds". My wife has a photographic horticultural memory and is encyclopaedic when it comes to plant names knowing both the common and Latin names from her RHS training. Bizarrely she has the worst memory of anyone I know for anything other than horticulture but how she remembers plant names is beyond me. I get home at 8.30pm and the photographs are a great help in identifying the foliage that was on display.

I log back in to catch up on emails and finish for the day by spending some time with my son. He’s back from university in USA for his summer break and I really value the time spent with him as he will soon be back across the pond in early August. My week is off to a happy start.

Tuesday, 17th May

Another early start because I can’t see any scope for doing exercise in the rest of the week so I’m back on the indoor bike and manage to pedal for 15km. I work from home for the first part of the morning (audit work), reviewing reports and staying on top of emails. Then it’s off in the car to Canary Wharf. It’s rare that I use my car for business but today I need to be able to get to a client finance committee meeting around lunchtime in central London and be ready for a rehearsal at the studios outside Birmingham for 6pm. The client has been really helpful in accommodating my timetable and my section of the meeting is first up. It’s great to be back at my client's premises having got the tube from Canary Wharf and not seeing them in person for over two years. The meeting goes well and our audit has highlighted a miscalculation by their pensions advisor. The client is going to make the accounting adjustment and everything will be signed off in time for their AGM. I get back to Canary Wharf and then begin the three and a half hour drive to the TV studios in Birmingham.

When I arrive at the studios I soon realise what a professional, slick and quality operation that Catherine Riches and her team have put together for RSM Week.

This is the first time we have done something like this and the preparation for it has been incredible. It’s great to see my co-presenters in person and we get stuck into a rehearsal which goes reasonably well before we pop out for some spaghetti bolognaise. For the first time in my life, I manage not to slop it down my shirt, despite encouragement from David Blacher. I get back to the hotel just before 10pm and review a couple of reports before turning in for the night.

Wednesday, 18th May

This is the big day. The day of the live show and our session is the theme of "giving something back" and having "impact" as a firm.

I am there to talk about the work of our charitable foundation: the RSM UK Foundation. The concept behind our one hour live broadcast is a little bit like Noel Gallagher on Radio X, a video podcast, if you like.

...although I'm more "chartered accountant" than "rock ’n’ roll star".

Having been in a hotel the night before I get my usual poor night's sleep which seems to always be the case away from home. I look at my sleep tracker and it tells me that I had five hours 47 minutes of sleep against a "sleep need" for the day of eight hours and 12 minutes. It also tells me that my recovery is 38% to start the day which is at the lower end of the middle zone and nearly into the red zone which starts at 33%. However I’m feeling some adrenaline in doing a live broadcast and actually feel quite refreshed. Whenever I stress about sleep and how it might impact my performance I always think of my late grandfather, a coal miner, who worked one week of day shifts followed by one week of night shifts. Consequently he developed a habit of not requiring more than five hours sleep. He spent his higher quota of available awake time, by educating himself and was one of the most knowledgeable people I have ever met especially about Shakespeare, classical music and opera.

Fortunately the live show seemed to go well and everyone was happy with the outcome!

It was great to be on the panel with John Taylor, Hannah Catchpool and David Blacher and I think we blended as a team.

After a quick coffee and debrief, I begin the drive back to work from home for the rest of the day. An hour along the M40 and I regret how quickly my body is absorbing the coffee so it's a quick stop at the services: it's the difference between being in my sixth and my third decade!

On my way back I received a number of calls from colleagues who say some lovely things about the broadcast and that it has been really well received. When I do get back home I login and my inbox is flooded with offers of help for our Foundation. This is exactly what we were looking to achieve from the broadcast so for me it can be regarded as a success. I check in with one of my colleagues who is about to go on annual leave for a fortnight to get an update on their work and then carry on myself until 8 pm.

Thursday, 19th May

An appearance at the office! I spend the morning with a client trustee board in the West End offices of their investment manager where they are holding their meeting. The charity can trace it roots back to the early 1700s and I love the history behind some of our clients. I listen to a presentation on the state of the financial markets, which is useful and helpful to my work generally. The trustees then review the financial statements and I present our audit findings to the trustees before returning to the office around lunchtime.

The office is quite busy, and the steady increase in activity as we hopefully leave COVID-19 behind us is apparent on both the trains and in London generally. I spent some time separately with two colleagues who are managing audits for me this week. I get briefed on how well they are going and am reassured by how well project managed they are.

At the end of the evening I attend a retirement dinner, long overdue because of the pandemic, for two colleagues: one who retired in March 2021; the other in March 2022. It’s great to see former colleagues and current colleagues marking their retirement. The speeches are funny and I am reminded that it’s the people that is what makes RSM special. I get home at midnight ready to return to the office the next day.

Friday, 20th May

Back on HighSpeed1 and my normal commute into central London. I’m in the office ready to watch the final broadcast of RSM Week which is a question-and-answer session with our leadership team.

It’s hosted by Ali Sapsford and Alex Tait who are truly brilliant in this role. They are both wasted in their day jobs and really should now leave accountancy and move full-time into TV. I think we have found the successors to Ant & Dec. Or Piers and Susannah. I prepare for an interview with a newly qualified accountant that we are looking to recruit before a lunchtime catch up with some former colleagues. In the afternoon I have a Teams meeting with my fellow school governors and the school's leadership team for a debrief with the school inspectors. The inspection, part of a regular cycle for all schools, has been underway all week and is now successfully concluded.?

After a week of virtual learning, RSM Week provided some real-life interaction. For the final RSM Week session, colleagues across the UK undertook activities to make a positive difference in our communities: from litter picking to donating blood or helping at local youth centres, we were out and about on the Friday afternoon - it was activation!

That got me to 5pm and I finally felt like the week was a success. I am a great believer in working hard during the week, but then having time to recharge and refresh with some downtime over the weekend - before being that shark again on Monday morning. Or perhaps I might just be a goldfish next week.

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#AuditPartner #RSMWeek #LifeAtRSM

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