Analyst sending deliverables straight to VP

I am an Acquisitions Associate and I am in a weird situation where my Analyst will ask me how to create certain deliverables, have me review his work upon completion and ask me questions while putting the work together, but then send the work directly to the VP on our team and exclude me from the chain. I am getting a little frustrated as it feels like he is trying to cut me out of the picture on select interesting deals our group works on and I have mentioned a couple times now that he should include me on emails with no success. Do you think it is worth sitting him down and confronting him about the topic or just bringing it up directly to my VP? 

 
Most Helpful

Sit him down and confront him. Tell him that when he is an associate, he will most certainly require his own analysts to loop him in on all deal related emails. If he isn't responsive, then bring it up with the VP.

Also depends on how long he's been on the desk. If its been <4 months, chalk it up to a learning curve. Longer than that implies he might be playing some weird Machiavellian angle to cut you out of the picture lmao. Kinda got to respect it - I've seen dudes try to pull this off when I was in IB.

"Day 212 of working as an analyst. My plan of slowly cutting out my associate from pertinent deal flow so that I can replace him is going swimmingly mwahahaha"

Evil Plotting Raccoon | Know Your Meme

 

Agree largely with the poster above. If this is a neophyte then almost assuredly is boisterous ignorance. If more than even 2 months, then this is devil reincarnate. The fastest way to put this to rest is as follows: stop giving him pointers, wait for him to send something to the VP, and point out all the mistakes with the VP in the chain. No doubt mistakes will be present. Keep doing this until they get the idea. Nothing cures a case of child ceo syndrome than reminding the punk kid of his (corporate) mortality.

 

Hahahah I love this approach.

Yeah OP this is definitely something you sit down and speak with them professionally about first. Explain that they report to you day-to-day and you need to be privvy to deal-related communications, so you should be copied on any deliverables going out to management and when he reaches Associate he will want the same thing because, at the end of the day, you're the one whose responsible for the work product that flows up the chain.

If they don't change their ways, time to loop in the VP.

 

As an A2A associate, the “analyst reports to associate” and you are “their” analyst idea can be pretty toxic.

I’ve had associates (particularly MBAs who are straight baggage) that have never touched an excel or ppt on 50 page decks. Provide minimal value other than replying “will do” emails to seniors. Associates should 100% be making direct edits to content while also focusing on managing skill set in parallel. I’d never not cc an asso on an email chain, but if you’re not engaged with the work and frankly not pulling your weight from a content creation and voice over standpoint, I say all power to the analyst to make you useless.

Seems like this is not 100% the scenario with OP from his perspective, but perhaps the analyst feels that way. Clearly also a communication issue… if this is a repeated issue, your first mistake was not telling them the first time, but leaves me to believe their simply not as engaged as they think they are.

 

Nothing wrong with what he did. Lot of associates who are nothing but glorified messengers. Maybe if you put in more effort than just reviewing, you’d be includes

 

Terrible take. The associate should be CC'd at the very least as he is "in charge" of checking the analyst's work. If the analyst is knowingly excluding him then that is a big issue that needs to be addressed. 

 

Will play devils advocate. A year or so ago I was an analyst and we just got an mba assoc and then I got hired as his analyst. So pecking order was analyst (me), assoc, md. We are a shop that’s about 30, so small, and the investment team was just us for the dev side. Not to knock the assoc too much because he was a really good boss, but after about two months I was starting to get direct asks from the md and so was he. We had tons of deal flow and it was non stop, so I was starting to get work from others than him. At first, I was sending stuff straight to the md because he asked for it. Then assoc told md this made him uncomfortable. I thought he was trying to squash an md asking me for work because he didn’t like how my reputation for strong work was showing, and all the while he thought I was trying to snake his job. We talked it through and he was fine with the md asking me for work, just expressed he wanted to make sure it was always correct because the responsibility fell on him (even though it wouldn’t have bc md was asking me directly). I think size of shop really matters here.

 

This is helpful context - I would say my situation is a bit different. 

Our team is 5 people and my MD has stated to me that I should be the "quarterback" of the team i.e. any and all work should go through me. I am on all of the emails for the initial asks, but this analyst will create separate chains taking me off and only keeping on our VP (the person making the asks). Makes me think he is being a snake and trying to replace me on deal flow... I guess it is good to understand his intentions. 

 

The confrontation doesn't need to be dramatic or uncomfortable, just pull him aside and say "hey, in the future just send your work to me and I'll review and send" 

Doesn't seem like a hard convo to have 

 

Agree with the previous about having a straight forward discussion with him but keep it simple and don't overthink. .Just say something like... "I see some of your work, that I review, you are sending up. The issue is I'm responsible for your work and I need to be cc'd. Does that make sense and do you you have any questions?"  Then follow up with an email saying thanks for conversation and clearing up the issue.

If it continues then go the person that he reports to from an HR perspective and say I talked and this person and he continues to not follow instructions. If no one cares then the problem is how your perceived in the firm, not him.

 

The analyst should not send work without you cc'd and/or without your review ahead of time. Just talk to him man (or woman) to man and tell him that you will report the incident to the analyst resource manager if it happens again. He'll be scared s**tless and never do it again don't overthink this.

With regard to the note on what an associate's job should be, I believe all associates need to make comments directly and get in the weeds on everything. Associates who provide minor comments do not get promoted to VP at my bank (GS/MS/JPM). My resource manager asks analysts for associate feedback and I rank those who only give small comments as last resulting in less chance of promotion. Every other associate 3 gets VP promotion in my group and it's only those who get in the weeds.

Array
 

I'm an Analyst and I don't think I've ever asked an Associate for direct comments. Think any relation between Analysts/ Associates should be collaborative, not you "giving" him/ her tasks/ work.

The team working on the deal should be all CCd (especially if you've done work on the deck/ analysis too) so you should definitely flag that to him (it's not even about getting "credit" for work, but also just keeping you in the loop), but at least where I work Analysts do not "report" to an associate lol (and honestly you may get better work from the Analysts you work with if you make the atmosphere more collaborative vs hierarchical).

 

Casually told him that he needs to include me on all emails with analysis/deal related emails. Didn't sit him down separately, but made it crystal clear.

The message seemed to sink in, as he profusely started apologizing and then subsequently started adding me to any chains where I had not been included. Its been smooth sailing since! Appreciate everyone's advice here. 

 

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