How long before I get fired?

I have decided I am now a normal worker. I will show up at 9am, do the work and leave at 6pm. Then I’ll go home and not respond to emails until the next day during working hours and not answer calls on the weekends

How long before I get the boot?

28 Comments
 

Yeah isn't it pretty clearly spelled out in onboarding that the expectation of bankers is 'on-call'?

This is just like a doctor being required to come into the hospital when needed. She'd get fired for not showing up, too.

I would say two weeks max. After the first week or even the first day your team is going to ask you why you're so behind. Unless you're just hanging out in the evenings with no work it won't be physically possible to keep up with deadlines working only 9-6.

 

Maybe a contrarian here, but I think you’ll last a long longer than two weeks, I also don’t actually believe that you’re doing this, but for the sake of argument. The nice todays overly pc world is the bank knows that you’re performing your job based off the outline in your employment contract.

This will end in two ways:

  1. If they do RIFs you’re first out the door
  1. If they don’t do RIFs they will look for any excuse to justify letting you go within the scope of that contract, and likely without benefit, so if you’re employed and paid to be there 9-5, you better be in the office and at your desk from 9-5. They’ll catch you coming in late, leaving early, taking too many breaks etc. and that’ll be their justification. Sure people will say they could just say it’s an performance issue and cut you after a few weeks, but you’ve engaged in a hardline of calling the bank on their shit. They’re not going to want to deal with someone who would be more prime of a suspect to take a legal course of action.

The more I think about the more I think could last a few months. Just be prepared to get hit with a bunch of non client mind numbing work and $0 bonus.

 

I know people who do this, but they are around when stuff actually needs to be done. Not actually realistic to leave at 6 every day - you'll get some angry phone calls - but you can certainly slack off more 

If you get work done, aren't unreachable the night before the meeting, but are generally putting in very low effort - will probably last 6+ months and no or low bonus

If you say 6pm is your cutoff and that's it - probably 2 months max, you are a liability at that point as even pitch work sometimes has changes/turns that just need to get done at night

 

If you start slacking at the right time (eg right after your performance review) you can probably make it 6 months to a full year. Takes a while to document and put you on a PIP, etc.

Your reputation will be ruined in like 2 weeks but you can collect checks for a while

 
Controversial

Respectfully, you’re an idiot if you do this.

You knew what you were getting yourself into so be a grown ass adult and either find a different job or put a little effort in. You are going to burn quite literally every bridge with analysts below you and the VPs/MDs above you and I bet they’re completely torched within about 2 weeks. There will be no coming back from this and you will be lucky if the worst thing that happens in the future is that you don’t get references.

If you can’t hack it then that’s ok, there’s a ton of other opportunities out there for ex-bankers. But no one, and I mean no one, likes a quitter - and you’re a quitter if you do this. I guarantee that word will spread far and wide if you try and pull something like this. So buck up buttercup and figure your shit out or do your bank a favor and just leave.

 
Funniest

Respectfully, you're an idiot if you do this.

You knew what you were getting yourself into so be a grown ass adult and either find a different job or put a little effort in. You are going to burn quite literally every bridge with analysts below you and the VPs/MDs above you and I bet they're completely torched within about 2 weeks. There will be no coming back from this and you will be lucky if the worst thing that happens in the future is that you don't get references.

If you can't hack it then that's ok, there's a ton of other opportunities out there for ex-bankers. But no one, and I mean no one, likes a quitter - and you're a quitter if you do this. I guarantee that word will spread far and wide if you try and pull something like this. So buck up buttercup and figure your shit out or do your bank a favor and just leave.

relax with the hyperbole, guy. all he's doing is shirking off at his office job, the world wont end. i bet youre the type of dork that actually studies the company's core values

 

Of course the world won’t end. If OP were to just stop working then he’s just hurting his team for a few weeks and after he’s gone will largely be an afterthought. But anytime his coworkers hear his name he will forever be the guy that just decided to stop working and quit on the team without having the courtesy to actually quit and I can tell you for a fact that that is the type of thing that can be career limiting. This industry is far too small.

Hopefully he does exceptional work during the day because that’s the only way he lasts more than a couple weeks

 
Most Helpful

But anytime his coworkers hear his name he will forever be the guy that just decided to stop working and quit on the team without having the courtesy to actually quit and I can tell you for a fact that that is the type of thing that can be career limiting. This industry is far too small.

call me crazy but it doesnt seem that OP wants to be in the industry for much longer, huh? you honestly sound like either a kid who idolizes banking or some dumb boomer who cares more about their place of employment than their wife. "this industry is far too small" people outside of investment banking dont even know what the fuck it is.

 

But no one, and I mean no one, likes a quitter - and you're a quitter if you do this. I guarantee that word will spread far and wide if you try and pull something like this

Cringe. This is the standard BS that toxic leaders use to pressure and scare others into staying in their shitty environment. It takes more balls to quit rather than staying in a bad spot because you're a people pleaser and afraid to disappoint anyone.

What do you think happens? "Oh no, Timmy got a little lazy his last month on the desk so I'm gonna call up all the banks on wall street and ruin his career!" lmao. Toxic dorks with a power fantasy. If anyone cares about a colleague or employee that much they're a stalker weirdo who needs to get a life and possibly a prescription for some psych meds. 

 

If you work with a-hole bankers with an old school hardo mentality who expect you to be at their every back and call then you maybe have a few months but if you work with more relaxed folks like myself who don't really care what you do or how you do it as long as the necessary work gets done then you'll probably be fine until you start missing deadlines. For most of my banking career unless we were in the final throws of closing a deal I would never bother checking my email on the weekend and it made no difference.

 

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