Finance Meme Pages - Stop Glorifying Old Finance

The recent WSJ article has reignited the debate regarding the awful work culture within IB. Finance meme pages have posted about how banks need to move past this old school, work abuse culture and how they are not doing nearly enough to truly support their junior staff given today’s immense resources (which is true).

And yet, in the same day, said finance meme pages will also post pictures/memes glorifying “the old days” of finance. The exact culture that they hope to change, allegedly. Do they not realize that the analysts in those “old days” received work abuse and have since graduated to becoming today’s MDs who then pass it on to today’s juniors in a vicious cycle simply because they also were subject to said work abuse? I find it so incredibly hypocritical, ironic, and frankly tone-deaf when they post a photo glorifying 1980s finance right after posting an article/message emphasizing how the old school work abuse culture needs to change. If you actually want change, quit reminiscing about the culture which you (allegedly) seek to reform. Whose side are you on?

9 Comments
 

At OP, true, but I think the "glorification" of the past is that the past always tends to have less technology, and we pick the parts of the world where less technology made things better. 

For example, no one on the Finance meme pages posts about how it use to require actual maps to know how to get to one place or the other, but it glorifies being able to leave work and completely unplug as smart phones didn't exist. 

Big brain, if you ultimately think about it, a lot of stuff we "glorify" comes from some abuse on the back end, for example, the Royal Family. 

 

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