Going Fully Remote
I think I'm in the minority when I say I freakin' love WFH. Been a lot more focused / productive, am on the phone enough during the day that it's not lonely, and have enjoyed the time outside of NYC immensely.
My firm is likely going back to the office in a couple months and was thinking about asking to go full remote (and come into the office like a week each month or something). We're a small team and I can operate fairly autonomously (Senior Associate, probably get bumped to VP in 12-15 months) so it wouldn't seem to make a big difference to anyone where I hang my hat.
Curious if anyone has done the remote thing pre-Covid or had this conversation with their employer? I'm nervous to broach the subject...
bump
Nothing to add but I'm in the same boat and going to be bringing it up within the next few weeks. Tricky conversation!
I'm with you. But my view is that I could do 1-2 days /week in the office to sync up with people and get internal meetings done. Sort of like in strategy consulting, where people come to the office and sync up every Friday. But for sure I'm much more productive skipping the commute and working in a quiet space, as opposed to being in the office. That said, I think it depends on what job you're doing. If you're doing analytical work, building modes, writing, doing PPT work, WFH may be much more efficient. If you're trading, likely being on a trading desk is better.
It will hurt you politically to be the odd man out doing WFH if everyone else returns to the office, even if you plan on popping in every once in a while. That 12 month promote to VP could now be 24 months, or you could risk being replaced in full. You are not (and no one really is) as valuable or irreplaceable as you might think you are. I think everyone realizes how well they can WFH, but if the firm decision is to go back you're going to have to play ball or suffer consequences. Just the way it is.
[Citation needed]
I did my first job at a large organization of its kind (e.g., JPM / McK / BX etc.) about 75% remote (pre-COVID) and hit every promotion possible.
If your point is around small team dynamics - that may be true, but still - in my example here, I was in a silo'd group of <10-15 and managed to hit every promotion.
I think it really depends on where you are and only OP can evaluate whether or not to broach the topic.
This is a fair point but some tradeoffs seem reasonable, no? In the context of a 30-year career who cares if you make VP at 28 v. 29 if remote work enables you to live the personal life you want?
Go for it man. The more people ask for it, the more normal it will be. It is worth the risk.
Politically it will hurt you if everyone else goes in. You'll miss a lot of the side conversations, huddle-ups, that happen in the office. Since everyone in your office is out now, those are all happening online/over the phone. But if you're the odd one out, you'll be missing those.
Very curious on others' experience too! Biggest outcome I got from Covid on office is greater flexibility on working remote for personal trips, unexpected life stuff, etc. Like if I want to work from a beach house for a week (here and there, not abusing it), nobody cares now, whereas before I would have gotten a "that's not going to fly, work around it."
We are currently "experimenting" with doing 4 days/week in office, aside from the caveats above, but will reassess at end of year... my guess is 3 days going forward.
Returning to the office, plus other factors at work, have made me shift my state of mind from preferring remote to preferring hybrid:
So tl;dr Remote work isn't personally the hill I'm going to die on relative to other things (comp/carry, job evolution, etc.). That said my employer would probably let me do it if I put my foot down, and has generally gotten chiller about this stuff.
EDIT: Replied to the wrong post, meant to do this to the guy below who asked "how did conversations turn out"
Had this discussion today with a partner today. As a MF group (saying this because it is still group-dependent), my group isn't planning on going back to the office until 2021. We are considering a staggered office staffing throughout the week but at this point it's been made clear that the remote work has had almost no knock on workstream execution efficiency. So I'm hopeful that yes, we need to go into the office 2-3x a week but also looking forward to not having to be in attendance 24/7 now that the remote setup has proven to be successful.
For new guys this may be different but for this fiscal year my group didn't hire any new associates so we haven't had to worry about politics etc
Curious if you ever had this conversation or if your thoughts have changed one way or the other as remote has continued
total disaster! Can't wait to head back into the office.
Anybody having this conversation as we're getting closer to normalcy?
Bump - wondering how any of these discussions turned out.
I've been working completely remotely since 2018, which is not unusual at all in certain roles.
Overall, I find it suits me well, given the way I choose to live. Additionally, I have worked for offices in NYC/DC/Miami/Vancouver/Atlanta and other financial centers from anywhere. For a long time, I've lived and worked in a major financial hub, but have since moved back to where I'm from. Overall, I think it's a business decision, and it doesn't work for everything. I don't see why you would be nervous if it's just a discussion.
I don't think it's suited for every type of job or every type of person. If your job is not typically done remotely and you aren't in a position to decide that, then it's really about power and negotiation, if that's really a risk that's worth it for you. Executives often have the most incentive to work on-site as they have the nicest offices! Additionally, they are the ones calling the shots on remote work. I think it works best for technical roles and newer companies where remote work is not unusual.
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