Left out of meetings. Bad sign?
Weird stuff on my team has been happening lately and I need reassurance that I’m not over reacting or going crazy.
Lately I’ve been getting left out of meetings that my entire team attends which involves listening to an educational presentation that applies to our vertical but has no impact on our work streams. It’s scheduled by a very senior member that oversees our team. How I’ve found out that these meetings occur is that everyone in the bull pen is printing stuff out and standing up to go somewhere at the same time. I’ve had to ask them to forward me the invite on the last three. Even the first year analysts that started after me are included.
I had suspicions but wanted to rule out the possibility of error so I politely asked the senior if I was on their distribution list since I wasn’t invited to the past ones. They got all nervous/awkward and told me they just used our team distro on outlook and to check if I’m on it, but after looking back at my forwarded invites the recipients were all manually inputted. I was the only one that wasn’t included on all of them. I want to give the benefit of the doubt but I have the worst gut feeling that they’re going to either fire me or lay me off soon.
Am I screwed? To be honest they’ve been weird from day one. I was never happy with this team and it hasn’t been the best fit but I thought my work product was decent and I got along well with everyone and could at least ride out the analyst program without getting laid off. Any advice would be appreciated.
If it’s someone very senior it’s most probably being scheduled by an assistant who may have omitted you by accident for whatever reason. Best to find out why you’re getting left out though, whether it’s an innocent mistake or not
No assistant unfortunately. The meetings are scheduled directly by the senior.
Just tryint to see the benefit of the doubt but my MD is always mixing the analysts up and looping them into the wrong stuff
I’ve been in this situation before. If you’re not on stuff that you’re supposed to be on, just take this as a sign to look for new jobs if you’re not super new like in month 1 of a new job. Hiring market slowly picking back up, gl my man
I agree with above, start looking. This does suck though and this is awful behavior from them... it's one thing to lay someone off but just be straight up about it.
That said I would totally play dumb with the seniors. "Hey, I checked the distro and I think I am on it, but I'm worried I'm still missing emails. Can you check the distro next time you send something to make sure I'm using the right one? Thanks so much!!"
It's lame for sure. Haters gonna hate I guess. Might as well have some fun with it on the way out.
Yeah it sucks to be left out from emails or meetings that you’re supposed to be on while your managers make awkward eye contact with you and try to avoid you. I know it’s everyone’s desire to try and be part of stuff again, but sometimes you just have to move onto the next job. It’s much easier to focus your efforts on recruiting while still employed, than to waste time trying to go above and beyond on your existing work streams that your team likely won’t appreciate anyways, so any additional incremental effort you put in is just doing extra work for nothing. By then, you would have wasted significant time that you could’ve spent otherwise landing a better job at a place that actually values you for your contributions. Speaking solely from prior personal experience, ymmv
This is good advice and I think this is the best option. Gotta just cut the losses when there's no upside.
A good tester is to not turn up for work one day.
Then see if anyone pulls you up on it. Can then say you were in an accident / had a family emergency etc.
If nobody really cares then you have your answer.
Could be a couple things (coming from a more senior perspective)
-they are truly leaving you out purposely which means you need to start taking control of your career and looking for another team/role. its pretty unprofessional to cut people out like this they deem underperformers. usually you would just not get staffed on deals etc, but to exclude from team wide events is EXTREMELY poor behavior by this team (like not inviting a bottom bucket analyst to factset training or a fireside chat event that whole team is attending).
-the senior could simply be having a hard time remembering all the juniors/analysts on chains. you would be surprised how much the MDs/directors DON'T know the analysts. they often equate one with the other. Ive seen MDs forget the names of analysts that grinded on a deal with them for 6 months. leaving one off a chain is not really that abnormal all things considered.
take an honest look at how you are doing performance wise and if this is truly you being "blackballed". If so, you should work on leaving. Firms that act that way are not worth your time.
This is what I originally thought but I don't think it's the case. We sit outside their office and interact with them on a daily basis. After seeing who was invited to these meetings I was the only one excluded on all of them. Even the new analysts in the satellite office got the invites.
This is what I'm confused about. I got "meets expectations" on my reviews. The specific feedback implied that the team opinion was mixed but ultimately said they were glad to have me on and keep building on generic analyst skills. I'm at my wits end on what else I can do if I'm not getting feedback, which I've asked for on deals and never got a response.
Nowadays practically every other person looking for a job has either been laid off or comes from a boutique, sometimes both
Dont worry as much about the layoff aspect but spend your time to best position yourself instead
Agree on this. I was laid off in late 2022 and everyone I knew who was recruiting was in the same position. The firms I spoke to just told me they understood given the market and didn't make a big deal out of the situation.
Take advantage and recruit for your next job while you are still making a paycheck.
For an industry that so heavily prioritizes professionalism and polish throughout the recruiting process, I'm always surprised by how many stories like this there are.
Generally not a good sign if you're not invited to meetings
If they wanted to fire you, what reason would there be to leave you out of meetings? Unless you’re a protected class, they don’t need to find “reasons” to let you go and it doesn’t help or hurt anyone if you attend a training the rest of your team is attending. My guess is that you’re pretty new and the person scheduling is forgetful, but if you don’t like your team then give the role the customary 6 month “college try” and then start searching if still not settled in.
Not new. Been at this role well over a year and halfway though the analyst stint at this point.
Lots of scumbags in this industry who can’t say things to your face. That being said, I don’t know enough to opine on your situation.
This is reprehensible behavior, but unfortunately I have seen it before. I would definitely start looking. Please let us know how this plays out.
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