UBS MD Known for Verbally Abusing Juniors. HR/Staffer Looked Away

There’s an MD at UBS who became notorious for how he treated juniors. Not the usual “long hours and endless markups” kind of stuff. I mean personal, cutting remarks. Things along the lines of “don’t bother coming back if this is your output,” or “you’re useless, I should’ve staffed someone else”

It wasn’t just a one-off blow-up. This was the standard operating rhythm. Associates joked about it in private, directors shrugged it off, staffers muttered “that’s just how he is,” and HR’s response boiled down to: document it and move on. Which really meant: nothing will change.

The bigger point isn’t whether this particular MD is still around, or whether this was a few years back or still ongoing. The issue is how the system works (or doesn’t). Banks will keep rolling out the “values and culture” decks for recruiting season, but when someone who brings in fees, or tries to bring in fees, goes rogue, suddenly the rules don’t apply. HR protects the firm. Staffers protect coverage opportunities. Juniors are expected to eat it.

Whether this MD is still in this seat is almost beside the point. This illustrates how easy it is for abusive behavior to become normalized when institutions are incentivized to look the other way.
 

71 Comments
 
Controversial

Wow…that sounds vicious…such a weird concept bosses not being nice to their employees…wonder if they should make movies or write books about it?

I am guessing the work provided was top notch and second to none. I can see how “don’t bother coming back” and “useless” is right up there with sexual harassment, physical altercations, continued patternized harassment  and retribution for whistleblower violations. 

Did the snowflake, I mean person, cry when the mean boss said this? 

Love the anonymous beta looks for sympathy. Please let me know how it goes in public especially on the back of our SecDef saying he hates “fat” and “weak men” for our military and outside of this special little bubble echo chamber of kids clearing $250k a year feeling like they are abused. 

Get a life loser. 

 

 

The fattest generals who work 3 hours a day, travel the world using “meeting clients” as an excuse, and then complain about those under their command for not working until 3 am every night

 

And read a room…you see how many large companies are telling hiring managers to first see if AI can fulfill needs of open heads? There is another thread on this here for the banking industry. AI doesn’t whine or complain or anonymously hate post thst 99pct of the world wouldn’t have an issue with  

You are what mid-20s and get paid what minimum $250k? This and you want sympathy because someone likely called someone out for crappy work? This happens every day snowflake. It’s called the real world and likely happens in some form or fashion at every financial, tech, real estate and company with any kind of size. 

There is real harassment and issues out there. This ain’t it spanky. 

Maybe ask your employer to help pay for therapy or testosterone injections? You sound like you need it…

 
Most Helpful

People really need to stop with this logical fallacy of "it could be worse". It doesn't matter if you get paid 1bn a year or 10k a year... basic respect in the workplace is just the bare minimum. Whatever you just said you can also say to someone making minimum wage. "You have health insurance and can pay for your food. Jobs are getting automated nowadays, you should read the room and not complain about the unreasonable shit you're getting from your boss".

There is always someone worse off, it doesnt excuse bad behavior people have to deal with or make everybody's problems insignificant. Just look up the fallacy of relative privation, this is exactly what you are doing right now.

Your mindset just perpetuates and enables the unnecessarily toxic culture we just dont need in finance. Everybody would make just as much money if they stopped yelling at juniors or being disrespectful. It's just not necessary so why not speak up against it? 

 

Idk jokeys kick their horses to get a little bit more out of them. I think that’s the case here except it’s people not horses

 

And what about juniors who are horrible and overpaid? 

Juniors who instead of using internal mechanisms or quitting jobs hate post online. 

Is your argument really that hate posting online (look at some of the stuff) is justified? Normal? Appropriate? 

 

Analyst 2 in IB - Cov

People really need to stop with this logical fallacy of "it could be worse". It doesn't matter if you get paid 1bn a year or 10k a year... basic respect in the workplace is just the bare minimum. Whatever you just said you can also say to someone making minimum wage. 

Hmmm not too sure about that... I think you'd be surprise to learn what all the "disrespect" the average person (myself included) would be ready to endure for 1bn/year...  or even 500k.

 

The things being stated here are very commonplace at my other BB. Is this not at UBS? Geuninly asking because if someone saying you have bad work product is considered toxic, you are at a pretty good culture shop relative to the street. MDs yell at juniors fairly frequently here and say meaner things. The only upside is we have actual deal flow, which, from what I've read about UBS, they don't. 

 

Don’t bother these losers aren’t cut out. This is how they whine and complain when they can’t do basic work right and get called out. On something where I guess your industry say is a deal or something client related (need thick skin for that as clients are much more abusive if something not going well) they would have a complete emotional and mental breakdown….they aren’t cut out. No real world experience. 

Like what kind of loser cry’s online about being told someone doesn’t want to work with them. That’s toxic.  

 

Yeah boomer MDs abusing 20 something’s because their wives hate them and they suck at their job isn’t great

 

Am at UBS: the deal flow sucks, but at least for my group, all my seniors are super nice and reasonable people... they are just bad at their job of getting deals.

 

Sounds like the same abusive MDs are in this thread commenting on the posts

 

Have you ever thought that every group is different culturally and some people have good experiences at UBS in different groups than your own?

 

I’ve had much much worse yelled at me in my UBS group but of course HR would side with the senior. 

 

At end of the day it is work, not your life. If someone takes a stinky poo on your work product, don’t take it too seriously. When I was insulted in banking (which happened a lot), I thought it was pretty funny. Bunch of hyper tensed MDs that freak over every little error on a page are not often the rainmakers. I actually laughed at the fact they react certain ways to things. There are certainly idiots that work in banking, but if you work hard, it’s really not that difficult. It’s just the way the industry goes — I’ve seen top performers get crucified on calls. It’s actually hilarious, like I said it’s a job. Take your MDs’ comments in the butt and move on to the next pitch/deal.

If there is a spelling error or grammar error at end of day, who cares. Client probably not reading it anyways. They are probably only looking at the #s. If those are right, then tell everyone to suggit.

Sounds like this MD just operates in the way he does, despite multiple folks below him reviewing product before he lays eyes on it. In this industry, there are 1000 things happening simultaneously and 100000 things you could probably be working on. Don’t waste breath mulling over an MD focused on 100 other things who expects your product to be 10/10, when nothing ever will be. Not the way the world works

 

The abuse of juniors at UBS is way worse compared to other banks. 

 

This is just not true based on the things being described here. All the things being described here are commonplace every single day by various banks at my BB bank, which is not UBS. Please provide other examples to demonstrate why UBS is unique here.

 

Wah wah wah he said he wanted to work with someone else because I am too dumb to do things right. I am being abused. 

F’ing loser. Grow a pair there is real sexual harassment and real employee abuses from people making minimum wage or off the books. Entitled b*^%ch

 

You're proving why older people in IB call the current analyst class 'snowflakes'. This is IB, not a hippie commune. How was he supposed to phrase it when work is terrible? 'Good job friend! I can see you worked very hard on this, well done. Maybe go and adjust this, and I will give you a gold star!'. The problem is, when people cry about things like this, it belittles sexual harassment and actual bullying, which still exists in some offices. When the MD says he is going to spank you, punches you, or calls you a 'dumb blonde' for no reason, you might have more cause to complain.

 

As someone mentioned above, just take the harsh criticism as a joke.

I played a sport in college so it’s easy for me to find it hilarious when an MD, who most of the time is a noob (especially if they are still working and living in NYC in their 40s/50s, which means there is a high chance they are divorced), goes on some abusive rant. It’s like a coach for a sport you shouldn’t give a fugg about, because it’s banking. You’re a machine, do you work, get in and get out and get paid significantly above your peers while doing so

 

You're never going to make it far in life if you're this coddled tbh holy shit. All of this is normal, not just in IB, but everywhere. You did bad work, and it's a high-stress work where people tend to be very brutally honest. This is just demeaning the experience of people who are actually being abused by MDs who have hour-long screaming sessions at people or even physically/sexually attack people.

 

Clearly never worked at a top BB; maybe not common at small firms but pretty common at most top firms with a lot of flow.

 
[Comment removed by mod team]
 

Have you taken a college level English writing class before? this is not well spoken at all and it would behoove you to sharpen your ability to identify AI (or AI-inspired) written content. I fear for the generation of children who will grow up writing with a ChatGPT tone of voice because they genuinely believe that is good writing…

The obvious red flags are:

“Not the usual "long hours and endless markups" kind of stuff. I mean personal, cutting remarks. Things along the lines of "don't bother coming back if this is your output," or "you're useless, I should've staffed someone else"”

- The whole “It’s not *X*, it’s Y or set of three in a list is excruciatingly common in LLM generated writing. It reads like an awkward anime character, no one speaks like that in real writing - let alone a forum?

“It wasn't just a one-off blow-up. This was the standard operating rhythm.”
- Again It wasn’t just X, it was this NORMATIVE Y thing, like the *real deal* stuff yknow? Not that fake stuff (*sarcasm on*)

“Banks will keep rolling out the
"values and culture" decks for recruiting season, but when someone who brings in fees, or tries to bring in fees, goes rogue, suddenly the rules don't apply. *HR protects the firm. Staffers protect coverage opportunities. Juniors are expected to eat it.*”

- Again, an awkward and repetitive set of three. This whole post reads like someone trying to write a grade-school fiction novel about the situation rather than a junior getting personal grievances off their chest. This is genuinely the writing level of a 7th grader.

 

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When in doubt, use more peanut butter
 

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