My MD has asked me to wait in line at his favorite Halal Guys spot for an hour to pick up his food and I'm not sure if I should stay in the industry after that.

I work at a top boutique, and never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would find myself waiting in line for an hour to get food for my MD.

The reason I wanted to become an investment banker wasn't to be someone's food-fetching minion. I wanted to become an investment banker because of the grind and its prestige. I was literally ready to tackle any challenge, but this... I never thought that I would wait in line for an hour to get someone's food just because they had spent more years in the industry than me.

I feel disgusted and used. If he had told me to work 20 hours a day, I would have been fine with it, but using me as a delivery driver? It was really disrespectful and humiliating. I'm questioning whether I should leave or not.

 
Most Helpful

Unless the boss does it way too often and doesn’t give you a reason on why he’s too busy to get it himself, it’s not that big deal. A family friend who is second in command of a large multinational corp also has a side job of being his boss’s middleman/secretary to manage extramarital affair, namely buying jewelry, flowers, and setting up trips. And he had to do all these while keeping a good relationship with the boss’s wife (the wife knows) and runs the company. Imagining how *** he feels.

 

anonymous_IV:

Unless the boss does it way too often and doesn’t give you a reason on why he’s too busy to get it himself, it’s not that big deal. A family friend who is second in command of a large multinational corp also has a side job of being his boss’s middleman/secretary to manage extramarital affair, namely buying jewelry, flowers, and setting up trips. And he had to do all these while keeping a good relationship with the boss’s wife (the wife knows) and runs the company. Imagining how *** he feels.

Someone needs to make a show based on this 🤣

 

anonymous_IV

Unless the boss does it way too often and doesn’t give you a reason on why he’s too busy to get it himself, it’s not that big deal. A family friend who is second in command of a large multinational corp also has a side job of being his boss’s middleman/secretary to manage extramarital affair, namely buying jewelry, flowers, and setting up trips. And he had to do all these while keeping a good relationship with the boss’s wife (the wife knows) and runs the company. Imagining how *** he feels.


Probably very a**

 

EXACTLY. This forum is full of soft girls. Next time he asks you to go, you go, grab that food and eat it in front of him.

Soon you'll be shining his shoes in front of your whole team?

 

My Director out of principle refuses to pay for parking in the garage at the office. So he parks his car at the temporary spaces, just 1min around the corner.
The maximum time to park there is 1 hour. So almost every hour either he goes out for a smoke and resets his parkometer or, you guessed it, sends me or another analyst.

He only comes in by car around 1-2 time a week so get I get to do the drill around 5-6 times a week. Tbf, it ain't too bad and I get to stretch my legs for a few minutes.

 

Yeah I used to kinda like when my bosses would send me out to grab lunch for a client meeting after we'd already been at it all morning. 

Used it as an opportunity to kill a little time, get some fresh air, throw a dip in, burn some calories walking, etc. 

Also, OP sounds like an unresourceful Analyst, order ahead online goofball!

 
pitchmeyourproblems666

My Director out of principle refuses to pay for parking in the garage at the office. So he parks his car at the temporary spaces, just 1min around the corner.
The maximum time to park there is 1 hour. So almost every hour either he goes out for a smoke and resets his parkometer or, you guessed it, sends me or another analyst.

He only comes in by car around 1-2 time a week so get I get to do the drill around 5-6 times a week. Tbf, it ain't too bad and I get to stretch my legs for a few minutes.

This is pretty bad, imo. The cost in labor that this guy is sinking into parking trips just to pay $30 of parking in quarters rather card swipes is mind boggling. I'd be super annoyed as a peer of his if I had to wait longer on something because our shared resources were doubling as meter maids. Honestly, just tell someone in a super polite apologetic way that you'll need to get them something 5 minutes late because you have to put quarters in the meter for so-and-so's car. Then do it again 2 more times. Hahaha I'd bet a lot of quarters it'll stop....

 

You still have the prestige. Like any analyst, if anyone asks, you advise CEOs on HUGE DEALS that dictate the future of industries and work on SUPER COMPLEX FINANCIAL MODELLING. Sadly, as an analyst a very large part of your job is being a glorified assistant. Printing out name tags for meetings, getting lunches, printing something for a visiting client, arranging parking spots, hotels, and restaurant bookings for visiting clients, taking notes on meetings etc. 

I once spent an evening looking for a $5,000 coat that the MD had lost at a bar (of course he didn't know which bar because he was too drunk to remember). 

 

Looked at the 2 most likely places. Then sat down and drank for like 2 hours so it would seem like I tried really hard. Then went back and said I looked everywhere but couldn't find it lmfao... 

 

I’m sure my view is dated for the current generation, but you are bottom of the pole and do what you are asked. If you hate it, quit. I was the CEO of a venture backed company that I founded. We had more than 200 employees. Our office also had a fly problem. Before any major meeting I would be in early and vacuuming up the flys both dead and alive. Fortunately, we moved out of that offic after a year, but my point is that there ar things to be done and no one should be too big for the job. 

 
Controversial

Sometimes the MD is just too busy, and trust me, their time is more valuable than yours.  I used to send interns/new hires to get all kinds of things:  lunch, pick up dry cleaning, fetch something from Staples that I just had to have at that moment.  I was messing with them, and testing them.  Are you a little whiny pain in the a$$?  Or do you just get the job done without complaining?  My advice, stop bing the former, and start being the latter.  If you can't even fetch lunch without bitching, then what else are you going to complain about.

 

Ask MD for extra $10 to get the food faster. Offer $5 to someone at front of line to take his spot. Pocket the other $5 and save yourself some time.

 

"moronic line of thought. could just as easily say "if you are incapable of getting your own lunch then what else are you incapable of"

He's the MD, you are a lowly Analyst 1.  It doesn't matter if he's capable or not.  I'm not saying he's not an a-hole, maybe he is, maybe he's not. Keep up with that attitude though and it will hurt you at some point.  Just get the f-ing lunch and stop complaining.  Maybe figure out a way to get it without standing in line. Just stop being a little whiny pain in the ass.

 

Bottom bucket energy right here. If you cant be trusted to get the right amount of extra white sauce on your bosses lamb over rice, how can he or she trust you to build a slide deck to be presented to a F500 CEO?

Imagine how good the movie karate kid would've been if the young pupil told his sensei it was "too disrespectful and humiliating" for him to wax his car? 

 

For a managing partner at a global MF, i did the following as an intern at the MF:

- pick up sushi for his family 

- chase a portfolio company of his family office (AKA personal family office) for payment/signing etc. 

- pay for his coffee/lunch because he forgot to bring cash/wallet and has no other payment options on his phone 

- change physical money for him as he goes to an emerging market and find the best rates on the street 

just to tell others, you're not alone and honestly i think it's fine if it's just a short while 

 

“I don’t know if I want to stay in a highly lucrative industry with $150-200K starting salaries because I don’t want to buy a lunch order” is not the power play comment you think it is. It’s just short-sighted. This could have been interpreted as a break in the monotony of the day, but was instead taken as some grand insult. Your bosses are very busy, and this is a way that they can ask the people they trust to help them.

EDIT: Furthermore, this whole position of “I would gladly do 20 hours a day of work for you, but will not deign to buy your food order” is not the logically coherent thought you think it is. If your attitude is that way on the food, then part of that same attitude will bleed over into work. You cannot separate the two. What happens when you get the comment that you won’t deign to do or think is beneath you? You’ll have the same approach as the food unless you change. You should be reminded that the job is not The Big Short,  but rather The Devil Wears Prada. Seriously, if watching the latter movie will improve your attitude, it will repay itself in less than 1 workweek, nay, 1 workday. Highly worthwhile attitude shift.

 

Mate it’s an excuse to get out the office for an hour, nice summer weather, tunes on, no questions asked.

I’d happily do it if it was a one time thing haha.

 

Yea I agree, but thing is you still have to finish your work when you get back, so you just get pushed off schedule

 

My guy, you need to get off your high horse. What are you, in your early 20s? This delusion of grandeur needs to evaporate. 

Before I sold my company, I was speaking to clients and designing $75m+ engineering projects for them. Do you know what else I was doing? I was speaking to random sales people and vendors, getting put on hold by some bozo while trying to get material specs. I was also troubleshooting computers and changing out toilet paper rolls in the bathroom and sometimes wiping the sink down. You're just an analyst. I was the founder. 

There is no job too big or too small for the successful operation of a company. You aren't above anything. You're still getting paid an absurd rate to stand in line at an Arby's getting whatever nasty sandwich your MD desires. Consider yourself the highest paid Doordash guy in NYC for that moment. Be happy that no one is standing over your shoulder yelling at you, and your inbox isn't filled with the demands and concerns of neurotic and possibly very mentally ill clients. 

As you progress in your career, you're going to wish for more low-stress opportunities to stand in line and order a sandwich while on the clock.

 
urban_engineer

My guy, you need to get off your high horse. What are you, in your early 20s? This delusion of grandeur needs to evaporate. 

Before I sold my company, I was speaking to clients and designing $75m+ engineering projects for them. Do you know what else I was doing? I was speaking to random sales people and vendors, getting put on hold by some bozo while trying to get material specs. I was also troubleshooting computers and changing out toilet paper rolls in the bathroom and sometimes wiping the sink down. You're just an analyst. I was the founder. 

There is no job too big or too small for the successful operation of a company. You aren't above anything. You're still getting paid an absurd rate to stand in line at an Arby's getting whatever nasty sandwich your MD desires. Consider yourself the highest paid Doordash guy in NYC for that moment. Be happy that no one is standing over your shoulder yelling at you, and your inbox isn't filled with the demands and concerns of neurotic and possibly very mentally ill clients. 

As you progress in your career, you're going to wish for more low-stress opportunities to stand in line and order a sandwich while on the clock.

Spot on founder mentality…where are we at when whining analysts are driving discourse? Straight to bottom bucket for you! 

 

reciprocity is the key test. If he then reprocicates e.g. puts a good word for you on upper meetings/assigns you to some interesting deals or generally you see you're doing well in the company, then it's good. If on the contrary you're treated like a bitch and he even looks at you down compared to others lol then yh, u hit bottom

 

Who gives a shit what you’re doing lol, you still get to put IB analyst on your resume.