Tired of this "personal hour" work life balance initiative talk
Wow, thanks Bank management for giving me an hr of free time a day. So progressive. Maybe I'll use that time to take a dump and brush my teeth because the other 23 hours of the day are spent churning comments, skipping lunch and sometimes dinner, and answering pings from seniors of "whats the status" every 30 mins. Such a cool initiative thanks!
Pretty sure in Federal supermaxes they get like an hr of yard time a day. We don't sit around and jerk off the prison warden for caring so much about the work life balance of prisoners.
Then quit. Plenty happy to take your job.
I don’t understand why this is people’s argument back. Yeah it’s true, junior staff are always replaceable, but OP makes a valid point. Why would anyone be against improving banking industry culture / morale? Do you want to be as miserable as possible?
Because people who are miserable in this industry largely bring it upon themselves by chasing prestige and a fictitious, romantic idea of what working in finance entails. And because a lot of people shit on groups known for being being a better work/life balance because they aren’t as prestigious. It’s like well okay if you can’t be caught dead working in ECM because it isn’t as prestigious as M&A, then don’t bitch about the M&A hours, that’s the choice you made.
You can be pissed off about something and vent and not want to quit, pointless argument. I can’t imagine everyone in everyone job is 100% happy 100% of the time
I’m not saying this is OP’s situation but I agree it’s silly how some hardos in this industry shit on groups known for being better culturally while simultaneously venting about how much they hate their own job. There is a better option but most are too proud to take it.
I would like to punch you in the face.
me too man
This isn't true. There are less and less QUALIFIED and talented people willing to do IB every year. Go look at what is happening at M7 Biz schools. If you are at HBS and end up doing IB people essentially think you screwed up.
When tech offers so much more (in work life balance, less toxicity, and arguably higher comp) we are seeing the top talent head there. Same with MBB which has a better reputation.
There may be plenty who are willing to take my seat - but its absolutely a fact that the talent level is lower and its harder for banks to recruit the people they actually want. Why do you think all the BBs have so many non-target school initiatives now to boost hiring?
Why don't they cut down the recruiting numbers and take the few that are actually qualified, talented and willing to do the work?
Also would like to add that in the business world, you never know who is really ready until they are put under fire. Some are actually talented with upside but not willing to work as hard as the guy from a state-school who with one shot at IB could surpass ivy kids with an intense work ethic and drive. With this in mind, companies in business tend to take more gambles - sometimes it pays off and more often than not, it don't. Think of Mark Cuban, plenty more talented than him but any I-Banker would recruit a guy from Indiana with that willingness to work hard to see his business come to fruition.
This is correct. As someone who hires multiple analysts per year, the quality is degrading because of IB’s bad reputation. The smartest people go to tech. Thanks everyone who says “there’s a line out the door” and doesn’t want to fix any of the massive issues IB has
And people need to realize it's a job.... People work construction, retail, service jobs, etc. for 16 hour straight.... this is ridiculous and such an entitled mentality.
Ok Mr. Baby Boomer, thanks for stealing money and hurting the environment.
Yeah they work 16 days straight maybe 2-3 days a week, and then gets 3-4 days off to make up for it.
Clearly, you’ve never had to work in any of these industries or had family members that did. That’s not how that works at all.
What the fuck are these comments
laughing so hard after reading this thread. was thinking the same thing
Agree. What people don't get is that it's not about a special one hour of time. The ethos should be to treat your employees like human beings. A monster who gives you one hour of free time is still a monster after that hour is up. IB analysts are ambitious kids willing to work all day and night. That doesn't mean that they should be treated with the moral equivalency of the F9 button on Excel at your bidding.
I said this before in a different thread but giving "personal hours" is absolutely not the solution. We need to stop criminalizing those who are "away" over Teams or Skype and those who aren't optically "at the desk" 24/7. If people need to get a few hours to take care of the house just as daily course of business, they shouldn't have to wait till their "protected time" to do so. As long as the work is getting done and people are responsive, the idea of online face-time just perpetuates a shitty work culture which can often times be even worse than what happens in person. It's important to instill a sense of trust in the junior bankers which allows them to operated autonomously. If you're in the middle of an important deal then you can generally count on the fact that the deal team will be there and ready to tackle whatever comes their way. But if you're in a period between client work, there is no need to subject or enforce any kind of mentality where people feel they need to consistently appear online
You know that you can delay how soon you appear away right? People can just do that to add say 30mins, great trick to appear at your desk when you take a walk and respond to your emails from your phone...
Yes and I tell that to the junior guys who have complained to me about what I said. But my comment is more pertinent to the underlying culture of even having to do so - especially during the pandemic.
This “one hour a day” bs is just an insult to us during this pandemic when they seem to want us to be working 24/7 because we can’t go out anyways. I went from regularly working till 10pm to regularly working past midnight and then some during weekends since the pandemic.
lol you work in commercial banking your opinion matters a grand total of zero in this discussion
You must be a lot of fun at parties
lol Kid, there are JPM commercial bankers that make over a million a year with a solid w/l balance.
as long as someone is willing to do it it wont change, and there are plenty people who do. find another job if you don't like your current job, simple as that
This thread is way too toxic. Should be a unified front advocating for better culture and pay.
You just have Capitalists in the most pure sense of the term: you are worth the value you bring and your irreplacibility vs Communists: lets unite for better conditions.
Definitely agree on better culture. Better pay!? What? We work in an industry where our bonuses alone are higher than the general populations median household income. People on this site need a reality check. There was a post about how it's difficult for people with a family to live in NYC making $1m a year, just wtf.
nothing will change until those that are initiating the work (MDs I guess) change the way they work. my $0.02, never been in banking but deal with plenty of higher ups at companies that deal with bankers and have friends that are/were in banking so I've only got limited data
not every pitch is urgent
no pitchbook alone will win you a relationship, so stop chasing perfection at the expense of team health
it's a waste of time spending hours on a low probability win
if something doesn't get done until Monday instead of Friday night and you lose the deal as a result, you never really had the deal to begin with
you don't need ANYTHING after 9pm except sleep and maybe a hummer, that goes for everyone (analysts and MDs)
stop treating PE firms like they're prom queen (see Apollo thread for what I mean)
if your pitchbook is more than 10 slides of substance, it's not getting read
unfortunately my words will fall on deaf ears because MDs and the people that made them MDs were used to this culture and likely see nothing wrong with it. IB at the top is sales, I'm in sales too, and I am consistently shocked at the level of bending over backwards IB folks do for clients. despite the culture you've been introduced into, not everything is urgent, and most of your pitchbooks likely never get read. you absolutely should work yourselves over the top to be prepared for a real deal, finals presentations, something like that, kinda like you should prepare before you pitch game 7, but turning comments at midnight just because the MD happens to be awake and is a sociopath that wants to perfect slide 37 of a bake off bullshit that won't be won anyway? that's dumb and a poor use of time and moneuy
The illusion of productivity is very important
Lol which bank sent this out
UBS has something called Wellness Hour that is 1 hour to yourself a day. No one uses it... you either do the work at 7pm or 3am
At ubs and have never heard of this period. Getting crushed all year too.
What group? Everyone is getting worked but it’s been sent around a few times. Are you US?
Is 55 hours a week considered a lot?
Lmaooooo
No.
Wow. I get sooo tired working 55 hours Monday through Friday. I have NO idea how people work more than 65+ hours.
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