Green Eyeshades and Visors Used to Be All the Rage Among Accountants — What About Now?

Whatever people my age know about accountants is probably something they learned in The Office, but even the accounting team at Dunder-Mifflin offers a reasonably accurate indication of what accountants are like and what they do. To define them more succinctly, an accountant is responsible for examining financial records and providing sound financial advice to keep businesses and individual citizens afloat. Ideally, they have a handle on exactly what happens with someone's money and how to handle it.

It's certainly not an easy task. Keeping track of one's finances involves having to crunch a whole lot of numbers and keep track of several records and financial paper trails that can date back months if not years, depending on the business or person. It can be an enormous strain on the brain, so accountants tend to have several tools at their disposal to mitigate all of that work for them. Once upon a time, those essentials included green visors. But why were these so often used?

Among the things that accountants need to do their jobs well, a calculator would be chief among them. The other thing that an accountant would reach for was a set of green visors or "eyeshades." These were basically half of a cap with more emphasis placed on the brim of the wearable. And just like the average cap, its use was simple: to shield one's eyes from the light so that their vision isn't compromised.

A tool like this was especially important for accountants, who often had to work under harsh incandescent lights when trying to sift through varying dollar amounts. These visors were meant to protect an accountant's eyes so they could read their records more comfortably. The green on the visor was very popular among accountants and even gamblers. They eventually became so iconic that the visors themselves became synonymous with the profession.

However, you might be surprised to know that the green visors have largely been phased out in the world of accounting. According to a 2021 article from La Sierra University Magazine, accountants popularized the use of green visors over a century ago. These days, accountants have far more advanced tools that they use to reduce eyestrain, especially with most accounting being done on bright screens.

The r/Accounting subreddit breaks down many of these tools for reducing eye strain. Some folks use PC and mobile apps that automatically adjust the brightness of their screens according to the time of day, ensuring that their eyesight adapts to more brightness settings that are literally easier on the eyes. Others suggest glasses that are designed to filter artificial blue light on devices.

As a joke, some folks suggested buying the old-fashioned visors as well as a typewriter for authenticity.

With so many more ways for an accountant to address their eye comfort, green visors have all but fallen out of favor within the profession. For the record, I can't remember any scene in The Office where Oscar, Kevin, or Angela wore green visors, and that show went from 2005 to 2013. It's safe to say that no one really uses them anymore, except maybe to parody accountants.