Refusing to Work Saturdays
What happens when an analyst or associate just refuses to work Saturdays? Like says they’re busy but will get to stuff first thing Sunday morning? Or does like one hour but that’s it?
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I have heard some people make it work if it is a religious reason but you have to work 120% on other days. Whether your body could handle that or not is up to you.
If the reason is not religious you’re getting pushed out - you’re paid 6 figures to be a work horse.
If you have a legitimate event/reason to not work on a given Saturday, usually fine if you clear it with the team before to get coverage and it's not a frequent thing.
If you just as a matter of practice don't want to work ANY Saturday, you will get a talking to from staffers/MDs, get put onto bad deals, and get no or very low bonus. Also your associate/VPs will hate you
Move to a bank with protected saturdays if it's a real issue for you
What if you’re at a bank with protected Saturdays but still asked to work some Saturdays and you refuse?
Apologies, should’ve been more clear about the fact we actually have protected Saturdays but still asked to work some
Ah, got it - very different situation
Are you getting official/formal Saturday exceptions or just people asking you to do some "quick work"?
If you're getting exceptions every weekend that sucks, but not much to be done. If no exception, I would tell them you'll get to it Sunday... flag to your staffer if it's consistently the same person/people asking for work. Bonus points if your whole class starts to enforce not working Saturdays without a waiver.
If you have an important timeline for a deal or pitch to make, just spend the Saturday working
I work at a bank with protected saturdays and routinely get asked to do things on saturdays. There have been multiple instances of people reaching out repeatedly on tasks that are not at all pressing and they completely ignore the policy. I do not acknowledge until sunday. Don't care if my bonus gets docked. Don't care if they don't like me. Don't care if it's against my boomer MD's ideologies to not work on the weekend. This job isn't my life and is simply not worth stressing over. Maybe I'm in the minority with this take but gotta take time for yourself.
Not in IB and this wasn't a thing during my time. Here's an idea - will only work if you all do it - you know how in most normal jobs there is this thing called Out of Office Autoreply when you are on PTO. Implement that shit every Saturday, creates an electronic record and the sender gets the point without you doing anything. Can set it to internal emails so your clients don't get it. Say something like Thanks for your email. I may currently be away from my desk due to the firm's Protected Saturday policy (or whatever it's called). I will get back to you once I'm back later today / tomorrow / Sunday. Will look weird if you alone do it, but what the fuck are they going to do if everyone does it. And if you get told not to do it, I'm sure HR gets involved. I'm sure someone will say you shouldn't do that but that's what they fucking told you when they gave you the job. Still look at your email and help if it's important but will at least keep the BS shit that doesn't matter away
I'm sort of being sarcastic but that's kind of polite of way saying fuck you. I'm secretly hoping this becomes a thing and everyone just puts that auto message on.
This man wants to start a movement. #SaturdaysAreForTheBoys #AutoMessageDatAss
Damn right I do.
Would love if this became a thing.
Too many hardos to ruin it honestly(and nyu grads)
This is an amazing idea.
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