There are laws about being paid overtime, Christine, but no laws about working long hours, except for kids. Your employer can expect you to work 80 hours a week, and he/she isn't breaking any law. The second job I wrote about was iffy as to whether I qualified as salaried and, therefore, did not have to paid overtime wages. I could have lodged a complaint with the Dept of Labor, but I would struggle to ever find another job in this city if I did that.

I held on to the hope that I would receive compensation through the value of stock certificates when the company went on the stock market. That was a common practice during the dot.com days. Employees worked insanely long hours and became rich when their companies went public.

To be an accountant, I'd need an accounting degree. I don't have that, so my title is bookkeeper. Bookkeepers typically do the daily accounting work and answer to accountants, who may be employees of the company or may have their own offices or firms and are contracted by the company.