Working through the Weekend - Good or Dreadful Idea?

I know some Apes here work through the weekend. Which of you here thinks this is a good idea and which of you here thinks this is a bad idea?

If you're working a hundred hour weeks you are definitely working on the weekends.

**Question** And if working hundred hour weeks is what it takes to succeed are you willing to commit?

Some have a strong propensity for the work-life balance while others believe that work is life and there is no such thing as work-life balance.

**Question** At what stage does it no longer makes sense to be working hundred hour weeks and really to go for a more Balanced Life?

Personally, I work thru the weekends all the time I think it is kind of fun. This habit started at Georgia Tech carried itself through the military and now it's normal. Having a life is an on-off switch and I could turn it on and off whenever I feel like it.

 

I like to have multiple anvils in the fire, so weekends are for side projects. I’ve been known to go into the office on a weekend to avoid being around my wife and watch Netflix though.

What do you do exactly dude? Aren't you like a Navy butterbar who worked at an oil company and does articles now or some shit? You talk a lot about how much you work bro what do you do

heister: Look at all these wannabe richies hating on an expensive salad. https://arthuxtable.com/
 

OP is an ex-military man who works in WSO and had a messed up love life is all I know. Perhaps the last one makes it an 100 hour work week?

GoldenCinderblock: "I keep spending all my money on exotic fish so my armor sucks. Is it possible to romance multiple females? I got with the blue chick so far but I am also interested in the electronic chick and the face mask chick."
 

I personally think the "100+hour workweeks" mentioned on here are bullshit. I just do not believe any employer, manager,VP, etc. would expect someone to be in the office AT LEAST 8AM - 10PM, 7 days a week (or any variation of 100 hours for that matter).

Now, for those monkeys trying to go"beyond expecations" and demonstrate "commitment", I think you are doing more harm that good.

EDIT: I am not doubting that there will be SOME 100 hour weeks. But I am referring to every week as OP's post seems to imply.

 

Do you have any idea what deal close time is like? Because 100 hour weeks at the close of a deal is pretty normal. I don't even have a corporate job and I work 7am-12pm 7 days a week. If you can't handle 8-10 7 days a week you need to set your sights on something else.

Follow the shit your fellow monkeys say @shitWSOsays Life is hard, it's even harder when you're stupid - John Wayne
 
Best Response
heister:

Do you have any idea what deal close time is like? Because 100 hour weeks at the close of a deal is pretty normal. I don't even have a corporate job and I work 7am-12pm 7 days a week. If you can't handle 8-10 7 days a week you need to set your sights on something else.

Wow that's 35 hours per week!

(Teasing since I know you meant 12am)

 

Obviously this is an IB focused thread, but I will give me external perspective. It depends.

Is the work you are doing going to be value add? Will it set you ahead for the week, or are you just working to work? I have plenty of opportunities to work from home over the weekend, I would say only 10% of the time it actually makes sense for me to do so - whether that's because I require people to respond and I know I wont get the responses or I may not even be able to work something because I need guidance or a co-worker to partner with due to scope.

I'd say the real reasons to work weekends are for getting valuable face time (non-existent in my line of work) or because you are setting your following week up for success in doing so.

...
 

I used work stupid hours all the time, now just at deal time when it gets a bit out of hand. I think if you are board at the weekend then doing a little work so you can go out and chill with mates during the week is a solid plan.

But regularly pulling 100+ weeks has weird effects on one's body. For example, putting orange juice in your nespresso machine water tank, showing your credit card instead of your passport card at the airport and looking like a twat and so on, you get the picture. It does build awesome stamina for all sorts of activities......

 
Wallstreetneversleeps:

You forgot the 3rd option: "Not Optional"

Most people don't choose to work the weekend because it is fun - they just have things that need to be done in a timely manner and for some MD's that's 8 am on Monday so they can review when they hit the links

Yeah, on my end its not by choice. What do you do when your MD hits you with an email on Saturday and says "I need this done ASAP and would like to review this PM. Thanks" ?

 

No one regularly works 100 hours a week. You may work 100 hours in a week once, maybe twice during your IB stint. As far as working on the weekend is concerned, you do it when you need to. If something needs to be done you do it. You don't wait until the following Monday to get back to work.

“Elections are a futures market for stolen property”
 
Esuric:

No one regularly works 100 hours a week. You may work 100 hours in a week once, maybe twice during your IB stint. As far as working on the weekend is concerned, you do it when you need to. If something needs to be done you do it. You don't wait until the following Monday to get back to work.

This is simply not true from my experience, which admittedly was a long time ago. 100 hour weeks were much more common than once or twice in your stint. We also didn't have the new weekend rules so maybe it's changed. It was more like once every 6 - 8 weeks with the other weeks averaging 80 - 90 hours. It definitely takes a toll. I knew some analysts where it was much more frequent than that.

To the post above mapping hours it was more like 17 - 18 hours per day on weekdays and 6 - 8 hours per day on weekends.

DLJ had a famous memo from the mid-90s written by a MD that dictated that 113.5 hours/week is the right number of hours - you can see it here;

https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=sites&srcid=ZGVmYXVsdGRvbWFpbnx1…

 

I see people working 70 - 80 hours in IB and flaunting 100+ hours a week. I had a friend who was working about 90 hours a week. One week he worked 114 hours. The dude was an animal. He lost about 40 pounds over a four month period and came close to losing his mind from all of the stress and addy. 100 hours a week means ~17 hours a day 6 days out of the week, throughout the year. That doesn't happen - at least to the dozen or so people I know that work in IB.

There's a culture in IB that promotes this sort of nonsense. I'm not sure how working that many hours is prestigious, but that's the culture. Also, an MD can say whatever the fuck he pleases. It doesn't make it reality. But who knows, maybe people really did work 100+ hours back when bankers made real money.

“Elections are a futures market for stolen property”
 

I used to work weekends constantly because there's always something to be done and I thought it was helping my career.

I've learned that people who work weekends with a smile when they need to are rock stars and are highly valued employees. This attitude gets you promoted.

I've also learned that people who work weekends when they don't need to are chumps and the work is not highly valued. This doesn't get you promoted. As an aside, it also lessens the impact when you work weekends because you have to and that work is now valued less as well.

You're young, take advantage of the small amount of free time you have when it comes up. It will make you a better individual and a better employee.

 

It really sucks and you shouldn't do it though of course it's necessary for some roles/time periods.

I often worked weekends at my old jobs and just accepted it. Then I got a more chill position where I rarely work weekends and I cannot imagine going back. I need time to myself to recharge, read, work on side projects, etc. It would be very difficult for me to have the life I want consistently working weekends.

 

yup definitely. check with one of your MDs. he might be able to provide you with some literature, a dvd or forward you a link that isn't blocked by the company.

------------ I'm making it up as I go along.
 

I'll add one addendum. The listed modes pertain to the singles lifestyle, for those who are lucky / unlucky enough to be in a relationship, replace #1 with:

Couple Mode Do couple stuff together - have brunch, walk around the park / stores, try that neat little "insert random cafe / desert / bakery" you always pass by but never go into. Enjoy / pretend to enjoy quality time together. Explain to single friends that you don't want to go out to Ruby Skye/Vessel/Infusion/The Grand/Mighty/Manor West/Insert Club Name here cause, well you're not single anymore...

 
freeloader:
I'll add one addendum. The listed modes pertain to the singles lifestyle, for those who are lucky / unlucky enough to be in a relationship, replace #1 with:

Couple Mode Do couple stuff together - have brunch, walk around the park / stores, try that neat little "insert random cafe / desert / bakery" you always pass by but never go into. Enjoy / pretend to enjoy quality time together. Explain to single friends that you don't want to go out to Ruby Skye/Vessel/Infusion/The Grand/Mighty/Manor West/Insert Club Name here cause, well you're not single anymore...

HAH! i was about to put "girlfriend mode" where you give up going out, working out, or advancing your career to spend time with a soul-sucking leech. beat me to the punch.

i'll add a few more:

"Career Mode", where you spend time outside of work advancing your career. you could be studying for the GMATs or the CFA. you could be spending a lot of time reading the Wall Street Journal, the Economist, various books on business and your industry. maybe you learn VBA or another programming language. essentially doing whatever it takes to be the titan of industry you aspire so much to be. once the thoughs of suicide become too frequent, you usually come out of this mode and go into:

"just fuck it mode": You're experiencing burnout from the above mentioned modes so you stop working out, go through the motions at work, avoid driving out to meet with friends or make plans, and put studying for the GMAT or whatever else on the backburner. instead you go straight home after work and drink beers by yourself while watching reruns of "How I Met Your Mother" until you knock out. this is usually a transitional mode i go through in between other modes..

Money Never Sleeps? More like Money Never SUCKS amirite?!?!?!?
 

Great post, I enjoyed it! I have been stuck in the third and fourth "modes" for a while and it has been great. Getting into workout mode now... Just want to build myself up all around.

To the OP: You live in CALIFORNIA brah!!... Get out there!

"That dude is so haole, he don't even have any breath left."
 

So incredibly accurate. SB for you.

After every rage mode I tell myself that I need to get my shit together and that I'm done with alcohol. So I'll start a health nut routine of lifting/krav maga/racquetball/riding bike everywhere/pescatarianism, until I realize how incredibly boring I've become. Then I'll decide that I need to go somewhere and go somewhere fast. This leads to random-ass shit ranging from paddle boarding in utah to 5 day excursions into the forest (or at least preparing for them before realizing I'll never be able to pull that off). Once I realize I can't not work I start drinking. It's a vicious cycle.

Making money is art and working is art and good business is the best art - Andy Warhol
 

This pretty much sums of my life. Specifically rage mode -> career mode - > just fuck it mode and repeat. I've thought as I got older I would shift more of my rage mode time to career mode time but that has yet to happen.

 
Californicated88:
  • Rage Mode
  • – aka “models and bottles” – this is the easiest routine to fall into, namely because it’s a direct extension of college activities. You’ve put in a hard week and come Thursday/Friday night, it’s rage ‘o clock and it’s time to get shitty. Drink of choice: Redbull vodka. Pregame music of choice: House, House, and more house blasted at retarded volumes. Bring the bitches over, get liquored up with your bros, and then it’s time to hit the town. Someone busts out his iPhone and calls an uber or two (because it’s fucking impossible to get a cab in this city) and we roll hella deep to Ruby Skye/Vessel/Infusion/The Grand/Mighty/Manor West/Insert Club Name here. Hilarity ensues. Before you know it you find yourself in the middle of a shit blizzard of awesomeness, and the night becomes a blur. You wake up the next morning hungover as shit, groggily search for something resembling a breakfast food, and you consult with your bros about how wasted you got the night before and how hard you raged (Dom Mazzetti sums it up quite well:

    ). Totally awesome! Wash, rinse, and then repeat.

    Literally laughed out loud...has someone just been following me around this whole time and taking notes? haha

     

    I actually did work. I didn't work as hard as I would on a weekday, or as long, but I was there to work on a project that is rather quantitatively involved and only have the tools to work on at work. I wanted to get more comfortable with it, because it's not exactly the kind of finance you learn in undergrad.

     

    It's good to go in on Sunday regardless for a few hours as a first year/intern for a little facetime. Expense your lunch/dinner, check over work that you finished friday for monday, catch up on the WSJ whatever. Don't go in on Saturdays unless you have to or your group is that intense that you need to put in saturday facetime.

    I would avoid doing work ahead of time though. You don't want to do a ton of work on sunday for shit due wednesday just to come in on mon/tues and have the comp set or other assumptions change on you. Or they may say "Hey don't do these slides after all do these slides instead." Only get shit done early say for tuesday if you know for a fact you're going to be crushed with other stuff monday night.

     

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    ********"Babies don't cost money, they MAKE money." - Jerri Blank********
     

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