What is a reasonable Teams response time? And how long can you be away from your desk
Unfortunately, one of my previous posts got downvoted, so I had to create a new account. My question is primarily related to post-work hours (let's say after 7pm) and norms by IB group. My question has 2 parts.
1) At your group, what is considered a 'reasonable' Teams response time for an Analyst respond to an Associate?
2) At your group, what is considered a 'reasonable' amount of time to be away from your desk in the evenings? (commute, dinner, etc.)
- Adding to this, is it etiquette for Analysts notify Associates if they are going to be away for an extended period?
To put real terms to it, suppose I, as an Associate, were to assign a task to an Analyst or Summer Analyst at 8pm. The task should take 30-minutes to 1-hour. I ping them on Teams and do not get a response for 30 minutes. Imagine something along the lines of "confirming receipt" or "will do." It is 8:30pm now. The task is not done until 10pm. This is happening on a consistent basis. Is this something that I need to have a conversation about?
Please do not downvote this post. Just trying to get a pulse check of norms at different groups.
Def depends on the firm and group. At my place reasonable teams response is generally pretty quick just cause we're good at it. But I imagine if I didn't answer for 30mins it wouldn't be a big deal. Also depends on what the message is about, if its urgent I say 5 mins before I get a call, but generally my place is good at avoiding fire drills. For away from desk time I'd say 45mins, when I'm slow I'll literally just walk around FiDi for 45mins and then go back to work lol. When it comes to the associate perspective of things I'm not going to comment on because I just don't know, I will say this my place is pretty hands on, on most levels which means if something does only take 30mins the associate would probs do it themselves anyways, unless they are swamped obviously
Appreciate your response! When you are away from your desk for 45 minutes in the evening (I assume that's like 15 minutes commute home, 30 minutes to eat dinner), do you notify your team before hand?
Nah bro, my place is chill. That 45 mins is literally just me walking around downtown along the water to get some fresh air. I'm also in a very unique scenario compared to most firms. I work at a small place with less then 20 people, have great deal flow and still work on deals ranging in size from 100m - 1b+. So my entire company is a bit of an outlier
also no I dont notify the the team beforehand... we're adults bro not at daycare
Dude was the response to your initial post not resounding enough? 99% of people on here told you it wasn't a big deal as long as the work was getting done and now you are rephrasing your question to get people to justify you being an ass. Leave the intern alone, if the work isn't getting done, then you can have a conversation about it.
The post got moved to the off topic section, rather than IB, so I suspect the responses might be skewed. Clearly, IB is not a 9-5 and it makes sense that expectations might be different.
Appears the results are no different for this post. As you are undoubtedly an MBA associate, I would recommend you learn how to do your job and quit asking people on WSO if it is ok if you berate an intern for having dinner.
Dont blame him. It's my fault. I had a mental breakdown and had to go mudding. Thus, I didn't see his teams message until I finished.
(Ignore title)
The scenario you put forward is absurd and a lack of communication on your part. The analyst both confirms receipt and turns it over with only an additional 30 mins of work than what you’d thought it would take. If it’s that urgent that you need it asap you could just call them and say that you need it asap?? And if you need something ‘asap’ everyday then that’s your fault for not managing better, not the analysts. Your analyst is responding perfectly fine, only note from my group should be that they should confirm receipt within 10-15 mins if it’s only 8pm
Appreciate your response. A few notes:
1. To be clear about the timeline, I assigned a task at 8pm, they did not confirm receipt until 8:30pm, evidently they finished eating dinner / gym / whatever the hell they do every night for another 30-minutes, and then took on the longer spectrum of how long the task should have taken. What could have been done at 9pm was not on my desk until 10pm.
2. 10 minutes confirming receipt makes sense, and more along the lines of what I would expect. Thank you for confirming!
This sounds like it was one single time... Are they usually unresponsive?
You would be an ass to bring this up for literally 1 singular "delay". If it's a noticeable pattern, that's one thing, but once? People have to go to the gym, walk the dog or make dinner at some point. If they always take 30 min to respond, like a dozen times or more, that seems like they are leaving their work phone behind, but if you forget it once and take a bit to respond... whatever.
Analysts do not need to ask for 30 min off, unless there is some wild live deal or they are stepping away from an item in progress that you are waiting on.
Not to be rude, but are you a new MBA ASO? This post seems like you're looking for reasons to get someone in trouble. As a senior ASO I would have real issues with a new MBA ASO "having a conversation" about a one-time thing like this with an analyst or intern.
If it‘s that easy / quick why don‘t you do it yourself then? F* the associate that only wants to review
Can you communicate what the task was?
This is going to sound harsh, but you need to hear this and it will help you as you grow.
This is some micromanaging bullshit, you need to learn to communicate. Don't come here and ask "what are expectations" or pulse check on stupid shit. You're an associate, an adult, act like one and be clear on your expectations with your juniors. It is poor management coming from poor communication.
If you are assigning urgent work that is not getting done on time, different story but that's not how your post reads. It really reads like "they are not available when I wanted them to be".
If you expect a specific kind of response, communicate that to your juniors. If you expect work to be done by a certain time, communicate that to your juniors. If something is truly urgent, [fill in the blanks here]. "I need x done by y PM. Let me know when you are getting to this please" takes 5 seconds to type.
I reactivated my account just to comment how sad this is.
I guess as a follow-up question (since nobody has asked it yet), do your Analysts notify you if they are going to be away from their desks? For example, let's say they are commuting home, showering, and eating dinner... a combined task that might take 60-minutes. Even if they have their phone on them to and they respond "confirming receipt" or "will do," that does not change the fact that the task will not be started during that time.
Dude, just tell them what you need to get done and when the deadline is. If they don't meet deadlines, then you have a leg to stand on.
You're their associate, not their mom.
You should hire Morgan Freeman at the supermarket from the end of Forrest Gump if you want an employee to notify you every time they need to take a shit
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This is the most embarrassing post I’ve ever seen. You are going to be that MD that everyone hates. He got it done a little bit longer than you thought it should take, and your an associate who is probably faster than an analyst. From the time you have him the task he had it completed 2 hours later, and your complaining, even thought this was at 10 pm. Get a life bro, this shit is sad.
He’s not gonna make it to MD lol
Bro you gotta chill out and be more reasonable about timelines. You can’t drop something on the analyst at 8p and expect them to get it done immediately. It probably takes longer than you think and you don’t own them.
If it only takes 30 min why can’t you just do it too?
Classic MBA associate behavior, good lord.
Most competent MBA associate
Lol I remember reading the first post. That was a week or two ago. So since then you, as a grown man, are STILL butt hurt over an intern who, mind you, is still getting the work submitted before it’s needed.
I think you need to have a “coffee chat” with Jonathan Kaye in the middle of the street…
Can you all stop downvoting please? I was just trying to pulse check norms across groups.
lmao this is just rage bait at this point
average mba associate
First of all , you are an MBA summer associate, not an associate. You will not be an associate until after your first year on the job.
You sound like such a sore loser holy shit
« Policy » at my firm is 10min to reply to emails/teams from 9am-12am. If the junior after midnight do not expect anything to come from his ongoing projects he can log off
What a loser. Everyone hates these type of dudes.
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