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Career Chat V: the Common Ruin of the Contending Classes


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Thanks everyone! I'm sure I'll find something. Job hunting is always nervewracking though and I know I violated the cardinal rule by quitting before I had another one. But I know it's all going to work out, somehow!

My current position has now been listed and my boss posted about it on his LinkedIn and I was like "damn that sounds really cool!" and then I was like...but wait...haha. It's hard that something that sounds on paper so perfect for me felt so awful, but that's how it goes I guess. Just makes me second guess everything that even sounds interesting now...

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On 2/1/2023 at 1:41 PM, Starkess said:

Just makes me second guess everything that even sounds interesting now...

Don't let one bad experience affect you too much or shape how you view other career options. It happens, and probably will happen again multiple times in your life going forward. Just learn from it and use the free time you have now to pursue other enriching things until you lock up the next gig. It will happen for you eventually.

56 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

or that people are plotting to get me fired. 

People suck. It's why we can't have nice things.

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1 hour ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

I have a strained relationship with my boss, and I really hate sitting on a trading floor as I need to do things that require intense concentration for a living.

I sometimes work from home, but then I’m filled with anxiety and dread that I’m going to miss out on something vital or that people are plotting to get me fired. 

Urg.

Just trying to be constructive. Take or leave the following:

 

Money good?

Gooder than dread of plotting? (I'm familiar with plotting, Honey. Don't ever feel paranoid about snake-in-the-grass motherfuckers at work. Feel ALERT :ph34r:

What would happen if they fired you? 

What would happen if they didn't fire you? (Will your situation improve on its own, essentially?) 

Do you have access to where they keep their lunches? 

What's up? What are you feelin? Do you HATE your job? Or just some of the stuff involved with it? Do you have someone better to talk to about this stuff than me? Please say "yes" to that last one at least... 

Edited by Secretary of Eumenes
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4 minutes ago, Wade1865 said:

Secretary of Eumenes -- what do you mean? What exactly are you suggesting Chataya de Fleury should do to her colleagues?

You have me exactly. 

I actually spent a moment googling whether teardrops actually cause nausea or vomiting because I distantly recall seeing something to that effect in one of the infinite-list grotesque teen/young adult comedies of the VHS era

They do not, Google told me

Which is why I didn't go with that 

:D

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2 hours ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

I have a strained relationship with my boss, and I really hate sitting on a trading floor as I need to do things that require intense concentration for a living.

I sometimes work from home, but then I’m filled with anxiety and dread that I’m going to miss out on something vital or that people are plotting to get me fired.

Chataya de Fleury -- another interesting glimpse into the corporate world, thank you for sharing! Your description reflects my former profession. Often, I'd be compelled to work on a trading floor-equivalent, known as a TOC or TAC. Likewise, it's challenging to do focused work in a place that often approximated a schoolyard. More, working elsewhere would have been a social and professional liability.

I understand :crying:

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  • 1 month later...

Frustrated at work. 

Middle and senior managers keep chasing after new projects while avoiding cross-departmental collaboration as if they might catch something nasty from listening to someone else's ideas. Communication is terrible. The work of maintaining our current offering (and often of following through on managerial ideas) falls on the lower orders, but after many structural changes plus staff leaving, any procedures that were in place seem to have been forgotten, and things are constantly being overlooked (because of lousy processes) that wouldn't be if the relevant individuals cared about more than adding the Shiny to their CVs. 

Competent staff leave or get sick. 

My boss is a good person, but also much more interested in his own projects than in being a proactive team manager. And he's worn out from the same entrenched organisational nonsense that's been getting to me, and overworked anyway in that he has a dual technical/managerial role. I'm not sure when/if he'll notice that we're all overdue for appraisals. Wouldn't have thought I'd ever miss them, but in the right hands they can create the illusion that you're valued as more than a disposable flesh robot. 

I've been working at weekends most weekends since November to keep up with the amount of stuff that comes my way. 

(Context: I am a Grade 4 minion.) And now I'm going to electro-shock mercenaries in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. 

Edited by dog-days
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10 hours ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

@dog-days - ah, do we work together? Because….seriously, this sounds like legit everywhere I’ve ever worked. Or maybe I choose unhealthy relationships, while you accidentally fell into one. I dunno.

All I know is that I’m doing an HBO “Industry” re-watch and thought to myself “wow, there’s way less sex and drugs than I remembered”

Until I realized I had normalized a lot of things.

All unhappy organisations are the same, all happy organisations are happy in their own way? 

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My boss, the president of our firm, wants me to run a spin-off investment business with him for a handful (initially) of billionaires, starting with our own CIO.  I developed a plan for the venture last year, and the initial clients want to get started.  The idea has some appeal but I think it’s bad career timing for me to go down a specific, narrow rabbit hole like this could easily be.  The financial upside for me is potentially much larger, with high risk, although the downside of headaches and insufficient infrastructure is also potentially much larger and with greater likelihood.  I need to make a decision quite soon.  I’d prefer to do it as a part-time project but I’m seen as the guy to fully own and lead it.

Aside from that, I’m still transitioning from my old role as a business unit leader for clients back toward a more investment-content role.  But, as expected, it’s difficult to really be disciplined and extract myself from the client situations.  My team is trying to step up to take more ownership and free up my time but not enough progress there yet. I think I’ll have a new senior alternate for me, which could really help me not have to get involved when anything turns complicated.

It’s nice to have options but difficult to juggle them.

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7 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

I was told that half of the reduction was Company and half was personal (note: not performance).

Is that technically legal if it's flatly admitted? 

Anyways, sorry to hear about the cut.

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1 hour ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

Well, my bonus just got slashed by 80%. Dipping into savings to pay off the credit card, and setting up a budget to get me on a better path.

That bonus had been 1/3 of my pay.

I was told that half of the reduction was Company and half was personal (note: not performance).

Ugh.  That is AWFUL.  I keep hearing about the global shortage of accountants.  Something about supply and demand?

I am told that I'm on a short list for a pretty massive promotion.  I am also relatively certain (based on some really good intel) that there is literally a snowball's chance in the furnace of Mt. Doom that I actually get it, so am more or less on the short list for window dressing.  I wish I weren't on the short list.  Now I'm going to be disappointed and there was no reason to list me if there is no intention to actually promote me.

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7 minutes ago, Mlle. Zabzie said:

I wish I weren't on the short list.  Now I'm going to be disappointed and there was no reason to list me if there is no intention to actually promote me.

Congratulations, you're one step closer to being a minority hire in the NFL! 

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3 minutes ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

Dude, I don’t know what’s worse - bonus cut by 80% or being on a short list that goes nowhere. And I’m saying that for real. Not sarcastically.

Bonus cut. Budgeting based on a bonus that doesn't cash stings more than not getting a promotion you otherwise weren't expecting, and even if you feel like the latter was never going to materialize, at least you know that you're valued and can justify working harder going forward so maybe next time it's more of a reality. 

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5 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

Bonus cut. Budgeting based on a bonus that doesn't cash stings more than not getting a promotion you otherwise weren't expecting, and even if you feel like the latter was never going to materialize, at least you know that you're valued and can justify working harder going forward so maybe next time it's more of a reality. 

God no. That's playing right into their hands. 

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Sorry @Chataya de Fleury and @Mlle. Zabzie, both situations sound bad in their own way.

Bonuses drop sharply at asset management firms when the portfolio is down.  That’s part of the cycle and you just plan for it.  But the extra personal animus that Chats has experienced lately makes it more than that.  Watching the crypto implosions and now reckless* risk management at SVB and some other regional banks makes me think there will be some new S-Ox style regs ahead for financial risk controls.  Just like post-Enron was a good job market for accountants overall even if AA imploded. 

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I turned down the CIO role at the spin-off venture.  I think it’s the right call.  The president is disappointed because he’s personally excited and very invested in this.  I’ll help him part time but no more than that.

My bonus this year was excellent but I’m banking most of it.  I think our most senior people will be forced to restructure our comp deals for the next few years.  I’m going to have even more of my comp tied up in future profits rather than cold, hard cash.

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Well I am definitely not getting the promotion.  I know who is.  I also have been told that part of the narrative around me is "they don't know what the value add would be."  So, you know, I'm pretty pissed.  Not at not getting the promotion - it was being set up for this other guy and I really like him and think he'll be great.  But rather that they put me on the short list as window dressing and then dismissed me as non-value add.  Eff that noise.  

Oh well, I have a large client I'm trying to keep out of bankruptcy this evening.  So I'll go back to that.

and Isk - you definitely did the right thing.

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Hmm....our company has a performance award structure that is pretty transparent, based on individual performance (that doesnt vary a lot amongst employees) and company performance that you can track per quarter. By Q4 2022 I had a pretty good idea what it would be. I'm surprised the financial sector has a more volatile PA system (although to be fair its only ~12% of my income, and what I do has minimal impact on the company bottom line)

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