Wanted to see if anyone could give me some advice or was wondering if anyone out there has been in the same situation...
Background: Currently I work at a boutique real estate investment & development shop focusing on office, retail, and multifamily mixed use opportunities (predominately opportunistic investments). We have a lot of institutional backing and our shop runs extremely lean (I’m talking 10 people with part timers). My role in the firm is to support the CIO for all acquisition underwriting & hold sell analyses on assets currently owned.
Dilemma: a coworker, who feels he does not have enough “tangible” work (mostly focuses on market research & interviews for architects, project managers, etc.), has been attempting to do some of the financial underwriting that I was brought on to do. He frequently asks me to teach him how to go about modeling, and states that he is only trying to learn so he can “help the team out when you are tied down on higher priorities”. I have a feeling he thinks he is wasting his MBA (best program out there btw) on monotonous tasks and wants to be a part of the more complex responsibilities like building a financial model.
I am in a rock and a hard place with what I should do. Should I say anything, or let things naturally happen and see how things play out? It’s easy to say share the workload, however, the acquisition underwriting comes in ebbs and flows, and I honestly don’t want to give any of it up in fear of job security.
Am i just freaking out, or would you all feel the same?
You're not freaking out. A guy who got into (HBS?) didn't do it by resting his laurels. How to handle this --- is the issue.
My instincts tells me that this is some '48 Laws of Power' shit, especially considering that it is a small environment.
You have to be careful. I guess you can delineate your role by emphasizing these things are your responsibility but that you'd be happy to go over some things at the end of the day (ie: keep him behind the curve on live transactions). You don't want to seem too territorial, as that reeks of insecurity and makes you look bad.
The other side of this coin is that since it is a small shop and the pipeline isn't always full....job security isn't really there to begin with anyway. Maybe moving to a bigger shop would suit you better?
You could also be a little more confident in your position and skills and figure out a way to leverage resources to make your life easier when you need it. If you are afraid someone is going to take over your job by you teaching them what you know, you probably aren't doing your job well enough. If anything, the smart guys (i.e those that started your company) will eventually sniff you out knowing you feel threatened, making you look like a bitch.
This is also a pretty toxic attitude to have towards a career in general. You will find a hard time making true connections in your industry if you only look to interact with people that benefit you and never look to "pay it forward". A career is built on mutually beneficial relationships, better to get in the habit of doing it now. Who knows where this guy will end up?
I do not think I am an underwriting god or anything like that, but by no means do I feel like I am under performing. I am very confident in my work and I receive high praises from all of the partners. Regarding my demeanor & career attitude, I am the last guy in the room that has an attitude of "what are you going to do for me" and I fully understand that a career (esp. real estate) is built on relationships.
To clarify, I am not concerned that me teaching this guy to do the financial underwriting could lead to me getting fired. I am more concerned that this will lead to sharing my underwriting responsibility that I love to do so much, and ultimately end up with me doing more back office work.
"Successful people exude joy, share data and information...while unsuccessful people exude anger, hoard data and information"
But, I understand that it's not an easy decision. I suppose I would be more concerned about 48 Laws of Power-esque moves if you were at a F500 than at a small shop.
Besides:
7 get others to do your work for you
I have an interesting take on this because I'm on the other side of the coin. I work in a much larger company but no so large that everyones roles are set in stone. Over the course of the last year and a half I've been slowly boxing a couple people out in my department (finance/aquisitions) when I saw they usually got the projects that seemed interesting to me. I've slowly become the MD's go-to person for certian type of aquisitions. And it all started with my saying "Hey Bob, I know you're busy with project A, do you need some help with Project B in the meantime?"
Yes but Bob's career could go in a million directions. He may not care at all for the "certain type of acquisition" you speak about even if you love it.
He is in his early to mid twenties (assuming). He isn't protecting a company he has been building his entire life, he isn't fighting to feed his kids, and he isn't protecting an idea that is going to make him hundreds of millions of dollars (also assuming). Behaving as he described to protect a position seems like he is 1) creating a bad habit that will haunt his professional relationships and drive his work habits in the future, and 2) engaging in behavior is going to make him miserable (looking over his shoulder all the time) at a company he will probably leave in 3 - 10 years.
You never know where you are going to end up and who you are going to see again in the future. Do as described above and pay it forward.
Thats the point, no one its going to get fired, everyone still has tons of work to do. They just get the boring work!
I just want to add to my earlier post...I agree that taking the 'pay it forward' approach to the business world at large is the best way to advance your career.
Try to give more then you receive...and you usually end up receiving more via some source of business karma. That is great for the industry at large.
However, on more than one occasion I've seen the political struggle that comes right around the VP level in PE. If you don't play to win, you'll likely be pushed out by someone who is. This industry is much less meritocratic than people think it is.
Thank you everyone for the advice, I greatly appreciate the insight from an unbiased source.
I am going to take this attitude going forward. I am confident in my work and pretty certain that, even if this does lead to shared responsibilities, I will be tasked with the higher priority projects.
Has anyone ever been in a similar situation, and if so, what was the outcome?
If I was the other guy, I'd be gunning for you, but than again...I'm an asshole. Successful people get ahead. Unsuccessful people don't.
To be honest, there isn't too much you can do anyway. You should be open and helpful, but have line in the sand. Regardless, I wish you luck. I've been in your shoes before and know that it can be stressful,
Thank you.
He has voiced in the past that he doesn't know what his main focus is within our company. And to be honest, I really don't know either. Which is why I feel like he believes he is wasting his MBA. Compare that to me, I know exactly what I do and my work is very tangible. I feel like he wants more concrete responsibilities, which happens to be the work that I focus on.
I just wanted to see if my concerns were warranted because I do tend to over analyze things.
I was in a similar situation once. I really needed some cash so I stretched the truth a bit on my resume when job searching. To my surprise I ended up getting hired directly by the Senior Vice President of the company I was applying to - basically a support role similar to yours. I was totally in over my head, but thankfully a junior colleague asked if she could help with anything. I asked her do some of my Q.E.D. reports and she accepted! My new boss was really pleased with the reports when I gave them to her. Unfortunately, this other b**ch who was gunning for my job told my boss who really did the work. I totally thought I was going to get fired, but my boss praised me for being able to delegate!!! Then my little brother broke his leg and my mom caught me putting on a fashion show in her backyard.
In all seriousness though, I'd help the guy learn some new things if he wants to. You are on the same team.
I appreciated the "Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead" reference here.
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