Reporting my VP to HR – career suicide?
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Thanks for all your comments! You gave me a lot to think about.
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Career Resources
Whether you end up deciding to report to HR or not, please take care of yourself and at least take some medical leave - don't want to end up like that Jefferies associate who died recently.
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I have had heart palpitations since I was a senior in high school but their frequency increased once I started working full-time. I found that the anxiety of knowing that my heart is doing something it shouldn’t be just made them occur more often - leading to two trips to the ER.
Long story short, in my case, they are what’s called PACs and PVCs and are benign and many people have them, often times not even noticing them. But I would definitely recommend talking with your doctor and doing a holter monitor (mine was super small and unnoticeable) to figure out for sure. Working out (cardio & weight training) has helped reduce their occurrence as has cleaning up my diet.
Anyways, just sharing my experience in case it might help someone.
Happy to talk or share my experience further as it can be an intimidating/ anxiety inducing path to getting answers.
Dude go on medical leave for 3 months, come back, work a couple more weeks, if things don’t change file the complaint and if they still don’t change quit.
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Your life is more important than a signing bonus or a PE offer
Could you state what bank this is? Or at least what tier?
I would say tread with caution
I have had some direct engagements with HR and they can be useful but also can backfire significantly
Perhaps a better approach to try first is meet with your MD 1:1. Tell him directly and clearly what is going on and that you’ve though about going to HR but would rather not
Ask him to give corrective guidance to the VP
If that doesn’t work then you go to hr
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TMT at EB
You should start creating a paper trail. Talk to your MD or staffer but don't threaten going to HR. If this first step is to no avail, go to HR. If even they don't care and you get fired, you have leverage / grounds to sue.
I was unfortunately in a somewhat similar situation during my banking tenure. Agree with other comments here:
1. Take care of your health first. There’s a spectrum of options here from taking a long weekend fully off, to a week off, to a longer medical leave, to fully quitting. You don’t have to jump to an extreme option immediately. A few days of being unplugged, exercising consistently, and spending time with friends can be tremendously restorative and jump start more healthy routines (i.e. gym every day) when you get back to work.
2. Create a paper trail—if you’re being asked to under-report hours, either get the request in writing or report real hours. Do this for the other issues as well.
3. Push back on excess work and explicitly ask for help—this was something I did not do well during my banking tenure. Assuming you’re not a liability and the inefficiency claims are not true, you might find that this VP can suddenly get more efficient themselves or find someone else to get staffed on the incremental ~20 hours/week that’s pushing you to the brink.
Remember that at the end of the day, we're all just moving numbers around on spreadsheets. The work you are doing is not life or death for your clients, bank, MD, or VP. Don't let it become life or death for you.
fully agree on the paper trail. Pushing back is tough in this environment, but should try to be more direct about bandwidth. Thanks for sharing your experience, really appreciate it!
I like the life or death comparison. You’re not at war receiving enemy fire and you’re not a surgeon performing a life saving operation.
This sounds like a really tough and unhealthy situation. Mental and physical well-being should always be a priority, and it’s concerning that it’s affecting your health so severely. Filing a grievance with HR can be a step toward addressing the issue, but it can also be tricky in high-pressure environments like investment banking, where retaliation can happen. If you’re genuinely feeling unsafe or unable to perform without detrimental health consequences, documenting everything (hours worked, communications with your VP, etc.) is key. You should also reach out to someone in HR who you feel might be more understanding, or even legal counsel if you’re worried about the consequences of filing a grievance.
It’s not career suicide to stand up for yourself, especially if your well-being is on the line. However, it might require navigating a very challenging environment, and you should be prepared for that. If it becomes clear that there’s no way out within your current role, then prioritizing your health and exploring other options—whether internal transfers, seeking new opportunities, or even taking time off—might be necessary. Ultimately, this could be a chance to reassess what’s truly important for your career and life.
Thanks ChatGPT
Not sure this matters, but when you say they're blackmailing you, do they actually have something you're worried about them revealing? Or is it just the threat of bad evaluations/low bonus, etc.?
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Start interviewing and have a job lined up elsewhere, even if it's just corp dev somewhere that's not your first choice, before you do. Good to have a backup parachute JUST IN CASE. But yes, you should 100% be reporting this that's insane. Maybe talk to an MD/Partner you have a relationship with first and ask for advice just so there's more of a paper trail and someone with pull thinks of the recent cases of people dying at their desk. Nobody wants that press.
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I'm sorry to be as incredibly blunt as I'm about to be, but it comes down to what's more important to you, grass is greener/perceived golden pastures of a PE job you've already admitted you don't even have time to interview for or your health. If it's PE then shut the fuck up, power through, and get over it. Your PE VP/MD won't give a shit either, you will work similarly bad hours on considerably more intense workloads and if you're crumpling under this then you're probably too weak to make it in PE long-term. They won't bully you to lie about your hours to HR, they'll just fire you if you're not delivering. Junior job security has declined in PE with pressure on fundraising and returns, so nobody is going to hold your hand and tell you it gets better (it won't, all my seniors except the fund's founder work just as many hours as I do).
Corp Dev is not going to close the door to PE (I speak to this personally having gotten to MM PE from Corp Dev), it'll maybe make some harder to get through and close a few others at worst. Since making the move to PE (been in it for 5 years now) I have had dozens of 100+ hour weeks (live deals can be killer) and never once have I experienced what you've described in terms of mental decline. It's been miserable, I've drank, I've smoked, I've bitched to fellow associates, but I've never posted asking for help because I'm losing my marbles over lack of sleep. I just sucked it up and kept working.
You have a decision to make here. It's a hard one and I feel for you. This situation sounds fucked up. I personally wouldn't put up with it and would've taken the steps I previously outlined if I were in your shoes. But if you're at your wits end having panic attacks and thinking about self-harm it really sounds like this isn't the right work environment for you. And as I said, don't go expecting it to get better even if you do get to PE because there are numerous examples I and other professionals here can point to that show it stays just as bad or gets even worse. Do with that information what you will. Godspeed.
Your staffer needs to do his job
Maybespeak with him again about what's really happening and potentially involve him in your md discussion?
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