CMV: WFH Makes Banking so Much More Bearable
I keep seeing posts about WFH being terrible - while I agree and have experienced many of the negatives of WFH as a 1st year (less communication, learning, relationships), I believe the positives severely out way them (was in office as intern). IMO, there is nothing more depressing then being in the office at 1am and practicing your Spanish with the night shift janitor in your building who is changing out the bag in the trashcan under your desk.
Then Uber home, hang up your clothes, spend 30? minutes doing normal human post work things and go to bed. Then wake up, shower / shave and commute back to the office. Oh its not a busy day? Have fun falling asleep at your desk pretending to look busy reading the WSJ.
With WFH I can make breakfast while on a call at 10am, go for a run, do laundry, and most importantly sit at my desk in sweatpants with bedhead because I woke up 5 minutes before I was needed. When I was getting cranked 100+ hours for a stretch, I could log off work and be sleeping in 25 minutes - that was insanely beneficial for me and I'm not sure I would have made it if I was going in the office during that time.
Are you people crazy or am I just lazy?
Nah honestly first year sucks WFH. But as a second year / A2A / anyone who got properly onboarded physically, WFH is a massive, massive blessing. You got that comradery of eating chicken nuggets at midnight 30x in your first year already, the 31st isn't going to be adding a ton of social value. Most of your class that came in with you has probably already left, so your "friends" at the firm are already pretty downsized. You're already likely decently efficient so you can give out longer lead times for work and just play video games, hang out with your friends, take a nap, watch a movie in not just your down time, but any breaks you want to have in between. However I totally get it when I see first years complain. They never saw the guy next to them grind, they never had the office culture truly permeate...their perception of what IB is honestly very skewed negatively. It's a massive downside for first year analysts / MBA associates since your mentorship opportunities are so limited, I think it's a real detractor from growth in that sense
As a second year, this is 100% true. It’s been an amazing time period.
its better but it's still shit just a different kind of shit although i will say it is very healthy relationship-wise i have been fucking my gf sooooo much my balls are literally empty all the time i don't even watch porn or jerk off anymore it's amazing
I've been banging her a bunch too, WFH has truly been a blessing
Yeahhh bro i’m literally going to get engaged at the end of the year
I also choose this man's fiancee
do you live in nyc/with gf?
APAC, gf lives like 10 mins walk away lol
Different banks are getting hit differently. The fact that you mentioned pretending to read the WSJ surprised me. Hours have gotten significantly worse, in many cases even more so for more experienced analysts, to the point where they outweigh the time it takes you to go back home and in the morning to get dressed. Our team used to be 80-ish hour weeks pre-COVID. Ever since June of last year, it's been consistently 100+. I know this because I see people's timesheets every week.
Time sheets?
Excel sheet that you report to the staffer that notes your workstreams and how many hours you devote to them every week and expect to devote next week. Thought it was pretty standard across banking.
If your hours have truly increased by an average of 20 per week I totally understand. I had a stretch doing 90-100 hours avg for a few months where I peaked out at 110+. Was truly horrible but it was entirely due to the deal timeline and would have been just as bad in the office. Obviously opinions / experience with WFH vary heavily bank to bank.
Because of the constant deal flow, nights have almost always been past 2am and there have been so many Zoom meetings that randomly pop up that it's been hard to juggle so much. This applies for every analyst and associate in our group.
1h commute to office + 1h commute back every day for 5 days = 10 hours of wasted time that you can't put in the timesheet
breaks during the day between tasks when you watch YouTube/pornhub, do laundry, eat, check phone, etc., totaling ~2h every day = ~10 hours that people put in the timesheet but in reality don't work.
here's your 20h difference.
I think a lot of people get caught up on the hours saved in transportation that don't exist during COVID. However, because of increased deal flow, seniors use this extra 10 hours time you described to actually work and that translates to juniors also using this saved transportation time on just working.
first year associate and i love it
Are you an mba associate? Has it made it harder to learn?
nope - was previously an analyst at another bank.
so the second poster's thoughts do resonate well with me that if you have been through analyst training precovid, it'll be great.
You are a first year, what the hell do you know?
Spent 3 months in the office as an intern at the same lean MM shop doing virtually the same shit I’m doing now, just now I don’t have a FT analyst checking my work. All of the 2nd years I work with also do not want to return to office.
I was an SA and I hardly got to know people at the company I was working at. Limited camaraderie and limited ability to the on-the-job parts of the job itself were seriously inhibiting to my experience and made WFH as a summer analyst admittedly a quite awful experience.
That said, I can understand the benefits associated with the WFH environment from the perspective of those who have endured the difficult hours in the office and cannot stand the idea of commuting. This is something even I resonate with, as when I got to college, I was able to eliminate my own commute into the city of Baltimore (my high school was in that city and took about 30-45 mins to get to daily from rural MD).
However, from an onboarding perspective, this was an awful experience and I think that virtual work is much less connecting of an experience compared to in person work.
Life would be materially better WFH if it wasn’t for this SPAC shitshow. My hours have gone to complete shit since this started combined with the perception that people are just readily available at a moment’s notice
I truly have no interest in ever being back in an office 5 days a week for the exact reasons you mentioned but there has to be some re-blurring of the lines again between banking / personal time - right now it’s nonexistent.
I can’t wait for this SPAC shit to end
LOL same bro i’m on 5 live deals and 4 of them are spacs 3 ipos and 1 despac
From current interest and deal flow expect SPACs for the next 18 to 24 months. The first 6 months have been the easier ones. The next 12 months are the ones that are getting recruited and have done no IPO readiness. The later ones will be learning about IPO readiness and getting started before hand. The anaconda will have a big lumpy belly late spring through end of 2021 so enjoy.
tech fun
WFH is great for those of us who don’t really give af about this job and are not in it for the long haul. Im not even doing a full two years, I’m here to make some money and make my resume look prettier then go somewhere else. Wfh gives tons of leeway to give off the impression that you are SLAMMED with work, when in reality you’re taking it easy 80% of the day and setting your skype so that it says your always online.
I just set mine consistently to offline lmao.
WFH does not make banking more bearable.
I agree with OP. Wait until things open up. It's not easy to stay in office until 3am, then dress up and get back to your desk by 9am the next day and 'put a fake smile when you see the MD at the coffee machine!' Or, the VP standing behind your back and watching each keystroke of yours and yelling why you are so slow...Or, VP calling you when you are at the gym and asking why you are not back yet at your desk...Been there, done that. This is way easier than most analysts can ever imagine.
Lol, maybe the issue is your group’s trash ass culture.
Is your company called Gulag & Co?
When do you find time to go to the gym? Curious as to how you manage a physical training routine in banking. I assume the gym would have to be pretty damn close to the office.
Which group has a tech like culture anyways?
I'm planning on requesting permanent WFH (unless there are client meetings) or i plan on leaving. at top bb
Your boss won't like it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WSO
I am all for flexibility. But I wouldn’t hire somebody if they told me they wanted to permanently WFH.
You should be practicing your English with the janitor, not your Spanish
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