Why Do We Call Them Bean Counters?

Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, this is Dan. I’m calling from Cincinnati, Ohio, and I’m concerned. My background is accounting, and oftentimes we are referred to as bean counters, and I’d be interested in learning where the term came from or what the history is.

Dan, do you take offense as an accountant when people call you a bean counter?

I guess not really.

No?

No, not really.

What about pencil pusher?

Oh, pencil pusher, that’s true.

Yeah, that’s a favor.

Is that offensive?

No, not really.

Oh, I hear it.

It’s a little bit offensive.

I’ve been called a lot of offensive things in my life.

Oh, I see.

Gotcha.

All right.

If somebody calls you a bean counter, what are they saying to you? How do you interpret that?

Oh, I think it’s the implication a little bit is sort of a mundane task. You know, there’s nothing analytical about it. You know, you just you get to 10 and you go on to 11 and 12. And so, you know, it tends to maybe minimize the role of the accountant.

Oh, I always took it that they were saying that you were overly picky, like overly precise, or doing a job in an overly complicated way.

True.

Sometimes we get called pests.

Pests.

That’s true.

Until they get the big refund, and then they’re happy.

True.

Yeah, Dan, that’s my image, too, is somebody who’s just kind of ridiculously precise and doing this really mundane task, but so precise that, for example, if you’re at the state fair and they have a big jar of jelly beans, you know, and you’re supposed to guess how many beans are in the jar. You’re not going to tell them how many pounds are in the jar. You’re going to tell them exactly how many beans, right? 942 or whatever. It’s super, super exact.

Yeah.

Is that fair?

Yeah, and I think it also has sort of a derisive tone because counting beans historically has been this kind of childish form of counting. I mean, as you said, it’s kind of mundane and exact, and you just, you know, go from 10 to 11.

I hadn’t thought of that, Martha. So you’re saying when we learn addition to subtraction, we often use objects like coins or beans to do it physically on a table or a desk. So bean counters suggest that that’s what they’re doing with their time.

Right.

Physically moving beans back and forth to do their work.

Exactly.

I’m looking at an article from 1918 that’s headlined, Bean Counters Ridiculed by Fighting Men, because they’re talking about how the fighting men are out there when the bean counters are back there in the office, as Grant said, pushing pencils and just, you know, metaphorically moving beans around. So it’s been around for a while, and I think of it as kind of, I don’t know, mildly disparaging.

Yeah, I’m surprised to learn that maybe even that you’ve identified it going back that early, like early to me, but you know, early in the early 1917 kind of thing. So, yeah, that’s interesting. I like to think of more so that the Easter Bunny had accountants who kept track of the jelly bean inventory and maybe the Easter Bunny term, that word, bean counters.

Well, I really, I got to say, I said all that stuff about it being a slightly disparaging term, but I have a world of respect for accountants. You all have saved me more times than I can tell because that is not my strong suit at all.

That’s probably because you got a refund on your taxes.

Well, sometimes I did. I actually went through an audit years ago, and I was really, really, really grateful for my brilliant accountant. Dan, you can imagine what her receipt box looks like.

Well, I appreciate that kind of thing.

Yeah, yeah.

It’s a grocery bag.

It’s not even a box.

Yeah, there might be squirrels in it.

Yeah, what I’m saying is I have, you know, it takes all kinds, and I have a great appreciation for the kind of work you do.

Yeah, me too.

I appreciate it.

Thank you very much.

Wonderful show. I just really enjoy it, and very enjoyable chatting with you.

Have a nice day.

All right.

Take care.

I hope all your numbers work out.

Thanks.

Bye-bye.

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