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.

 
Best Response

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?

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 

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.

<span class=keyword_link><a href=/resources/skills/finance/going-concern>Going Concern</a></span>:

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.

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 ;)

Move along, nothing to see here.
 

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.

 

@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.

All the world's indeed a stage, And we are merely players, Performers and portrayers, Each another's audience, Outside the gilded cage - Limelight (1981)
 

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