Being "on call"
So far, I feel like the majority of the stress that comes from my job is not the actual work itself. but the fact that I have to be on call basically all the time. My bank technically does have protected Saturdays, but my group doesn't respect that policy at all (even though other groups do when we are working together on a live deal). I understand that this is a sacrifice that comes with the job, but it's taking a serious drain on me.
I used to love doing outdoor activities, such as hiking, biking, etc. but now I am much more reluctant to do so in fears I will lose service and will miss an email / symphony message. One thing I'm wondering is, especially on weekends, do bankers bring their laptops everywhere? Or is it just when you get an email you rush back to your comp to respond. All of my friends / colleagues have different approaches to this so wanted to ask on here.
When I was an analyst / associate, I basically always had my laptop with me or in my car.
Agree that it is a huge stressor of the job... just not knowing when you will be summoned. Makes planning life pretty challenging and frustrating.
Thank you, good to know. I take my laptop with me mostly everywhere I go so I’ll just keep doing that going forward.
After you've been there for a while and built a good rep, you can push off your work especially during the weekend. You don't need to bring your laptop everywhere you go. Just let them know you are out and will work on it when you get back and communicate a time in which you would be able to send it. At this environment, if you are a good analyst, they would not want the risk of losing you.
I've worked at a couple of places that have a Saturday policy and a couple that do not. Having a stress free Saturday with no worry about work coming up is an absolute life saver and makes IB much more tolerable. I would never go back to a place where the expectation is that Saturdays are just another working day.
Totally agree with both points above - if you have protected Saturdays, no reason to even check your email on Saturday... if it's urgent they will call you.
I wouldn't let people know when you'll be out - perfectly fine to respond to most weekend emails with "Thanks, running some errands but will get this to you this afternoon" if it's just a comment turn or non urgent ask. You should have some read by Thurs/Fri of what the weekend will look like - if you're getting blown up for a Monday meeting, maybe not the weekend to try to ski or hike both mornings. If you're mostly chilling, take your phone and laptop and check your phone every hour. Put your phone on a high vibrate/loud setting so you don't miss anything urgent. But yeah, you definitely should have your laptop or be within an hour of your laptop if your day isn't protected.
ngl bro I get that it does make life tough to plan around, esp when I wanna visit my family and stuff, but I don't think it's unreasonable (perhaps I'll get called a corporate slave/simp for this) but I'm making a lot of money bro, they have to justify somehow and being on call is one of the core ways they justify it. Simple as.
I agree. Even if I have a fully free weekend, it's still tiring to allocate a small of your brain to always keep tab on any possible ping / emails.
Overcommunicate with your associate / VP. We all live (or want to live) normal lives outside of work and we'll respect your time if you put in good work. If you plan on hiking or fishing all day on a Saturday / Sunday, just mention it up front and the team can be flexible in most cases.
Don't go MIA when a live deal is full throttle, but you should be able to unwind almost every Saturday with the right planning and communication.
Great suggestion, this makes things so much easier.
Plus after a bit of time with the team, OP will hopefully have built up some cred and get more leeway.
Honestly, shittiest part of the job and ITS ONE THAT NEVER GOES AWAY. Eventually your clients will do this.
It's always sad when junior bankers ruin their own lives. The work we do does not matter, if something waits a day or a few hours the world will not end. Go enjoy your life.
I was working on a sellside where the management team of the client were "hard charging business builders" who had their calendars booked solid from 8am-8pm monday-friday and also wanted to be intimately involved in the process. This meant that we had standing calls on Saturdays at 10am for the duration of the deal process which happened to kick-off right as the weather got nice and ran through the entire summer.
Obviously the calls always had next steps which ruined the weekend, nevermind what was going on with other deals.
The nail in the coffin was an incident where a loved one had to go to the ER one particular Saturday. I rushed to meet them there and actually had real concern (at the time) about finding wifi and coordinating with my deal team. When I realized where my head went in that moment, I wanted to kms. I left shortly after. Obviously that was a me thing, but still I was tapped.
Not entirely related, but hard to pass up an opportunity to commiserate.
Offering a different perspective here, but not at all trying to say that always being on call doesn't suck.
My background is not in IB but in other areas of "higher" finance, whatever that means. Nonetheless, I have never been in a role where I'm always "on call." High stress, long hours, and needing to be responsive? Yes. But not so much that I had to bring my laptop with me on weekends. However, my roles have been mentally demanding (i.e., my 12 hour work days were me literally working for 12 hours, not waiting around for comments or new tasks). I can say that being "on" for the entirety of your day is draining, and arguably worse than working "15" hours every day but having the majority of that time be "on call" time.
Again, not saying that being on call isn't stressful or really suckish, but there is an element of it that is nice relative to the alternative (what I explained above).
I kinda like it
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