How to deal with aggressive bosses?

Basically, as an intern I understand I’m pretty useless as i’m learning the ropes and perhaps those managing me feel as if they need to really explain things, and that’s fine.

I do, however, believe my organization is beyond toxic. There have been multiple times where I’ve summarized the notes from a meeting, only to be completely shot down/ripped on for something that had no merit being brought up anyway. Example: There was a time I said “Makes sense, so we’re always pulling data from x file (for this project).” I proceeded to get ripped about my “lack of understanding” and how I “need to do more than just the work” and how “i shouldn’t have to explain this.”

???? when did i ask to have the subject at hand explained. It’s extremely annoying having bosses that use any opportunity they can to shit on you, for reasons that have virtually no merit. even if i clarify myself, as I did, and say “i know we won’t ALWAYS use file X, however I meant for this project we’re always using file X”, I still get ELI5’d and shit on even if it’s obvious that my boss(es) were just snappy from the get go.

Can anyone else relate to having such blatantly depressed/aggressive bosses, and how do they allow it to not affect their mood? When I get shit on for something that I already understood, it really hits on my mood/ability to work without the situation sitting in the back of my mind.

I understand I may come across as a snowflake/sensitive Gen Z kid, but I can’t imagine this is normal/healthy behaviour? Fuck man, if the corporate world has taught me anything it’s that most people hate their fucking life, and the chain of command is just a series of each party shitting on their subordinates because their own bosses do the same.

 
Most Helpful

Should've never taken that BMO offer.

Just kidding - anyway, my experience is there's nothing you can really do about changing the way your bosses approach things. When I was younger, I used to think it was normal and would sit and take it and it would really get me down. I now know better - I always grab coffees with ex-employees of a group I'm interested in to hear the real story. I would honestly start looking for opportunities elsewhere and do the best I can at my current role until you can transfer out. There are a lot of cool managers in banking and the job becomes way more tolerable with them. For BB, Barclays/JPM have great, non-asshole cultures. RBC as well (whether you call it a BB or not). Anecdotally I hear Evercore is also a chill culture (personality-wise).

 

Haha, I appreciate the response. I’m definitely looking forward to the end of this internship and re-recruiting for a much healthier team. Sitting and taking it has been my strategy until lately, where I’ve tried explaining myself, but as you’ve said the chances of someone unreasonable, well, becoming reasonable is quite slim.

I think the largest takeaway I got from this experience is that despite being considered a “buzzword”, culture is genuinely one of the most important considerations for where to work. Perhaps that is quite obvious, however, I don’t believe anyone truly realizes this until they either experience working at an organization with a great culture first hand, or until they do their time at a shit show.

 

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