Is HR F****ng with me?

Either way is fine. You can annoy HR as much as you want. No one is going to pull your offer for checking in on missed timelines.

What is this role exactly? Basically, the proposal is an internal request from the team to hire for a specific position. If this is banking, it has to get approved by the group head (potentially multiple GHs depending on the reporting structure) and also usually the COO of IB. I’m assuming that the team ran the process themselves, and HR is just now getting involved. The proposal has to be approved and submitted before some green light goes on in the HR system and the headcount number flicks onto 1 for your position for them to issue an offer letter and put in your info.

Recently, the headcount request process has been a shitshow for banking because most banks are on a hiring freeze, and IB COOs reject almost everything even if the GHs sign off. However, if HR is speaking to you already, that should be less of an issue in this case, as the team got the verbal sign off to get HR involved. Unless the GH(s) or COO suddenly decides to change their mind, which could happen in this market, you just gotta wait for the process.

I’ve been through this process on both sides, and when our team was hiring, I made sure to actually understand the hiring process to see why HR was taking so long, so I could update the guy we wanted. HR is generally full of lazy idiots, but sometimes, just sometimes, there are delays that are outside of their control. Just follow up after missed deadlines, and stay on top of things.