I’ve been seeing a lot of posts of people describing how being top bucket isn’t worth it, how the incremental step up in pay isn’t worth losing relationships with others and I resonate with that a lot. My question is how do you work less without getting the boot? If you work 50 hours while your team works 90, you’ll surely be fired right? I want to learn to manage time better to do the bare minimum but not sure how.
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Remember, it’s not just the quality of your work that affects your bucket, but also how likable you are. I’ve seen some guys get top bucket doing the same quality as another guy getting Mid, but he was way more liked in the group. It could just come down to stupid stuff like that.
That said, getting bottom bucket while not getting the boot is a balancing act as the truth is, it all comes down to budgets and the market. If your team isn’t pulling in the revenue, they’re cutting the worst people which by definition is the bottom bucket. That said, the same bank on a bull year is not laying off that bottom 1-2 people, but just giving them shit bonuses as they are more valuable than nothing, but less needed in the event they quit. Working 50 while the rest works 90 is going to get you yelled at and possibly canned. I’d say it’s more like 75 or 80 while the team does 90. Don’t make mistakes (on purpose), but being sloppier than others will get you put in that category.
So the goal for a year is not to get fired so like what are some things a upper mid bucket to top bucket would do, pretty much what would one due not to be at the bottom to not get fired
Network with your team and make sure you have a good relationship with all seniors. The whole “it only takes one” mentality is true in the sense it only takes one senior to not like you for that person to derail your bucket (one person not liking you will do more than 3 people saying they like you).
Make sure, and this sounds like a given, that your work is on time and error free. Nothing screams bottom bucket like making your associate or VP stay an extra hour or two late at night to fix your f-ups. Getting them the ask they need at the time (or ahead of the time) they need it is a large amount of their thought process on what you are. Also doesn’t help to show initiatives in this category, whether thinking about more pages and asking if they want that, or giving ideas that could benefit them.
Never leave earlier than your seniors. Insecurities yes, but old school bankers like to know their lives are easier than yours by leaving earlier than you. In their mind, they put in the time so now they should get the benefit.
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