Anyone else dreading returning to the office?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Trending Content - Investment Banking Forum
| +384 | Evercore Intern Seizure | 59 | 2h |
| +75 | JPM M&A is Gone??? Purely Coverage Banking??? | 35 | 7h |
| +64 | Is DCM actually underrated ? | 27 | 6h |
| +53 | How do I understand vs. just memorizing? | 10 | 2h |
| +48 | Losing my personality in Banking | 9 | 1d |
| +42 | Associate & Above IB exits | 17 | 1h |
| +37 | The good and bad with Wells Fargo | 7 | 5h |
| +33 | Incoming IB Analyst: Best Ways to Prepare? | 11 | 17h |
| +29 | Tech to IB Pivot | 20 | 6h |
| +27 | Which groups are ideal for laterals? | 12 | 1d |
Career Resources
They should definitely do a hybrid model. No point in being in the office at 9:00pm when all you've done for the last 3 hours is twiddle your thumbs and fake like you're doing work. Its genuinely counter productive. Friday or Monday should be WFH imo at least for analysts/associates
Finally this post was made. A lot of noise (understandably) is made about how it's tougher for juniors with workload increase during WFH and how they want to return and all that etc, but I'm shocked that some people are okay with giving up the little freedom they still have to be in an office where you can't walk around, scroll wherever, play music and shows as loudly as you like, clean bathroom, eat whatever you want whenever (huge time and money savings from heating up some frozen food everyday).
I think people should still be located in the same city or near their offices in terms of living so they can run to meet their team members whenever possible quickly and maybe some more restrictions for first year analysts so they can ramp up better, but what's the reason for wanting to seriously be in the chair around everyone all day? Maybe I will regret my words but I much rather have an increased workload from home than be forced to go into the office every single day.
Hybrid model for Friday through Monday being WFH (I think like Lazard is pushing) should be a good minimum no? I really can't find a good argument against any of this.
Most of the things you listed can be done in the office. You can get up and walk around (wide floors). You can listen to music (obviously use headphones) while working. Offices have microwaves so you can bring frozen food in and heat it. I’ve heard of guys who gamed or binge watched TV during WFH but if you’re in FO don’t expect much (if any) of that even during WFH. You’re going to get pinged frequently even during meetings on work:work related tasks. Not everyone is in the same time zone so the dinner/lunch times aren’t really the same so you’re not guaranteed this time to eat with coworkers (which my guess was different pre Covid) and will often receive work requests during this time. The learning curve is significantly worse with WFH. It sounds easy until you get emailed a bunch of old files that you’ll need to rebuild for whatever is going on atm. Guidance from an associate or VP involves setting up a 30 min zoom call on their calendar instead of a 5 minute meeting at the cubicle a few rows down. Associates and VPs are busy though so you might get a call or two a week if you’re lucky. The best you can do is try to figure out what is going on with your equally lost analyst class. And we don’t always figure out everything. I know my work product is worse because of the limited interaction I get with seniors and 0 facetime. Working alone in your parents basement or small apartment creates a really depressing mood. OP has a satisfying relationship (and lives with SO) so he has more to lose than most analysts have. It’s a mixed bag though as I’ve hesrd several directors/MD who seem to hate being with the family and use work as an excuse to get out.
i understand that associate/VP time is precious so I get why they would want some time at home. The thing you have to realize though is that they’re able to do their job because someone trained them in person. I wish I knew everything but I obviously don’t as an analyst so it’s nice if they could help. Having said that I understand they have lives so I think a hybrid model works for A2A or higher. I don’t think Tuesday-TH or MWF makes sense as work doesn’t just come on these 3 days. What makes more sense is that they can leave earlier (say 3-4PM) and continue working from home so the morning/early afternoon is when meetings and training can take place. I don’t think analysts need to sit in the office until 2AM but I really do think it’s inportsnt to do the work with others who can be contacted easily and having seniors out of the office will create a more relaxed work environment in the evenings.
i want to be extremely clear- I’m happy that I have a job and don’t want to come across as some whiny kid. I just see value in being in the office 5 days a week, value that is lost in the WFH arrangement.
This is a horrible take. The easiest response to this is that WFH should be given as an option to employees. If you face trouble ramping up / producing good work / etc, go to the office. If you feel fine / have reasons to be home / produce good work regardless, stay home when you want. Literally just simple as that. No one is talking about abolishing in-office work here
The younger MDs in my group said they had record years in closing deals and are more efficient working from home
While I wish this was purely attributable to a more efficient WFH model, I am afraid this has much more to do with the overall M&A/Capital Raising environment. I think the hardest part about WFH is the developmental delay we have seen in our newer hires (both lateral and UG). Unfortunately, a lot of the most effective training in this job comes from sitting next to your peers and learning through watching and asking questions. I do think there is the potential for the training "style" to shift to accommodate the WFH or hybrid business model, but as it stands, IB in general is poorly set up to accomplish this. In order to accomplish this, there will have to be top-down changes in order to facilitate appropriate development at ALL levels.