Day 2 on Desk – No Work but Everyone’s Still Here at 10PM… What Would You Do?

Just started at a BB coverage group (FIG) this week. It’s my second day on desk and I have literally no live work tonight — my staffings are either super slow right now or the teams I’m on have already left.

Problem is… all the other new first-years (we all hit the desk yesterday) are still here at 10PM. Yesterday, I was the first to leave out of the group and I’m worried about looking like “the first to bail” two days in a row.

I get the whole optics thing in banking, especially early on, but I also don’t want to sit here pretending to work for hours just because no one else wants to be the first to stand up.

So:

Is it too early in my tenure to leave before others if I’m genuinely done?

• Does “being the first out the door” in the first week actually stick as a reputation?
• Or am I overthinking it and should just go home?

Curious how other analysts navigated this “first week optics” dynamic when there’s no real work but everyone’s still parked at their desks.