"Protected Saturdays"
Whether you're at a BB / MM / EB, how truly protected are your Saturdays? How well does your team enforce / abide by this concept?
I have several hours of work each Sunday (which is a given in my group) but luckily have had most of my Saturdays untouched except when working on a live deal / important pitch. My fellow analyst, unfortunately has not been as lucky so I have a feeling it's not gonna last.
However, I noticed that other groups at the bank enforce this policy much more / cares more about it than my own group.
What do your banks/groups do about this?
MM - Very much respected, especially within the last 12 months. Will still have grindy Saturdays for live deals or big pitches, but would probably say 75% of my Saturdays entail zero work.
which MMs are you referring to? HW, HL, WB, Baird?
Stifel
UK MM - "protected" but workload is such that I have no choice but to do work on most weekends. No calls on a weekend however.
Protected saturdays generally respected but have to do small amounts of live deal work occasionally. However - the couple times I have been asked to do non-deal related work during protected hours for no good reason, I remind them it's protected hours and I'll do it Sunday. You need to push back if someone asks you about doing non deal work during protected hours. It's a slippery slope - you do it once and it's going to turn into an every weekend occurrence. I've seen it happen with other analysts. Each time I've pushed back (only on non deal work during protected hours) I've gotten respected answers from seniors because they know it's true and they could technically get in trouble for forcing someone to do it.
How does pushing back look like?
Whats the best way to approach this convo with a senior without hurting their fragile egos (atleast in my group lmao)
"Hi,
Sure will do it on Sunday as today is officially a protected day. If you feel this is urgent and needs to be done by today, just contact XYZ (team leader) and given his approval will do it today.
Best"
They won't be asking your staffer to get off a protected weekend unless really really urgent
MM- I choose to work on saturdays so my sundays arent as bad. I have a lot of respect from my MDs so they know I'll get my work done, but I'd rather work from 7/8 am till 1-2 pm rather than grinding my sunday away (still work a fair amount on sunday too)
Seems logical. For me I’ve noticed that no matter if I do any work Saturday, regardless, I’ll just get brought into more projects on Sunday anyway if I’m not working on anything at any given time, so working on Saturdays doesn’t provide me with more free time on Sundays - it just increases the proportion of the full amount of total weekend work I do relative to the rest of the group.
Almost never work on Saturdays, and Sundays only if urgent deliverables are due on the following Monday. Very lucky with my group.
What are you hours M-F?
For M-F, 50-60 when its light, about 65 on average, and then 70-80 when we’re busy. Thankful to have a staffer who actually cares about his analysts and MDs who are willing to push back on unrealistic client timelines
What bank are you at? Or what type of bank?
Any insight on Jefferies?
Bump
Work at Jefferies. I've worked 5-10 hours every Saturday for months. To say it's been shit is downplaying it. Sounds like it's very group by group, but i know in some groups (like mine) we work 10+ hours on Saturday and Sunday every week
Healthcare group? May be speaking with them soon and would love any insight
Wb tech?
Any insight on Energy group in htx? Heard its brutal obvs but was told protected saturdays have been more enforced lately due to turnover etc.
Just like unprotected sex. A feel nice move that could work, but depends on timing, urgency, and mostly luck. In any event, need a plan B the next day to get you back to where you were.
HW - unprotected
Had five Saturdays so far where I had to work, started last fall. Only on live deals. About 1/4 of my weekends
Is this typical of your coverage groups as well?
On average yes - although I’ve seen large variances in the number of Saturdays worked in coverage groups. Some folks work none, while others have gotten shafted and worked basically half of them
BofA - have not worked a Saturday since starting and have not been asked to either. Seniors have been very clear that any work sent out is not to be done on Saturday.
Also BofA Here. Confirm.
Which group?
FIG
BB - Saturdays are taken very seriously and need a waiver from MD to group head to work on a live deal. Multiple consecutive waivers or MDs who waive all the time are flagged. Work 5-6 Saturdays per year. Friday nights are technically also protected but in reality, people do not respect them as much as Saturday.
Are you able to mention the firm?
The one getting flamed on here for terrible bonuses
MM - protected saturdays started when I was an analyst, and I would say about a dozen over my career.
So none of you guys go to church? I can’t imagine slaving away on a Sunday as if it’s Monday. Would rather let the work slip into Saturday and keep Sunday fully protected.
Started going to church again after I quit banking.
It's usually okay to go to church Sunday if you hit a 9am service + keep your team informed if you have things going out Sunday morning. Maybe 2-3 weeks a year you will have to skip it for a live deal situation. An 11am service plus lunch after is not going to work most weeks though.
from what I've seen at some banks, seems like they're generally pretty protected
In M&A group, I didn’t even know we had a protected Saturday policy until recently
JPM - nothing is protected - work 7 days a week - all day every day. someone get liquidity to pressure seniors to get us a protected day, seems to be the only thing that works
What group at JPM?
The way we've communicated our protected saturdays to the firm is that it's a time where unless you're on any kind of live situation, you are under no obligation to reply to emails and or any other kinds of work communication. We definitely don't say you shouldn't work though - like if you want to catch up on work uninterrupted then it's a perfectly good time to do so. We just want to use the time to relieve people of the burden of having to be responsive to non-live deal work emails.
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