I heard on social media how in a lot of bulge brackets you are expected to answer emails calls or messages within fifteen minutes at any time of the day or night every single day of the year. Is this true in your experience ?
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In general during "peak working hours" (9am to 12 midnight), it is best practice to respond ASAP to a message or acknowledge the message, which is typically less than 15 minutes. The reason for this is many (i.e. your VP/MD wants to walk through the model in 5 minutes because their call ended early, client wants to walkthrough a pres. 30 minutes before the board meeting and they want it now, etc.)
After hours or weekends are better but still good to respond in an hour. This is best practice at least in the AN level at an EB.
EDIT: Of course above depends on the situation (if you know the message / email is not urgent, you can delay responding etc. Use common sense)
For the most part, yes. Sounds worse than it is. You're very rarely going to get an email at 2am, but on the off chance you do, it is the expectation you're responding quickly.
Out of curiosity how would you wake up to respond to emails in the middle of the night? Like a notification on your phone would not be loud enough to wake you up no?
The phones that the bank gives you comes pre-installed with an app that plays a police siren upon an e-mail being received if you have set an alarm for the morning….
Seriously but, the law of common sense sort of plays into this. If it’s not crunch time and you haven’t received a barrage of e-mails by let’s say midnight and you have clocked off because you’re done for the day, you won’t be expected to answer an e-mail at 2am.
If you’re on a live deal you’ll prob be up working anyways if not and you’re not expecting anything then it prob isn’t that urgent
For me it is. I'm a pretty light sleeper. But again it's happened maybe 4-5 times in a year. Pretty rare.
Agree with above 9am-12am yes you should be responding fairly immediately. If I go grab lunch, even go out for dinner on a weeknight etc the phone comes with me. On protected weekend days or holidays you do have more leeway, if anyone needs you urgently they have your personal cell.
No one is expecting you to respond in the middle of the night except if you logged off with tasks still outstanding/not checking with teams that they are done for the night, a meeting the next day where deck still hadn't gotten final comments, etc. I set my do not disturb so calls from contacts came through on the first ring... realistically have only been called once or twice in 5 years and usually by some asshat VP wanting to check a comp at 3am or something ridiculous.
It's really a bad habit to check your email if you wake up in the middle of the night. I have my phone notifications set so it doesn't actively notify me of emails from 2am-7am - that way if I wake up in the middle of the night I'm not spending 10 minutes thinking about work tasks.
Yes
In addition to the above, sometimes a "Will do" or "Confirming receipt" or just a thumbs up emoji on Teams is enough.
Just don't make the mistake of saying "Will do" when you were asked a question
Additionally, you can get a feel of which seniors send emails at certain times. For example, I'm staffed with a Director who usually logs off by 10pm unless its crunch time but wakes up super early and can be firing off emails at 6am. In that case, people usually respond between 8:30 and 9:30am.
Only thing that can suck if it's a Friday night and you're drinking and you get an unexpected request. Have really cut down on drinking because of that (probably for the best...)
The biggest thing though is just knowing that if you are trying to get something to a client soon, you are more likely to have to answer late-night emails.
15 minutes will never matter in any deal process. This is unbelievable insecurity. No investor gives a fuck. Bankers are such cucks lol
Agreed, in fact it’s actively harmful. Anyone who thinks responding to emails every 15 minutes is productive should read Deep Work by Cal Newport or learn the concept of flow. Frenetic emailing is lethal to actual productivity.
Not to say that seniors don’t demand this, I’m just saying the seniors are wrong and this is the wrong way to work.
Eh most of the time the response is just "will do" or "got it, thanks". Obviously if it requires more work than that you can acknowledge and then respond in a longer time frame. At other firms you might sit on an email for a few hours or a day until you have done the item, banking the convention is just to acknowledge the email.
totally agree 15 minutes is not making or breaking anything, but being responsive is in general a good habit to get into for your career
I'm at a bb and its expected to not shower beyond 15 mins ever so that you can meet the 15 min rule.
If you are lucky enough to have sex during 9 to midnight, I would make sure to check email every 15 mins.
Staffers also told us to set alarm clocks for 3am and 5am to periodically check emails at night etc.
Funny you think I’m having sex for more than 15 minutes
Yeah mr marathon over here
Just do yourself a favor and respond by email saying you got it. Or " Will do".
Lol this expectation is such bs, nobody decent genuinely expects a response in 15 mins. What are they gonna do if you're in an hour meeting?
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