Working with a 5yr old

I'm in research and been working in the finance industry for about 4 years. Worked at prop shops in chicago/ny. I recently came into a roll with a new boss. Jeez she sucks. How do you deal with someone who acts like a 5 year old kid. Literally criticizing everything you do and not providing any feedback to learn from. Granted I do not suck and I work my tail off..how do you get along with these ppl? This lady is making me want to quit!

7 Comments
 
DavidKappoKaplanDamn.. really thought you were going to explain how your firm just took on a 5 year old super genius intern that was showing you up...

Same here. I feel stupid for even considering it though. Then again, this is WSO, anything is possible.

looking for that pick-me-up to power through an all-nighter?
 
Best Response

One huge and important question: Are there other people who work for her? What does she think of their work?

Also, are you going from proprietary research to institutional research? There is going to be a much different attitude about research at a BB investment bank. This stuff gets sent out to clients, not a few traders, and it needs to look perfect. There are also 100x more compliance concerns. At a big investment bank where clients are paying $X hundred thousand a year to get Y reports, it's natural for managers to be very persnickety about what comes off the production line.

Finally, did you replace someone in this role? What is her track record as a manager? Is there a long trail of disgruntled former employees behind her?

Perfectionists naturally tend to create more job openings than non-perfectionists. But there's also a reason they call work work. Let's see if we can get some more info about your situation, figure out who's more likely to be right, and how you approach this.

I've learned how to deal with perfectionists before. They're not all that fun, but there's strategies for dealing with them (often involving constructive confrontations). But let's make sure we're dealing with a perfectionist first before we make a decision without all the facts and have you shoot yourself in the foot.

 

Ask her (in an e-mail) what changes you could implement to better perform in your capacity. Then try them out and update her on the progress.

More is good, all is better
 

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