I have been working on the buy side for over 4 years, admittedly there’re some people with unique personality. But nobody has made me so uncomfortable as a new analyst we recently hired from an ivy league school. I have to say he is a smart guy. But he seems to like hearing his own voice too much. He would say “How are you? How’s going? How’re you doing? Are you OK? Is everything OK?” twenty times a day. But it’s not over-polite, 2 colleagues of mine already told me they think this guy is very arragont, and the respectful words coming out of his tongue don’t mean anything from his heart. By the way, we’re vice presidents, 2 levels higher than the analyst, but it’s a flat organization structure in which everyone reports to a managing director. What bothers me is whatever work he did for the boss, he save the work to his C drive, if we need to build on his work, we receive a spreadsheet which has data copied as text so no formula is there to help you check the relations between cells. Even he is doing only very simple and foundamental data mining, he cherished it as a great work and doesn’t want anybody else know how he did it, except showing you only the results. Upon his arrival, each of us were very helpful in familiarizing him with work. Each of us did some training on him to enable him to do his job. But now he’s asking each of to give him our own tools even it’s not relevant to his work. Over the 4-5 years work, we built many personal queries and wrote many customized codes to do the analysis. Among we three we usually discuss about how to do the work to great detail and share the thoughts, Bloomberg tips, VBA, C++, Matlab codes quite often. But this analyst yesterday asked each of us to send him all our codes, including a check list of all Bloomberg functions that we use, none of us feel like this is an appropriate request. Normally when one colleague is doing something and get stuck, he or she will ask for help “I’m stuck her, who can help.” Then we help each other. None of us would say what the analyst said to us:" I know you have many useful codes, and each of you have a list of useful Bloomberg functions that you use very often, would you mind sending me all these and let me take a look?" I don’t know what’s wrong with me, or what’s wrong with us, or what’s wrong with this guy. I don’t like him any more. And I would say he’s probably the person I dislike the most.
Why aren’t you sharing this with your manager? Is this a “flat-structure” place that has no management? 1) You should be controlling access to intellectual property. Flat-structure or not, it’s not protectable intellectual property if you don’t. 2) Nobody should be able to create intellectual property without the work being checked by other people. In particular, work with just results is worth nothing. If you are trading on such work with nobody checking it, you aren’t doing your fiduciary duty and it’s questionable about the “reasonable basis” part of the CFA code of conduct. 3) Asking for access to intellectual property is childish stuff. You don’t want access unless its relevant to your work. You don’t want to give it to him unless that’s part of the access plan. 4) Your MD is an idiot to let this stuff go on. Your place is seriously in need of some policies and procedures regarding IP. I would get some IT and compliance person together and put together a system of IP preservation and access. This includes version control, carefully controlled access, cross-checking, etc…
yea - this is actually hard to believe. a VP being afraid of analyst? If you were the pro you claim to be, you would sit this kid down with the MD and say that there are serious issues in his work style, and that he needs to adjust. This economic environment is NOT the time for a junior analyst to be confident, and it is also not the time to think you are not replaceable. If this is a real post, then this kid needs to be sat down. You can be as arrogant as you want as long as your work is good and you work for the business. This kid seems to be doing neither.
The kid wants to have a short cut to gain the experience that we have gained over our years-long work by requesting all the essential work we have been doing. If he is a very nice and sincere kid, we won’t mind doing so. Actually there is also an associate on our team, he is very polite and works very hard, we all like him and each of us taught him a lot of things. I’m not afraid of the analyst. But I don’t want him to continue on this style. It’s obvious that he graduated from a very competitive environment and is good at cutting throat. One day at a meeting while a colleague of mine was explaining a trade book, he was reporting to the MD about our commodities exposure, this young analyst was so eager to make an impression that he interrupted a couple of times to express his opinion (actually not opinion, but some news from Bloomberg). In another case the analyst thought he found a mistake in my work. He went directly to the MD to report what he thinks should be the correct way. It pissed me off and took me almost an hour to explain to both the MD and the analyst why I’m making the adjustment. Fortunately the MD agrees that I was correct. Imagine if it turns out to be my mistake, how embarrassed I would be. This kind of thing never happened in my career. If we have questions about how the colleagues are doing things, we discuss directly with the colleague rather than elevate it to the MD. To be frank, I’m totally in-experienced in dealing with people like this. I understand that he wants to show that he’s useful and smart, but I don’t like the approaches he’s undertaking.
June2010, The kid sounds like a prick. I’ve dealt with people like this before. The first thing I would do would be to talk to him and set him strait. Have a one on one meeting with him and let him know how that you don’t like his way attiude and that he should cut the crap with his insincere words . Also next time he sends you the text of the model, tell him thats unacceptable (don’t ask) and you need the whole model - to check for errors ect. In terms of the email asking for everything just ignore it or tell him you’ll compile it for him when you not as busy. No need to bust your ass for someone who from the sound of it would stab you in the back. On that note you don’t want to just say flat out No, as that could make you look like the selfish ass. In the past with people like this I found it’s best to be distant but professional. No need to antagonize him (as a silver tounge can you look like the bad guy). On the other hand I wouldn’t continue to go out of my way to help him or associate with him at non work functions. June2010 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The kid wants to have a short cut to gain the > experience that we have gained over our years-long > work by requesting all the essential work we have > been doing. If he is a very nice and sincere kid, > we won’t mind doing so. Actually there is also an > associate on our team, he is very polite and works > very hard, we all like him and each of us taught > him a lot of things. > > I’m not afraid of the analyst. But I don’t want > him to continue on this style. It’s obvious that > he graduated from a very competitive environment > and is good at cutting throat. One day at a > meeting while a colleague of mine was explaining a > trade book, he was reporting to the MD about our > commodities exposure, this young analyst was so > eager to make an impression that he interrupted a > couple of times to express his opinion (actually > not opinion, but some news from Bloomberg). > > In another case the analyst thought he found a > mistake in my work. He went directly to the MD to > report what he thinks should be the correct way. > It pissed me off and took me almost an hour to > explain to both the MD and the analyst why I’m > making the adjustment. Fortunately the MD agrees > that I was correct. Imagine if it turns out to be > my mistake, how embarrassed I would be. This kind > of thing never happened in my career. If we have > questions about how the colleagues are doing > things, we discuss directly with the colleague > rather than elevate it to the MD. > > To be frank, I’m totally in-experienced in dealing > with people like this. I understand that he wants > to show that he’s useful and smart, but I don’t > like the approaches he’s undertaking.
Thank you mzwerner, it’s very good advice. One of the colleagues replied directly by saying that he should accumulate experience by himself. I’ll follow your advice and tell him to wait. It’s very good that you said I should keep distant but professional. Thanks a lot. Hopefully as time goes by, the kid will see it’s not necessary to be so aggressive. Thanks. mzwerner Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > June2010, > The kid sounds like a prick. I’ve dealt with > people like this before. The first thing I would > do would be to talk to him and set him strait. > Have a one on one meeting with him and let him > know how that you don’t like his way attiude and > that he should cut the crap with his insincere > words . Also next time he sends you the text of > the model, tell him thats unacceptable (don’t ask) > and you need the whole model - to check for errors > ect. In terms of the email asking for everything > just ignore it or tell him you’ll compile it for > him when you not as busy. No need to bust your ass > for someone who from the sound of it would stab > you in the back. On that note you don’t want to > just say flat out No, as that could make you look > like the selfish ass. In the past with people like > this I found it’s best to be distant but > professional. No need to antagonize him (as a > silver tounge can you look like the bad guy). On > the other hand I wouldn’t continue to go out of my > way to help him or associate with him at non work > functions.
June2010, One thing I wouldn’t tell him overtly to wait as that can make you come off as a bit of a prick. I would “play his game” so to speak and just kind of brush it off by either not replying to the email, or say sure when I get around to it when you have time June2010 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Thank you mzwerner, it’s very good advice. One of > the colleagues replied directly by saying that he > should accumulate experience by himself. I’ll > follow your advice and tell him to wait. It’s > very good that you said I should keep distant but > professional. Thanks a lot. Hopefully as time > goes by, the kid will see it’s not necessary to be > so aggressive. Thanks. > > mzwerner Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > > June2010, > > The kid sounds like a prick. I’ve dealt with > > people like this before. The first thing I > would > > do would be to talk to him and set him strait. > > Have a one on one meeting with him and let him > > know how that you don’t like his way attiude > and > > that he should cut the crap with his insincere > > words . Also next time he sends you the text of > > the model, tell him thats unacceptable (don’t > ask) > > and you need the whole model - to check for > errors > > ect. In terms of the email asking for > everything > > just ignore it or tell him you’ll compile it > for > > him when you not as busy. No need to bust your > ass > > for someone who from the sound of it would stab > > you in the back. On that note you don’t want to > > just say flat out No, as that could make you > look > > like the selfish ass. In the past with people > like > > this I found it’s best to be distant but > > professional. No need to antagonize him (as a > > silver tounge can you look like the bad guy). > On > > the other hand I wouldn’t continue to go out of > my > > way to help him or associate with him at non > work > > functions.
Is he an '08 graduate or something? It sounds like he does not have much career world experience.
"What bothers me is whatever work he did for the boss, he save the work to his C drive, if we need to build on his work, we receive a spreadsheet which has data copied as text so no formula is there to help you check the relations between cells. Even he is doing only very simple and foundamental data mining, he cherished it as a great work and doesn’t want anybody else know how he did it, except showing you only the results. " Thats bs - no one is perfect and his work could be full of errors or mistaken assumptions. He is a crappy analyst if he does not give you the backups. Sounds like he is going to get a swift kick in the rear when his arrogance catches up to him (ie. when he starts to make mistakes). The bad thing about this though is that if you are the VP, he is the analyst, and he turns in something to you which gets sent to the MD, if you can’t check his assumptions and the model/spreadsheet/analysis blows up or is really off, the MD is going to hold you accountable as well, so it is in your best interest to get this kid in line even if he is a little arrogant prick.
Thank you all for your tips and comfort, yes he’s a 2008 graduate that joined us in the summer. We told him it’s a flat structure and we all report to the MD. We encourage him by giving praises on how fast he’s picking up new things. Now I’ll keep a respectable distance from this guy. His spreadsheet, even copied as text, doesn’t take me long to find out all the embeded formulas. Because he’s basically gathering data. It’s the attitude and working style that bother me. For a new junior staff, it’s helpful if you give him some work to do to get him familiar with work. So we did. After 2-3 months, now I would rather to run some queries myself to get raw data rather than ask him to do it for me. One advantage of the flat structure is that we can choose not to ask him to do anything for us. That means more work for myself, but also more peace of mind.
He prob wants to 1. Know everything you know 2. Find something wrong to point it out to your mgr > Over the 4-5 years work, we built many personal > queries and wrote many customized codes to do the > analysis. Among we three we usually discuss about > how to do the work to great detail and share the > thoughts, Bloomberg tips, VBA, C++, Matlab codes > quite often. > > But this analyst yesterday asked each of us to > send him all our codes, including a check list of > all Bloomberg functions that we use, none of us > feel like this is an appropriate request. >
June2010, I’ve been in your situation many times. It’s all about playing the game of politics. I’m not good at office politics and lost some serious battles against employees under my supervision. I’m the niciest supervisor you can have. You wish your bosses were like me. One time was with this pretty girl who everybody in the firm loved, but she was a b#tch with me. I was her direct supervisor. She complained about me with HR and that costed me a promotion. I ended up leaving the firm the following year. She is still there. Another time, in another firm, I won the fight. The boss took my side of the argument and fired the guy. In a most recent time, a new guy screwed me up. My boss killed me in my evaluation because I could not manage the guy.
June 2010 - The description of the guy matches with one of my colleague with whom I am working. My problem is even worse, he had joined the organization with me as an analyst and both of us are friends, I got promoted in a year and he is still an analyst. Now he is working with me in a team and his behavior is the same, saving the documents on dekstop, boasting about even a small thing he does, behaving as if all others are fools and unknowledgable. His behavior is making me sick. The manager doesn’t know about us and we (I and others in team) don’t want to bring up to the manager, as he is our friend as well. This is really tough. He had entered into arguments with me once or twice, and I had explained to him that this is not the way we handle clients, but he believes only in himself, once, we were delayed in sending a deliverable because he had saved it on his dekstop, on the other ocassion, he didnot include some of the important information in the pitch because he thought those are not important. I have thought of talking to him but then again he is my batchmate and friend. Please suggest if anyone has any opinions.
This sounds like a woman I used to work with 
She was Ivy League too I guess this is why a lot of Investment Banks don’t hire from the Ivy League that much anymore.
All this bad behavior stems from insecurity. To get back, just play on their insecurities so as to get them out of their comfort zone. See how long they can last.
June, Did you speak with him one on one?
cfaprincess - Can you please explain what do you mean by “get them out of their comfort zone” and how one can implement it?
gauravku, it is really not that difficult. all you need to do is identify one of his weakness and push on this hot button. e.g. based on the above description by June2010, we can see that the analyst is insecure/uncertain (maybe bcoz he is new to the organisation?) about where he stands in the boss’ books and does everything he can to get positive feedback from the boss. what you can do is to very outwardly build rapport with the boss - over a common point of interaction - over an activity that the analyst *doesn’t* have an interest in. e.g. if you know the analyst hates golf while your boss is a huge golfer, deliberately arrange a golf game with ur boss and a couple of colleagues. make sure the analyst is aware of this. i can guarantee that the analyst will feel excluded and insecure. this might sound very “high school” like but i always believe that the best lessons about personal relationships are learnt in school
Thanks a lot for that cfaprincess… Though, the chap is one year into organization, he still has that behavior… However, as you have mentioned, I am working on similar grounds…My manager offers more wok to me (I being senior to him) and I believe this is something he doesn’t always like, also, I and other colleagues who are on the same project discuss a lot of things among us and he is always busy with something on his own, which he thinks is superior, he calls us to show look how I have done this and can you suggest a way to do this etc…we try not to boast about it and make him feel that that is something all of us have actually done and can do easily, I hope he is getting the vibes and should understand…I don’t want to bring the manager in picture, because she is also aware of this and he doesn’t try to show his superiority in front of the manager… Lets see how it works…
Big seller on cfaprincess’s solution. Intrigue just doesn’t belong in the work place. That guy is your teammate and you need to be able to work together. The way you work together is to build process that people need to follow.