“a knee-jerk pullback can actually increase legal risk.”
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move like this
with bonnie buol ruszczyk
for 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
in a climate where diversity, equity, and inclusion (dei) programs have become political flashpoints, employment attorney aislinn sroczynski of royer cooper cohen braunfeld joins host bonnie buol ruszczyk on move like this to unpack the facts behind the fear. the result is a grounded, no-nonsense discussion on how firms can remain inclusive, compliant, and confident—without compromising their values.
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despite the noise, sroczynski reminds us that the legal foundation of dei hasn’t budged. title vii, the ada, the adea, and the equal pay act still form the bedrock of u.s. anti-discrimination law. “what’s changed,” she explains, “is the level of scrutiny.”
that means employers should revisit—not rewrite—their programs to ensure they focus on fairness regardless of protected characteristics, not because of them.
contrary to popular misconceptions, most dei efforts remain perfectly lawful. inclusive job descriptions, diverse interview panels, unconscious-bias training, open employee resource groups, flexible work policies, and supplier-diversity initiatives are all still on solid footing.
the dividing line is simple: “inclusive policies expand opportunity,” sroczynski says. “exclusive ones—those that favor or exclude groups—create risk.”
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the worst mistake firms can make? overreacting.
dismantling dei to “play it safe” can spark new compliance issues, ranging from pay equity gaps to hostile work environment claims. “a knee-jerk pullback can actually increase legal risk,” sroczynski warns.
dei today requires nuance and backbone. organizations must balance their business goals, client expectations, and workforce needs against an ever-changing political landscape. “it can feel like walking a tightrope,” sroczynski admits, “but grounding decisions in your core values is key.”
transparency, consistent documentation, and legal review are vital proof points that your firm is acting in good faith.
as administrations change, so will enforcement priorities.
“employment law is a pendulum,” sroczynski says. “if companies build compliant, inclusive policies now, they’ll be ready no matter which way it swings next.”
the firms that stay steady—anchoring inclusion in both business strategy and legal compliance—will be the ones that attract talent, inspire trust, and endure.
6 key takeaways:
- understand the legal foundations.?despite political rhetoric, core anti-discrimination laws like title vii, the ada, and the equal pay act remain unchanged. the most important step employers can take is to ensure all policies and programs align with those long-standing legal requirements.
- design policies for inclusion, not exclusion.?the simplest compliance test is whether an initiative welcomes broader participation or restricts it. inclusive hiring practices, open employee resource groups, and flexible work policies remain effective and lawful ways to support diversity and belonging.
- avoid the knee-jerk reaction.?pulling back too far on dei out of fear of legal scrutiny can backfire. eliminating initiatives altogether may increase the risk of discrimination claims and erode employee trust, making retention and recruitment even harder.
- balance risk with core value.:?organizations must weigh legal considerations alongside business realities. understanding your client base, workforce demographics, and regional regulatory environment will help you calibrate how visible and proactive your dei strategy should be.
- document and demonstrate thoughtfulness.?policies don’t have to be perfect, but they do need to be intentional. regular audits, clear documentation, legal review, and transparent communication all serve as evidence that your organization is acting in good faith.
- prepare for the pendulum swing:?employment law and public sentiment shift with each administration. firms that build compliance and inclusion into the foundation of their operations will be ready to adapt and thrive, no matter which way the political winds blow.
more about aislinn sroczynski
aislinn e. sroczynski is an experienced attorney specializing in employment law, insurance coverage, and commercial litigation. she has extensive expertise in managing litigation at all stages, including handling administrative charges, demand letters, depositions, hearings, and appellate briefs. sroczynski’s work spans a wide range of claims, such as discrimination, retaliation, wage and hour disputes, class actions, wrongful termination, trade secret disputes, and other employment matters. she has experience obtaining preliminary injunctions for her clients. in addition to litigation, sroczynski provides comprehensive counsel to clients on employment issues, including sick leave, overtime pay, harassment, workplace policies, hiring and firing, drug testing policies, and workplace investigations. she is skilled in drafting and negotiating non-compete agreements, severance packages, and employee handbooks, ensuring compliance with employment laws and minimizing risks for clients. sroczynski also has significant experience analyzing insurance policies and coverage issues, including challenging claim denials and defending declaratory judgment actions. on the commercial litigation side, she handles complex shareholder and business disputes, breaches of contract, confessions of judgment, and landlord/tenant matters, representing clients in high-stakes negotiations and court proceedings. sroczynski defends clients before the eeoc and has experience assisting clients in traditional labor matters, including representation before the national labor relations board for unfair labor practice charge proceedings.
transcript
(transcripts are made available as soon as possible. they are not fully edited for grammar or spelling.)
bonnie ruszczyk 00:01
hello and welcome to a new episode of move like this. i am excited to be talking today to an attorney. she is not your attorney, but she is an attorney. aislinn sroczynski, she is with royer cooper, cohen and braunfeld, and i am really looking forward to getting her perspective, since we do talk a lot about diversity, equity and inclusion, and what firms are doing. and today we’re going to talk about, you know, the legal side of that. though this is in no way we’re saying for the record, formal legal advice, but it is aislinn sharing her expertise. so give us a little bit of information on the kind of work you do and your background, and then we’ll kind of dive into this topic.
aislinn sroczynski 01:29
thanks, bonnie for having me excited to talk about these things. so i am a labor and employment attorney. i’ve been practicing for about five years now, based in philadelphia, pennsylvania. and so the type of work that i do is, you know, focuses on employers and counseling those employers, defending those employers in lawsuits, sometimes the occasional plaintiff’s case, but mostly my practice is dedicated to representing companies, employers, and sort of guiding them through that landscape. so, you know, everyone, basically, is either an employee or an employer, and so questions come up all the time. you know, it could be basic hr counseling, sort of. we have someone who wants to go on maternity leave. what do we need to do? how do we comply with federal laws? and then it can go up to, you know, we’ve been sued in court for a discrimination case or wrongful termination, things like that. we’ve, you know, i’ve also had experience on the labor side, which is collective bargaining for union employees, union employers, dealing with those types of issues. and then also from a corporate level, sort of making sure you know when companies are buying other companies, that due diligence is done on the employment side, making sure that the company has been, you know, classifying their employees correctly. are they full-time? are they part-time? are they independent contractors? what have you? so i sort of do everything in that context. my day-to-day looks different all the time. it could be, you know, in the morning i’m doing counseling, and in the afternoon, i’m defending, writing an answer to a complaint. so it’s sort of all things, everything employment, that’s what i do. and so been here at the firm for the past year, and, you know, learn every day,
bonnie ruszczyk 03:38
i bet, yeah, that’s a lot. i hadn’t thought of the m&a due diligence for employee classification and such. so that’s interesting. yep, i bet that comes up quite a bit.
aislinn sroczynski 03:51
yep, that was definitely new to me. the firm i was at prior was more construction-based clients, and so it was more heavily tailored to the labor side, collective bargaining, and grievances, and things like that. then once i came over to rccb, got more introduced to the m&a stuff and how employment is really a big part of that, because people, you know, companies all the time, aren’t realizing the intricacies of employment law, how it differs from state to state, how there’s local rules, how classifications work, and even just not giving an employee the right paperwork on the day they’re terminated, or not giving them their paycheck in a certain time can leave them up to risk. so always changing, always, you know, new and exciting stuff. and so our clients rely on us heavily for those kinds of things, awesome.
bonnie ruszczyk 04:49
well, let’s kind of dive into the dei landscape a little bit. and i want to start kind of big picture here. so obviously. there’s been a lot of noise around dei being under attack, executive orders, all of those types of things. so from a big picture perspective, what’s actually changed legally and what hasn’t?
aislinn sroczynski 05:17
so it does seem sort of alarming all these, you know, headlines that employers and companies are seeing, and they’re sort of, you know, what’s going on? and so the answer is that nothing substantially in the law has changed the executive orders as it relates to their focus on dei initiatives, hasn’t changed the core laws that affect dei. so just a brief overview. dei isn’t something that is embedded in the law by name; diversity, equity, and inclusion take their form in many different ways. you know, it could be as simple as letting a working mother work from home because she’s having an issue with childcare. that’s inclusive of working moms. it could be diversity in the sense that employers are opening up, you know, their hiring fields to different areas of the country that they didn’t think of before. so that’s not really embedded so much as a distinct law. where it sees itself is in laws that have been in place to protect marginalized groups and employees from discrimination. so what kind of laws are those? think title seven of the civil rights act, which makes it, you know, it’s prohibited to discriminate on the basis of a protected characteristic. what’s a protected characteristic? gender, race, and some states have changed their state laws to include sexual orientation. think also of the ada americans with disabilities act. you know, that’s something that sort of has dei forms as well. there’s also the age discrimination act, the equal pay act, things like that. many states also have their own state civil rights laws, new jersey’s law against discrimination. new york has its own human rights laws, things like that. and so those laws have always made it illegal to discriminate on the basis of a protected characteristic. so, what the executive order, and the executive order that we’re really thinking of when we’re thinking of private employee employers, is the january 21 2025, executive order where president trump has basically told federal contractors that you know, they need to eradicate, and private employers that they need to eradicate. “illegal dei” and so notably missing from that executive order is the definition of what constitutes illegal dei. but what we know a legal dei is to use that phrase is just what’s already prohibited under the civil rights act, what’s prohibited under the ada, you can’t discriminate against someone with disabilities. can’t discriminate against someone based on a protected characteristic, and so nothing has changed substantially in the law. we’ve never, you know, since those laws came into place, we’ve never been allowed to say, have race quotas when we’re doing a hiring. you know, we’ve never been allowed to fire someone because of their gender. and so this shift and these executive orders, again, don’t change the core law, but what they do mean is that this administration is clearly going to take a focus on employers or big companies that have dei initiatives. and what it tells us is that there might be an increased investigation or enforcement regarding dei activities.
bonnie ruszczyk 09:11
got it, so it is certainly vague, which is kind of part of the challenge, and why, particularly accounting firms, which is, you know, who we’re talking about today. a lot of the leaders are asking themselves, all right, what can we safely keep doing when it comes to dei, and what are some examples of, i guess, initiatives that can have, you know, a substantial impact while remaining compliant.
aislinn sroczynski 09:54
yeah, yeah. so the good news is core laws haven’t changed. and even actually, the doj and the equal employment opportunity commission, sorry, i’m just always short-terming it eeoc, issued guidance, sort of, on what the illegal dei means, and they’ve relied on sort of what i just explained title seven, and have instructed employers, you know, basically what we already know, which is that an employer can’t take an employment action motivated in whole or in part by an employee or applicants, race, gender, you know, sex or another protected characteristic, and that could be limiting their employment opportunities, or, you know, promoting people for that reason. that’s based on title seven, so we know that. and the good news is, is that for employers that have already had that backdrop, their dei initiatives or programs should then already be in compliance if they’ve been following the rules and laws of title vii or the ada or the equal pay act, things like that. so, what’s still allowed is what’s always been allowed, and what’s not allowed is still what’s not allowed. and so, some examples of say, you know, normal dei initiatives that remain unchanged are inclusive recruitment and hiring practices. so you know you can still be inclusive of many different backgrounds, genders, race, education levels when hiring and promoting and recruiting for your companies, and the way that that can be done is by using blind hiring, or maybe requiring less, you know, getting rid of the education level or maybe lowering it so that you catch a you can cast a wider net, more inclusive job descriptions, utilizing more diverse recruitment partners who can help you find those people who you know maybe your system didn’t allow you to find these candidates, and now you’re working with someone who can broaden that hiring pool and maybe implementing more standard interview questions that can be more equally implemented across the board, as opposed to maybe, you know, someone who might not have had that experience, and then you kind of cross them off. so, you know, people don’t think maybe that’s dei under that umbrella, but that’s a dei initiative that remains unchanged by any of these executive orders. there are also employee resource groups that many companies are using, and while in the past, they have certainly focused on underrepresented groups, whether that be the lgbt community or people of a certain descent or race, employers can still use those, and they’re helpful. the main concern is that you’re not limiting participation from a certain group. so that’s where the, you know, illegal dei is focused, or the reverse discrimination cases are sort of, you know, yeah, this was a group, an erg for lgbt people, but because i’m a straight white male, i wasn’t allowed to be included. and so, therefore, it’s discrimination. the way employers get around that is to keep having the employee resource groups. just don’t limit it, don’t cap it, don’t say only if you fall under this category are you allowed to be involved. and as an employment lawyer, another example is we give unconscious bias training and sexual harassment training and compliance with title vii training for employers, for their employees, all the time. you might not think that that’s dei but it is, because what we’re focusing on is training employees to be aware of microaggressions and unconscious bias in how, either from a manager’s perspective, how they lead, how they give promotions, how they hire and fire, versus just, you know, your day to day employees who might have an unconscious bias against pregnant, you know, working mothers and they don’t give them the assignment that they need. you know, these trainings kind of fall under that dei we’re focusing on inclusivity and diversity and equity among all employees that’s still allowed. it’s actually in some states required to give those sorts of training, and so that’s another way that the company can not only make clear that it knows of these issues and is addressing them head-on and making an effort to train their employees, but it can also even come. for them, legally, that limits their risk when an employer can show that they have taken the steps to ensure that they’re addressing discrimination in their workplace head-on. for some companies, like supplier diversity programs, where you know you partner with a minority owned business, you support local initiatives, things like that. that’s dei, but you know, it’s completely legal. you’re not being discriminatory. you’re just sort of, again, casting a wider net, or picking the sort of industry that you want to work within. and then also, sort of like i mentioned earlier, you know, there’s no set definition to dei. think about just inclusivity, letting working moms maybe work from home if, if they ask, or having a more flexible, remote, you know, work policy, if it’s not something that you know, you need people in the office for, that gives people a chance to sort of live their lives a little bit easier, maybe, maybe someone who is dealing with health issues, things like that. so those are all examples of, you know, and we can go on and on, but those are examples of dei initiatives that maybe people don’t think right away fall under that umbrella that are still legal. and honestly, many times encouraged, yeah?
bonnie ruszczyk 16:25
and, i mean, just in my head, the way i’m kind of categorizing it is, inclusive policies versus exclusive policies, right?
aislinn sroczynski 16:38
you know, that’s exactly right.
bonnie ruszczyk 16:40
look at it through that lens. and obviously, that’s not going to catch every nuance.
aislinn sroczynski 16:48
that’s exactly the mindset that employers and companies should have, that they’re just, even if they have something that focuses on a particular group, to be inclusive of everyone, so long as you’re not excluding a certain class, you know? and it’s not just, i feel like people kind of forget. they think, well, you know, yeah, but that’s what we kept out a non-marginalized group, you know, he’s a man. this is something focused on women that can’t be discrimination because he’s not a marginalized group. that’s not, you know, that’s not the law. it’s based on any race, any sex, any sexual orientation, any disability. there’s not just, you know, discrimination against women. it goes both ways. and so, you want to make sure always that you’re being inclusive in that way.
bonnie ruszczyk 17:40
in my conversations with firm leaders, sometimes we wind up talking about optics, like, what does this look like? you know, there are concerns that they’re kind of trying to balance. if they step back from dei programs, you know they’re going to lose the trust of their employees and potentially some clients as well, but if they lean in too hard, they worry about legal risk. and i know we’ve kind of talked about some of these details, but when you’re talking to employers, and again, this is not specific legal advice for anybody listening here, how should they balance those pressures, and, you know, continue serving client needs and creating a culture where people feel like they belong, and all the things that employers are trying to do, right?
aislinn sroczynski 18:43
it definitely feels like companies are having to sort of walk on a tightrope right now. and so really, companies need to look inward and think about their core values and sort of what’s important to them. and honestly, there’s a lot of different things to consider. first, employers, companies should understand their market is that is your customer base. are they, whether it be socially, geographically, how are they aligned? and you know, how do they? how important is that to your customer and client base? because that might influence the way, sort of, whether you lean in or lean out. you know, we’ve seen some companies that have gone, you know, they’ve overcorrected. the first thing that comes to mind is just like target, rolling back their dei initiatives and then having people respond by boycotting target, you know. so, it’s good to understand your audience? is this an audience that doesn’t care because you’re selling them this one widget, and they don’t really care what your company does dei-wise? or are your clients really socially invested, and will that have a huge impact on your business? so that’s something that companies need to understand. it’s crucial to their risk of making these sorts of decisions. but, you know, the suggestion always is, there’s a way, and sort of how i just described to do dei without, you know, going too extreme, one way that you end up doing something unlawful or becoming a target. and i did sort of mention the legal and thoughtful ways to do dei is, but i didn’t mention some of the very obvious examples of unlawful dei initiatives, which are, you know, hiring quota set asides, where a company basically is saying, you know, we want to hire, you know, 15 women, and so we’re not even going to look at a man’s application until we do that. we’re restricting access to certain programs because they’re not part of a marginalized group, or giving a promotion based on someone’s race or gender, or educational history. you know, with that in mind, is sort of never going to be allowed. and so, so long as companies aren’t doing that, you know, there’s still a way to do dei without putting a huge target on their back and without frustrating their client base. another thing to balance too, which is, you know, not something maybe that’s been an issue in the past, but you know, where is your company located? are you in what many would consider a very red state, where maybe those state attorneys general are looking to sort of do the bidding of the current administration right now and are aligned with the current administration’s kind of, you know, nitpicking and the sort of microscopic look at dei initiatives. or are you in a city and state that is not aligned with that and would not, would not have an attorney general who would come after you? are you a small company? or are you a very large company where you’re sort of on a much wider scale, where people are, where the administration could flag you a lot more easily? and so again, these are just thoughts, right? there’s no science to this. there’s no exact sort of formula, but these are just maybe thoughts that companies should start to think about to lean into this. now the problem, like i mentioned, like with target, yeah, maybe they go a little too hard and they lose customers. the other thing we want to warn people about is that the knee-jerk reaction, you know, they see the executive order and they say, okay, that’s it. no more dei. we’re getting rid of everything that would even fall under that umbrella, you know, just to be safe. the problem is, though, is that that over correction could actually end up hurting the company even more, not just from a business perspective, but from a legal perspective, because when companies are now going the complete opposite way, now they’re opening themselves up to liability for, you know, unlawful termination, discrimination, hostile work environment, because the focus has now been taken off. the spotlight has been taken off inclusivity and equity. and so you’ve sort of maybe opened yourself up to a discrimination lawsuit because the company has stopped focusing on, you know, making sure they’re compliant with paying everyone the same or, you know, making sure that they’re not discriminating in any way, whether it be hiring or promoting, and so people don’t think about that, but that’s another way that you sort of leave yourself up to risk. so lots of things to consider, but there’s still a way to do dei and keep that balance, and it’s really just, you know, avoid high-risk programs, anything that could be seen as, you know, really on that, if you’re not sure, you know, maybe then you go a little safer. you’re, you know, you’re, you think it’s a quota, then that’s it probably is, or it’s probably teetering on an edge you don’t want to be on. and so, you know, things like tying executive compensation to certain dei metrics. yeah, is that an exact science? is that for sure you know you’re in violation? no, but it could be used as an argument, you know, against it, saying that you’ve been, you know, you use promoting or compensation based on hitting a certain quota that maybe it wasn’t, yeah, but we didn’t say based on race. we said based on race and some other things. it’s just a little it’s murky, and so you want to avoid things like that. and you know. the advice always is, look at your policies, audit them regularly. make sure there’s nothing that stands out. make sure that you know there’s nothing that the things i’m saying it doesn’t cause any red flags. and just basically ensure you’re legally compliant. and keep on. keep it on. yeah.
bonnie ruszczyk 25:23
now i think that’s really good advice. my last question related to dei, before i go into just some fun questions, is i am going to ask you to kind of look at your crystal ball a little bit, which, of course, none of us have. but you know, looking ahead, how do you see the legal and cultural landscape around dei evolving, if it will, and what should accounting firm leaders be paying attention to over the next couple of years?
aislinn sroczynski 26:04
yeah, i mean, we’re sort of, i almost want to say unprecedented times, but i don’t know if that’s the case. you know, it sort of seems like, you know, i will say this, and this is something that has always been said to me as an employment lawyer. but you know, with each administration that comes in, there are certain sectors that are not affected so much, in certain sectors that are, and employment law and employment sort of theories, such as dei and hiring, or the way companies operate. it’s a pendulum, and it swings very much one way and very much the other way with each administration. and so we are just on one side of this swing pendulum right now, and sort of, you know, we have to work with what we’ve got right now and make sure everything’s compliant. but that doesn’t mean that it’ll be this way forever. clearly, there’s a hyper focus on dei initiatives, and this administration has made clear that that’s what they’re going to come after. and so we need to work under these confines right now. and you know, if we tighten everything up and we make sure we’re legally compliant, maybe for these next few years. you know, companies rely on their legal counsel more, or they, you know, audit their dei programs or their employment policies more. now you know when the pendulum swings back the other way, they already know they’re compliant. or maybe they can explore more options when there’s less of a microscope on them. and so, you know, it’s, it’s really, it’s really tough to say what the future holds. and again, it really depends on where your company is located, and sort of how much focus you know either the state government or this administration is going to put on these types of things. but you know, my advice is really for companies to stay true to what they believe in and what they’ve been doing, and just utilize resources to make sure, you know, you’re all hunky dory, and everything is legally compliant, and you feel comfortable with the programs that you have in place. and so, you know, i hope, i hope that’s, you know, kind of clear. i don’t, i don’t really know what’s going to happen. everyone’s situation is so different, you know. but the main things that we can say are really, you know, fine tune. your policies rely on legal counsel. you know, don’t have a knee-jerk reaction. stay up to date, because things are changing every single day, and sort of roll with the punches, and yeah, that’s, that’s my best crystal ball i’ve got right now.
bonnie ruszczyk 29:06
and i think that’s fair, and actually it’s really, to me, it’s good advice to let’s make sure that what we are doing is legally sound. and you know, and then regardless of, you know, the administration, the way political leanings are going, or, you know, what sort of scrutiny is out there for a, b, or c, you’re in a safe position and you can, yep, you can change slightly, yeah, maybe you can focus on different areas. but if the core of your program is on good legal ground, you should be fine. you know, i understand. i mean, one of the things you know, you mentioned where you’re located, one of the things specifically that i think influences, particularly accounting firms, is those that have federal work. yeah, absolutely feel like they are under much more scrutiny than maybe those that don’t. and there’s a possibility that firms that don’t have federal work or state work, depending on what state you’re in, may not. but still, the core advice stands, you know, make sure that what you’re doing is on legal, sound, legal ground, and you should be okay.
aislinn sroczynski 30:29
yeah, that’s exactly it. and at the end of the day, you can’t predict, you know, what’s going to be the turning point, or what’s going to what’s going to be the thing you do that maybe targets your company, or sort of sets off a red flag for either your state, ag, or the admin, or this administration or or what have you. but what you can do is just have as much support and evidence for your company that you’re doing everything you know, the best you can to be compliant, and so there’s no hard, hard rule where, okay, a company implemented this policy, boom, it’s illegal. you know, something’s going to happen, but that’s not always the case. what it is sort of, maybe something happens down the line, it’s flagged, and sort of, you just want to be able to show that you have done everything you know, right? you’ve used, you know, your judgment, your business judgment, and you’ve looked into things. and that’s another thing, too, implementing policies. it shouldn’t be done willy-nilly. if a company has to ever show that they put thought into what they’ve done, or that they think they’ve shown that they’ve been compliant, you know, anything you can show to support that, that you’ve done research, that you hired an attorney at one point, that you redid your employee handbook, that you hired a consultant to help with this, those are all little pieces of evidence that help support the notion that you’re a group that’s trying to do right, and that you’re, you know, you’ve reviewed the law with someone, and you’re, you’re doing your best to be compliant, and all that stuff is relevant, you know, if it ever does come to a head.
bonnie ruszczyk 32:10
so, yeah, transparency, yeah, exactly, absolutely important for your employees, for your clients, for external organizations, whatever that might be, you know, i think as long as you are, you know, this is what we’ve done. this is why we’ve done this. these are the policies we have. this is the changes we’ve made, whatever that is. generally, if you can be transparent about that, there’s people are going to be a lot more comfortable with it.
aislinn sroczynski 32:43
yeah, and just thoughtful decisions, you know, not the knee-jerk reaction one way or the other, the elimination or the extreme addition, because you’re being pushed by clients to fight back against any attacks on dei. it’s just thoughtfulness, you know, fine-tuning, sort of compliance. that’s, you know, that’s, those are the core values here, that people should be taking back and thinking about and implementing, you know, into their company policies and just thought processes.
bonnie ruszczyk 33:16
so yeah, and inclusion versus exclusion, exactly 100%
aislinn sroczynski 33:22
when in doubt. inclusion.
bonnie ruszczyk 33:24
yes, i love that. well, i want to finish this just with a couple of fun questions that i like to close these conversations with. so when you were a young child, five, six, whatever you can remember, years old, what did you want to be when you grew up?
aislinn sroczynski 33:41
i definitely wanted to be a rock star. i’ve been playing the drums since i was a little kid, and so i’ve been in bands. and i thought, oh, i’m going to do this forever, and i’m going to travel and go on tour, that, you know, that didn’t end up happening. and then my next dream was, okay. i’m going to, you know, i really love local politics. i’m going to become a politician. and that hasn’t happened yet, either; that was the adult dream after the drumming dream had died. but i still play drums. i still get out there, not on tour or rockstar yet, but we’ll see.
bonnie ruszczyk 34:19
i think. hey, you are still very young. rock star, attorney, right?
aislinn sroczynski 34:25
yeah. lawyer by day, rock star by night.
bonnie ruszczyk 34:30
i like it. um, well, so second question, if you were given the chance to travel anywhere for free, you don’t worry about time off, what it costs, any of that kind of stuff that keeps us from just traveling all the time. where would you go and why?
aislinn sroczynski 34:46
oh, man, that is tough. there are so many places i feel like, you know, go to the extreme. honestly, i hate the time it takes to fly. i hate just sitting there trying to keep myself busy. so i want to go to australia or japan or maybe, like, there was another place i was thinking of, but somewhere really far and out there that requires, like, 30 hours of flying. that’s where i go.
bonnie ruszczyk 35:19
i like it. yeah, i’m with you in that i do not sit still very well at all. but you know, there are so many places i want to go. australia is definitely in japan, and both are on my list as well. so yeah, for sure, i’ll get there. yep. and finally, if you could have one superpower, what would it be? honestly.
aislinn sroczynski 35:41
i was thinking about this the other day, and i feel like it ties in too well to the last question. i wish i could just go anywhere in a snap. you know, i hate traveling. i wish i could just kind of blink and be where i need to be, and then i could bop around and see my friends and family that are all over without having to, you know, lose a day to traveling. i mean, how awesome would your vacation be if you didn’t lose 16 hours, you know, trying to get there, so that i feel like that’s one i would use.
bonnie ruszczyk 36:17
that’s a common one that i hear, and it’s particularly true of people who live in urban environments, so cities in particular, because we spend so much time sitting in traffic, a lot of times driving.
aislinn sroczynski 36:33
yeah, that’s like another thing i just can’t, can’t be bothered. life is short, okay, and i don’t want to waste precious minutes of my life sitting in traffic or waiting for a train that’s 35 minutes late. so, i feel like that would be a pretty awesome superpower to have. i mean, the list would go on and on. i have plenty of ideas, but that’s definitely a main priority these days.
bonnie ruszczyk 36:56
i wish i had the magic wand to give that to you and me, but, yeah, me too, one day maybe, well, i am so appreciative of you taking the time to have this conversation and, you know, share your knowledge and hopefully make some accounting firm leaders and administrators feel a little bit more comfortable making the decisions that they’re being faced with right now. so, i really appreciate your time, and i will include your information in the show notes. so, if people want yeah out to you, they can do so easily.
aislinn sroczynski 37:32
yeah, any questions, or, you know, it doesn’t have to be a full-on audit. sometimes people just are confused about one line in a handbook or just a question about what they see in the news. counseling is, you know, 95% of my job, and so, yeah, happy to answer any and all questions so and i really appreciate you having me here today. hopefully shed some light on a kind of confusing and murky legal landscape right now, but you know, hopefully a little bit more clarity