Avantages
Overall, I enjoyed my time working for H&R Block. It was a great learning experience working alongside some good, knowledgeable people. H&R Block offers their own educational curriculum with courses covering issues concerning federal and state income taxes, but they also offer courses covering a number of necessary career skills that can transfer to other careers. Employees can take advantage of these learning experiences at their own pace while maintaining their continuing educations requirements. There is an annual fee of $20, but they do provide all of the materials you need to learn and grow for that cost. The only other requirement is to complete your required continuing education courses within H&R Block's timetable, and they will work with you to accomplish that as long as you take responsibility for your career. That was one aspect I really liked about working for H&R Block because I always strive to learn new things and improve myself. I worked in an office with coworkers who seemed to get along well most of the time. There were times when tension was high, but you have that at any job. Working peak season in a tax office will definitely test anyone's patience to the limit. You just have to keep that in mind at those times. There are opportunities to earn commissions and incentives beyond the hourly base pay. Scheduling is very flexible for employees who have job or family obligations, so work-life balance is better than many other jobs. I've also met many great clients who taught me as much as I taught them.
Inconvénients
H&R Block is seasonal employment for most employees. That does somewhat limit opportunities for growth and advancement for employees seeking a career path. Most employees have other jobs to fill in the gaps outside of tax season. It can sometimes be stressful to fit a year of work into about three months. The base pay for tax professional jobs is too low, but there are opportunities to earn incentives and commissions on top of the base pay. One thing I really disliked about working at H&R Block was the constant push to sell tax plus offerings to clients. Management is very high pressure on upselling the extras, and they will nag you to death about increasing your numbers at all times. Even if you are meeting or exceeding their preset goals, they will hound you to do more. Another thing I disliked about working at H&R Block was their obsession with marketing. Some types of networking events like tax talks or having a booth at community events to increase visibility were fine. However, management often expected you to go door-to-door begging other businesses to distribute flyers. They also expected you to constantly call on clients to set appointments, remind them of appointments in addition to the national call centers also constantly calling clients. Clients don't like the constant nagging, and neither did I. Management also had all sorts of visibility gimmicks like putting out tons of signs, balloons, banners everywhere they could. They even wanted employees to stand out and wave at traffic on occasion as if we were some sort of panhandlers. The upselling and marketing tasks were overboard for me. I'm not the pushy type, and I sympathize with others who don't like people constantly pushing themselves on others. I find that aggravating, also. Plus, I felt like these activities were distracting from the primary task of growing my knowledge and competence as a tax professional. These activities were a major turn off for me. Plus, I also worked another job on a year-round basis and had a family. I already felt enough limits on my time without additional stress of pushing since H&R Block has marketing people who are supposed to be taking care of these tasks. H&R Block is plagued by a lack of clear communication within the organization. One hand often does not know what the other hand is doing. You constantly have to ask repeatedly for information necessary to stay on top of things, and you still may find yourself outside the loop if you don't happen to ask the right people. I like things to be clear, simple, straight-forward, and consistent. Those things are hit and miss depending on who keeps you informed on what is going on at any given time.