How busy are Analysts and Associates actually?

Former EB VP now off to corp dev. Humor me for a moment.

Everyone would talk about being busy and not having time to get to work. Then I hear them also joking about avoiding work and how they find ways to take shortcuts. Are you all actually busy or is part of a huge facade to avoid work for institutions you believe to be taking advantage of you? Is it really 80 hour weeks? Most people don't come in until after 10am and take their time for coffee chats and long lunches throughout the day.

Now that I'm gone, what's the story?

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My intuition tells me that you’re probably a pretty hard working guy, you paid your dues, and then as a VP got some pushback from juniors on “oh, I’m so busy with work from other person Y. Sorry about that.” Now you’re hearing about people having a little bit more of a relaxed time and are having a little bit of a mini-existential crisis on whether your juniors were giving you the rope-a-dope back in the day.

The answer is probably a little bit of A and and a little of B. COVID has probably changed the culture and dynamics a little from when you were an analyst, and yet it’s probably also true that your analysts and associates were giving you a bit of the runaround too. Difficult to know for sure without having been there in your group. I wouldn’t let it bother you too much. COVID has changed a lot of things, and you should probably just trust yourself on what happened during your EB tenure.

 

I’m working more than 80 now, don’t eat lunch and barely can go to the bathroom. The problem isn’t always having a lot of work to do it’s when you’re on a lot of things everybody’s deadlines are kind of the same. If I could finish everything for one deliverable and then move onto the next, sure it’s a lot of hours, but it never works that way, everybody needs everything RIGHT NOW and you need to push back or ask for flexibility on timing.

 

imposter_syndrome

I'm working more than 80 now, don't eat lunch and barely can go to the bathroom. The problem isn't always having a lot of work to do it's when you're on a lot of things everybody's deadlines are kind of the same. If I could finish everything for one deliverable and then move onto the next, sure it's a lot of hours, but it never works that way, everybody needs everything RIGHT NOW and you need to push back or ask for flexibility on timing.

You don’t eat lunch and don’t go to the bathroom?

 

Arroz con Pollo

imposter_syndrome

I'm working more than 80 now, don't eat lunch and barely can go to the bathroom. The problem isn't always having a lot of work to do it's when you're on a lot of things everybody's deadlines are kind of the same. If I could finish everything for one deliverable and then move onto the next, sure it's a lot of hours, but it never works that way, everybody needs everything RIGHT NOW and you need to push back or ask for flexibility on timing.

You don't eat lunch and don't go to the bathroom?

I only eat once a day after I sign off, yes this can be in the wee hours of the morning. I do go to the bathroom, I said a barely can go to the bathroom. As in people breathing down your neck for things stopping to go the bathroom seems impossible.

Last week I sat down in the barbers chair and he threw a smock over me and went to wash his hands and my phone blew up where are you?!?? Call me right now!!!! I had to jump up and head for the door.

 

This is a major benefit of placing everyone into verticals. If there are only 2 directors and 2 vps, it's very easy to see exactly what people are working on and how much effort is actually put in. Works great for those who put in a good faith effort because the mid level people know who is legitimately busy and it keeps them from chasing incessantly on dumb stuff. You also have to treat people decently, because you're going to be working with the same people over and over again. 

Format's less desirable for the bottom tier analysts, for obvious reasons. 

 

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