Do bankers tend to over exaggerate hours?
For bankers at a BB or an EB, would you say you actually average the 80 hours to 100 hours, with 90 being the median?
Or would you say it’s more realistic to say 68% of the time (normal curve), that your work weeks fall between 60 to 80 hours? With about 10% of the time only pushing to 90 and 100 hours. Also my weekend times were kinda variable, so it would be good to get some insight from you all.
My experience was more like come in at 9 or 10, leave at either 11/12 or 9/10. Of course there are times where I leave later, but it wasn’t “average”.
TLDR: Bankers (BB/EB), are hours over exaggerated? How much do you think you TRULY average? And how much do you typically work on weekends?
At a MM bank and would say I average ~80 hours, but it's much more common to have a 100+hr week than a sub-70hr week. Probably average 5-8hrs/day on weekends (highly variable) and have had less than 5 weekend days on which I haven't worked over the last 12 months.
That's awful -- out of 104 weekend days, you only had FIVE free?
Is this due to insane deal flow, or bad management skills by your VPs/MDs?
M: 9-1am T: 9-1am W: 9-1am Th: 9-1am F: 9-9pm Sat: 1-8pm Sun: 12-11pm
Total: 94 hours. This is normal. Some weeks can get crazier but as note above, much rarer to have less than these hours. We have to submit timesheets so if they notice hours are less than 80ish, then you will be staffed the day after
Is this FTP?
From my experience and my friends’ experiences, 95+ hours a week is most definitely not “normal”. You work at a complete sweatshop man
Yes absolutely. Analysts love inflating the number of hours they work.
Plus, even if you're in the office 100 hours per week, a good 40-50 of those are spent dicking around on the internet, online shopping, making memes of the other analysts, coffee runs, lunch runs, gym sessions, etc.
M&A group here. I would say about 70% of the times, it’s anywhere from 70-80 hours. 10% of the times, around 60-70 hours. 10% of the times 80-90 hours. 10% of the times, 90+ hours.
Obviously a little different every week, but in general:
M: 10am - 1am T: 10am - 1am W: 10am - 1am Th: 10am - 1am F: 10am - 8pm S: Usually none (protected Saturday is taken seriously by team unless it’s actually urgent) Su: 2pm - 8pm
Going home time on Monday - Thursdays fluctuate from 10pm to 3am, depending on the day. Go home before 10pm maybe once every other week, stay past 3am at around the same rate.
Edit: I forgot to mention that on the weekdays, a lot of the analysts and associates (even VPs if they plan on staying late) go to the gym around 6/7pm for around an hour
Kid in my group regularly says he works 100+ hours a week, but logs off at like 8pm every night, so yes. It's an inferiority complex thing. He has the personality of soggy cardboard, but if he claims to crank every night he thinks people will respect him
Do you mind saying which tier bank?
sounds like the top of the upper mid or maybe the ultra super top? (RBC/GS/Q)
I think bankers average around 70-90 hours a week.
But effective hours are much lower because most of the time are not focused on your task.
The task is so mind numbing that it is very difficult to put 10 hours straight. Also sometimes work come in late in the day and your schedule is interrupted.
For example, sometimes you are on a slow day with most work done at 4pm. You are browsing the internet waiting to go home at 7pm. On your way home at 8pm, your boss gave you some BS comments that will take 3+ hours. You finished at 12. Are you going to count the day as 14 hours (10am to 12 midnight) or 10 hours (10am to 4pm, 8pm to 12 midnight)? These random hours have basically taken most of your free time because they aren't really free.
These days I am used to these random hours and mind-numbing tasks. So I don't have plans during holiday or weekends. Working slow and read some news during the day. Then hours are longer.
Others can comment if this is also your case.
So I always encounter this issue of having nothing to do for at least 2-3 hours every day. I live right across the street from my bank (I know, crazy). So what I do is as soon as I realize I'm going to be taking an extended break, I walk over to my house and just chill on my bed. When the dreaded email comes, then I get up and cross the street. Really kills my motivation though cuz I treat every day like it's a holiday since I can just sit at home for a couple hours and get an email telling me to work. Made me realize how much I hate banking...
When is this guy gonna get banned for spam? He just posted consecutive comments in the same thread, one saying he lives in a different time zone than his bank, and the other saying he lives across the street.
The short answer to this never ending and ridiculously pointless debate is, “yes, bankers inflate their hours”. How else would we get girls at the bar?
The long answer is “eh kinda sorta maybe on a case by case ish basis depending on deals and teams and diff bosses and days and how quickly you work and if u include commuting and dinner and the gym and blah blah blah”.