Lying about hours worked
Can we as a whole please stop lying about how many hours we work? I started at a so called “sweatshop” two years ago and even did several networking calls prior to joining of people claiming to work “so late”. Granted there have been some late nights but we are usually all gone by 7 unless we have something super pressing. Seniors work maybe 35-40 hours a week as well. Not complaining at all, I love it. But why do people keep lying? This is my second time encountering this.
How many “sweatshops” have you worked at to come to this conclusion? Oh that’s right. Just one.
Last sentence of the post. 2, this my second. People CLAIM they’re both sweatshops
What "sweatshop" are you at? Cause if seniors are working 35-40 hours a week its not one lol.
I have a pretty lax WLB for the most part, 45-55 hours except on huge deals if we're short staffed where I might occasionally spike to 70-80 for a few weeks, but pretty rare. But there are certainly plenty of shops out there where 60+ is the norm.
I’m not saying it’s a sweatshop. I’m saying others have on this website and it’s just clearly not true. Will say it’s in the hedge fund category though that does real estate, Leads me to believe other places are equally lied about on here in terms of hours.
At a “sweatshop” D/e placement team that certainly was very busy when the market was hit, but even then I found people described their worst weeks as their regular weeks when describing hours.
FYI you could work at a sweatshop still. This is the slowest it’s ever been on the transaction side in a long long long time. Do you do transactions? If so, I would expect you to not be busy.
Been here for two years, so this isn’t a market thing. I do debt and equity transactions, some equity AM.
Could team dynamics have changed? Was it 2 people previously and 4 now so the hours are less? Was it the same?
Possible it is an efficiency issue? Some people are in the office longer because they spend part of the day shopping or reading the latest Twitter gossip. So it can feel like long hours when if someone was just efficient with their time it wouldn't be.
Could also very much depend on your senior. I personally don't care where, when or how you work as long as we meet deadlines, but there are a lot of seniors that are very "old school."
I don’t think there’s a reason for this. I think the point of my main post is two fold: that people on here tend to speak on things they really don’t know about, and that for some reason some ppl in NYC like to brag and inflate their hours worked like it’s some badge of honor
I've worked long hours in the past (including a lot of travel), but have eased up on that as I've gotten older. But I can also see how my working less would mean that a junior person under me might be working more. I try and balance that, because we all need downtime and vacations, but I'm sure it happens regardless.
Man I just left the office back to back days at 5 am a VP2 right there with me, so idk what you’re talking about
Some places (especially IB) do fit the bill. But other places that are widely talked about on here definitely do not.
Idk about what the kids are up to these days but when I started 10 years ago I worked 80 hour weeks for 2 years straight. About lost my damn mind.
I did IB at a not super intense place and now work in REPE at a place historically known as intense.
I’d say there are weeks where you work every night til 10pm + some weekend work. But those are generally not that common. I kind of agree with you OP… I’ve been lucky to avoid mega sweatshop scenarios, but they are definitely out there.
Certain MDs (in busier groups) would be in the conference room at 10pm going through management presentations with the whole team. It really comes down to your group & your MD. If he / she wants to be in the office til 10pm, that often means he’ll be leaving you with some work on his way out. Meaning you’ve got a 1am night incoming.
Consider yourself lucky to have avoided these places because yeah… they exist for sure. I remember seeing kids on other teams looking like they had gotten into a fist fight because their eyes were so black.
IB is IB so the hours there will always be bad, you’re servicing clients. I’m more so referring to buy side shops that get bad reps like for example people on here say Fortress RE is sweaty. Meanwhile, I know 3 people who work there and it’s not sweaty at all
I dunno I was at a top bank till last year and the typical junior in my group went:
Sun: 12pm-2am
Mon-thur: 10am-2am
Fri: 10am-8/9 pm
One Saturday exception every 6-ish weeks (variable). That’s about 90 hours run-rate a week. With some random slow weeks once every few months.
Bad was getting exception’ed and grinding out back to back weeks of 4-5am log offs with no break. 13 straight days of 10am-4am. So yeah probably some ppl exaggerate, but it’s real in some “prestigious” places.
same in my group, looking to get out. is it better in HF world? may also be helpful what type of HF you’re at
Yes, much much better. 50-60/wk, 70 during 2 weeks of earnings. Large pay bump. Equity L/S >$10bn
That matches my hours - top REGL group. Were you in a REGL group and went to LS HF, how did recruiters see that? Did they try to push you toward REPE?
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