Tell Partner about VP

nah

Yeah, that doesn't usually work. My suggestion would be to talk to the partner about wanting to get more exposure to working with other people / areas of the firm since you have been spending most, if not all, of your time working for VP. 

Be a true man and tell them how you feel. 

Normally complaining is never ideal, but you mentioned another junior has already complained.

So in this instance, I feel like you’re covered a bit.

Don’t go all HR on the partner, instead go under the guise of asking for off the record advice from him on how to handle this awful VP that’s really affecting you’re morale. Unless the VP is somehow protected, two juniors openly complaining should sink him.

You must have done something to piss him off

I probably wouldn't bring anything up unless you're ok with moving on from the firm. Once you open that can of worms, it's rarely ends well for the Associate even if he/she is in the right. At the end of the day, PE is mostly about raising money, doing deals, and making money. If the VP has proven competent in one of those areas, most don't' care if that person is a tyrant. That doesn't excuse the behavior, but that's kind of how things work. A couple of potential paths forward for you

1. Bring it up with VP directly, ask to get coffee/drinks outside the office and just be honest and appeal to his sensibilities. Say that you feel like there's been some miscommunications and that you're trying hard, but feel like you're not working together as well as you could be. That you want to help him do his job, get deals done, and rise up within the firm, but that you're struggling and want his advice on how to improve/work better together. If the guy is a huge dick he won't be helpful at all here, if he's at least semi-reasonable, he should hopefully soften a bit and give you a path forward.

2. Go to a senior person for an informal chat, pose it as asking for mentorship and advice, and lightly bring up that you don't feel like you've been as effective as you could be, etc want more unique set of opportunities but keep getting crushed on xyz with the same VP/team, and see if they read between the lines and provide and guidance support. 

3. If you've really had it and the above 2 options don't work, you can either internally just decide it's not going to be a fit and start re-recruiting, which is probably the best path forward, or you can be more aggressive and have it out either with the VP directly or lodge a more formal complaint with HR/Partner, which will likely not end well for you and would be ill-advised, but it's up to you. If you're clear and respectful, it likely won't tarnish your reputation too badly, even though you will probably not be asked to stay on post Associate years and could potentially even get let go in a more immediate fashion.

I was in a very similar situation to you and actually did end up going to HR / the staffer.

I went under the guise of 'I've been here for 6 months and its really not going great yet' because this one VP treated me poorly, and HR read between the lines to figure out who I was staffed with and why. Turns out this VP had bad reviews previously and was given a warning.

I ended up also getting drinks with the VP and discussed what wasn't working and had a better relationship with him going forward.

I will add, however, that I ended up working with another bad VP but since I had already complained about one I knew I couldn't say anything else (didn't want to be the 'boy who cried VP'). I'll add for context that I was staffed with the two worst VPs at the firm for my first year; ended up getting switched to other VPs who made the job much more enjoyable for my second year.

So, just be careful before you take this route as you likely only get one bullet. Try other options like a coffee or drink first, but if that really didn't work, you gotta lookout for yourself.

Have you tried working things out with the VP directly? 

Partners don't really want to deal with stuff like this. You're job as a junior is to make their lives easier not harder. This ads a major headache. Granted this could be firm specific but I think its a good general rule. 

There must be other avenues you can take, talking to VP, talking to other VPs about getting on other deals, talking to principals, not talking to anyway just proactively maneuvering yourself away from this issue over time, etc. 

In my view talking to HR or a partner about this is a measure of last resort for something much more abusive. Even then, its best to vote with your feet. 

Risk, reward is totally out of whack here - if anything, could signal to a partner you're not mature enough to handle your own problems. 

I’m currently in the exact situation. I work as an M&A tax consultant at a big 4 in India. My director, recently promoted to partner, is a huge asshat. He has zilch leadership skills and treats all juniors like shit. He stops speaking to juniors when any of them so much as brush across his fragile ego ever so slightly, me included. Brought this up ek she senior partner but apparently it’s I who have to initiate a conversation now. He’s done this plenty of times before but got promoted in return instead of being reprimanded. Says a lot about the culture.

As someone who was in exactly the same position at a firm where the partners said they are actively trying to improve culture at the junior level, I'd definitely recommend reaching out to head hunters asap and begin recruiting for a new role. The partners at PE firms lie. They may act like they are nice and care but if they are keeping awful, sadistic VPs around and promoting them, then they clearly don't truly want to change the culture. I think in PE one of the riskiest things you can do is get comfortable and trust the higher ups to do the right thing. At the end of the day, these firms are so small and once people are at the VP and higher level they tend not to leave so if you get unlucky and have a terrible VP, you're going to keep working with the guy forever realistically. The partner isn't loyal to you so it's not worth risking getting a bad bonus or getting fired. Better to give it another go at a different PE firm and make sure that you vetv the culture really well. The longer you stay the harder it is to leave so cut your losses and very quietly start preparing to leave while protecting yourself and reputation. 

Just my thoughts as someone in your exact situation who is very happy to have left for a better PE gig. Good luck!

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