So I was recently speaking to a friend who described his last job and it actually sounded like hell. He worked in sales but purely on commission so it was a very toxic environment where everyone was fighting for clients.
It got me thinking how bad has it been for people in banking. Please share your worst stories that you experienced or heard through others.
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Honestly the only bad moment I can think of is having to go and buy seltzer for my boss everyday from the grocery store. Gave me some nice alone time for like 15 minutes while I walked to the store
So what was bad about it
just having to leave and get it when i was trying to do work i guess
I had an MD who was obsessed with The Smurfs. That sounds harmless enough, and I guess ultimately it is, but he’d get really weird with it. Like his office was blue themed, he’d occasionally refer to himself in the third person as “Papa Smurf” and would hint that he’d like us to do it, and if somebody made an error in a deck he’d say things like “what the Smurf, you really Smurfed that up bad.” I could go on but I think you get the picture. Needless to say, much happier where I am today.
How come you never had a tea with him talking about Papa Smurf sending his daughter Irna to school in 2nd season?😔
Not really "worst culture" as it seemed normal in comparison to peers, but a few years back at my last firm, MD said something was highest priority so team pulled week of all nighters, got maybe 3 hours of sleep each day. After we sent it to him, md said he forgot to tell us the first day that it wasn't needed anymore
Not only is he a horrible person, disrespectful, and bad at his job, he lacks the intelligence and social awareness to even know to just lie in that situation to make your effort feel worth it and to make it up to you guys later without really letting you know.
One of the banks I was working at, this MD on the trade floor got so mad that he hurled his cell phone and it hit a girl analyst in the head and she cried....but didn't report to HR because afraid to ruffle feathers.
Guy sounds like an asshole that probably has mental problems
What the fuck
Better if he hit a man
Had a senior manager in valuation not allow a consultant to go to his uncles funeral because "the client is waiting" and "going to his funeral wont bring him back." This same senior manager made me work NYE on an audit memo that he didn't review until April. Wish I fought that guy...
Redacted for privacy
I find this extremely hard to believe on its face tbh
Just ask the JPM Houston boys
Some stories to share?
Ask the boys in London energy as well!
Had an associate feign punches at an analyst, punch the wall, and yeet water at him super late night. Unsurprisingly it got swept under the rug.
Hopefully someone can guess firm
Is this BMO M&M?
Know of an assoc. who would throw shit at analysts.
Worked at a fund a few years ago where a guy has an epileptic seizure one evening at the office. Paramedics showed up with stretchers and everything to take the poor guy out who was unconscious and covered in blood after seizing.
While this was happening, one of the junior partners was grinding on an IC memo with headphones on and didn't even realize what was happening in front of his office. The paramedics came and left with an employee and he was too focused to realize what had happened. Wasn't even necessarily a firm with bad culture, but just made me realize how work obsessed many people are in the industry. Takeaway: you can literally die in a Manhattan office and the game goes on.
Was he ok in the end?
he unfortunately had to make changes to the memo all night…
Had an old boss (just an all around unpleasant person) that grinded us one holiday weekend from 8am-6am Friday-Monday on a CIM. He was single and in his late 40s with absolutely no life. After three sleepless nights he has the gumption to call us F'ing regards and compared our writing to an incompetent 4th grader's after reading the first draft... one of the few times in my life I would have thrown hands if this wasn't over the phone.
my situation is even worse. my supervisor is having talks with me every now and then, explicitly saying my stock picks are underperforming. it's better to go find other jobs. To be fair, some winning ideas are not turning into actual trade. Otherwise, I would be up slightly. at my firm, there are no transparent performance tracking rules. I have no idea what to do next.
do you guys have similar experience in the past?
Have heard things about Piper Sandler Houston
What about them?
From what I’ve heard, there’s an MD there who has been fired by 3 banks. He’s a psycho and treats everyone like shit. Most of the MDs there are apparently cool but this guy is so bad that it’s surprising he hasn’t been sued by this point. He makes people cry, insults peoples disabilities, and makes an otherwise decent culture extremely toxic
Here are a few culture highlights from my banking years. I try to forget a lot of my experience, so this isn't an exhaustive list. When you're in it, you kind of assume everywhere is like this - how would you know it's your first and really only job in the industry so far
i) There wasn't a "no smiling" policy per se, but if you did smile or laugh, the director across from us (glass barrier between us and his office) would storm out and ask "what's so funny?" and start yelling about how we weren't working hard enough
ii) After telling my deal team and office that I had to attend my grandfather's funeral the next day and that I'd be flying out in the morning, I was told at 10pm the night before flying to "not get up from your desk for any reason" and "keep working, we have to get this done". Didn't leave until ~3am that night and went straight to the airport, worked on the way to the funeral and after. One analyst said "condolences", no one else at the firm said a word.
iii) 1 of the few interns I saw while i was an analyst went to the ER and had to drop out after not being able to sleep during his 2nd month of the summer internship, not because he was working so late, he couldn't go to sleep because he was too afraid to go back to the office (yes, you might think he was just soft, but it takes a reasonable beating to check yourself into the ER voluntarily in any circumstance). His parents came and complained, the whole 9 yards.
iv) the entire office received tickets from the firm to go to the city's MLB game one night except for the few analysts. The head of the group kept saying "this is why you're an analyst" and "someone's gotta be working". We weren't able to leave the office either since one of the directors hung back and watched the game in the conference room and made sure to give us work to keep us busy.
v) one of the VP's hazed a new analyst enough (degrading/defaming type stuff), they transferred the analyst to another office across the country
vi) 5 days vacation over the course of 2 years, had to be taken all at once / in a row
Name and shame
I've heard some horrible things about LBC
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