Coworkers Making Me Want To Kill Myself!!
Not literally lol, but it's getting to me. How do you guys deal with clueless coworkers and not let it affect your day?
I work for a discount broker, which I find humiliating by itself. It's made far worse by my simpleton coworkers. Here's some of their greatest hits!
"I learned so much about business during my time in private equity. It put me leaps and bounds ahead of everyone here."
-Coworker during a presentation referring to his days peddling shady o&g private placements to retail clients.
"I love everything about this place and what we can offer. I think investment banking i so fascinating."
-My former manager explaining how good he feels to sell mutual funds to our elderly clients.
"Do this for a few years and then you guys can go work for a hedge fund or do whatever you want..the sky's the limit!"
-Our "MD" during one of our meetings.
The ignorance of these statements could easily be overlooked if the person saying it was nice and sincere. Unfortunately, in every case they are coming from mumbling braggarts who somehow manage to clearly enunciate pe/ib as they give a cold hard stare.
In addition to comments such as these, I have to endure the obnoxious culture. Seeing grown men screaming for joy over getting ice cream on Friday's. Witnessing cs reps wearing black t-shirts that just say "trader" across the front. Having to park right next to a car with "bull mkt" personalized plates. Hearing the dullards quote cheesy lines from every bad wall street movie imaginable. On top of it all, they know about me applying to business schools and taking CFA exams and like to compare themselves to me. It's extremely annoying to hear someone with a MBA from a for-profit university (nice way of putting it lol) tell me he understands how hard it is to juggle things while I'm stressing out about getting a sub 700 GMAT.
Sorry to rant, but it's so frustrating to be fighting an uphill battle trying to break in and also have to put up with this sort of stuff. The worst part is that I have to stay for at least the next six months. It's the only job I've ever had to I dread going to. Hopefully it will give some of you a good laugh if nothing else.
I was expecting some stupid rant about relatively normal co-workers, but I think you are completely justified in feeling this way. These guys are ass clowns.
Ha, wow. This was rather entertaining.
I'd use it as motivation to work harder (on your gmat and exit plans, not in discount brokering) and gtfo of that place.
this sounds made up, but if not, this is classic.
is this in NYC? I cannot stop laughing at that ice cream thing...
Here's the thing though. What makes you upset here isn't so much that these people are "clueless" (even though they obviously are), but rather, that these people think so highly of themselves when they have little reason to, and that these people are so happy/excited when they have little reason to be. The problem is that this doesn't end at your current employer. Once you leave to what you think are greener pastures, you'll see that this problem manifests itself over and over and over again, just in different forms. It's reflective of a flaw in human nature, I suppose, that for some reason is magnified in the finance world. I guess what I'm saying is that your underlying frustration is not just going to go away when your surface level situation changes, this is something you have to learn to deal with. And when you really get down to the crux of things...everything is a joke anyway, so try to laugh a bit more.
7 years later and this comment is still helpful.
Although what's up with people digging up old threads like this?
Bots
Whoa. You made me feel better about my place, thanks man. And yeah, I agree with @Marcus_Halberstram - do what you gotta do to make sure you have other options once your six months are over.
Agreed, but this kind of behavior ain't as pervasive everywhere as at OP's place. And I would guess it would be comparatively easy to handle one wannabe BSD than an entire office.OP, only way that I can think of to handle your situation is to meet up with friends outside of office whenever possible. Obviously not gonna happen everyday, but even if you do it every other weekend or so to blow off steam, at least you'll feel better. If not, WSO's always open for rants ;)
Yup. Had a similar experience listening to a classmate brag about his "summer internship at Goldman Sachs" to a bunch of breathless college freshmen. He neglected to mention that he was in the back office out in Jersey.
If you're going to be an arrogant dickhead, at least have something legitimately impressive to lord over the plebes, you know?
To be fair, some of it is reminiscent of a large chunk of WSO users ...
Kinda like a friend of mine who boasted about working for Google.
Turned out he was working for a shady little firm that did some backoffice work/bitch work that google employees wouldn't shit on. Now he's in IT at Walmart, lol.
Are you at John Thomas Financial?
Fucked up/hilarious post man. Good luck.
@subrosa
It was an entertaining read - I can only imagine your pain working with those meatheads. Is this in NYC? In any case, hope you got some thick skin as you search for that upgrade.
I wish I were making this all up but unfortunately it's true... it's in DFW so maybe that explains some of it lol. I'm so looking forward to getting out of here.
Equities in Dallas...
I died laughing at the ice cream part.
It's time to up and move, OP. I hope you get out asap.
Eyes on the ball and do your work exceptionally well. Study hard and get a good GMAT, don't show your contempt if you can help it, and get out.
This thread is 7 years old.
Just...why?
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