Can someone explain facetime to me?

I will be starting SA Program soon and I've heard about facetime through coffee chat and I just wanted some more information on it.

  1. Is it still prevalent? I don't mind working long hours but I am still curious about it
  2. Is it standard across all banks?
  3. What do you personally do as a SA during facetime?
  4. Is facetime simply "stay until everyone else leaves"?
 
Best Response

Facetime, in a nutshell, is being physically present in the office when your peers or seniors (associate, VP or MD) are. It essentially means that you pull the same 'in the office' hours as them even if a lot of your time won't be spent working but waiting for tasks or things to do. As far as I know, it is still present in a lot of BBs, less so at EBs and virtually inexistent in my field (consulting). Get an idea of how your firm operates. Some firms will say 'stay until 2am whether you have stuff to do or not' and some will just want the work done whether it keeps you in until 2am or you manage to get it done by 10pm.

Since a lot of facetime will be spent doing nothing you can make it useful or useless; useful means reading news, being updated with market information and generally being informed. Useless means anything else such as procrastination or starting to look at applications to other firms.

Personally I think facetime is still a relic of older MDs who use the excuse 'well my dickhead associate made me do it in the 80s when I was an analyst so now you have to do it'. A lot of smart and modern people just want you to do your work well and on time which varies by abilities as mentioned above (some take less time than others).

 

The one main thing to avoid is to look bored. You will be bored stiff but try not to act like it. When people are watching read the news or something related, when they aren't procrastinate however you want . If any member of senior staff asks 'what are you still doing here?' at a late hour or when you've done your work, then it won't be required.

 

I run (not walk) away from any job that requires "facetime". Nonsensical corporate bullshit designed to whip the little ones into compliance.

A job should be about getting things done/results and then getting out (of the office). Back when I used to work in an office, I'd leave at 2pm some days, and stay until 11pm on other days. It depended on what I needed to get done and/or got done.

No wonder my manager said I'm "not the office type". Thank god.

 

Put simply, facetime is the art of appearing to be a "team player".

It's the art of not leaving at the earliest possible moment, of being interested in "what else can we accomplish today", of demonstrating to your colleagues that you put the team effort first in your mind.

Put more complex, facetime is the art of maximizing your reputation while minimizing wasted time. It is the art of not being gratuitous with your commitment to your team, of knowing when to push for an assignment and when to leave for the night, of knowing what's perceived as annoying/dweebish and what's helpful to those you report to.

Array
 

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