November Newsletter - bullying and mental health problems The next four weeks is the last time you can influence your bonus via management conversation and making arguments to your boss. (for those organizations having the fiscal year end coincide with the calendar year end) My regular readers will know I strongly believe in this process to be an all year round effort. If you haven’t done so yet there is at least some time to have one or two relevant conversations. The majority of this month’ newsletter I want to spend on mental health and in particular bullying in the investment banking/markets world. This isn’t only applicable to Sell Side firms but increasingly the Buy Side experiences this phenomenon. Bullying almost always originates in bad management and bad managers. Either the manager is the bully or their management style (or lack thereof) allows others in the team to become a bully. The investment banking, markets and fund manager world is a high paid high intensity environment where stress and pressure is normal and arguably that is why these jobs pay exceptionally well. When the line gets crossed it’s almost always by a person with seniority or a person with management responsibility which makes it very difficult for individuals to tackle it. In my 20+ years of experience I have witnessed many reasons why someone becomes a bully, the most common one is incompetence followed by arrogance and a sense of entitlement. Very rarely bullying is done for “sports” in this industry there is almost always an agenda if not intentionally then at least subconsciously. This ranges from getting additional business, responsibility, money (keep in mind bonuses are a zero sum game; what my colleagues get less i can get more) or keeping the threat down a rising star might pose to the bully and their career. No situation is like another and every instance of bullying needs to be analyzed individually. At CareerCapital we can help trying to look behind the reasoning and work on mitigating strategies. We can help prepare for manager conversations and help to form an opinion on whether to get HY involved or not. The level of severity can range from an early stage feeling of unhappiness at work to constructive dismissal. We will offer support and advice on the business side of things and we have exceptional partners to support you via counseling, clinical psychiatry as well as some of the best employment lawyers. Like with a physical disease it’s best to catch this early and eliminate the root cause. Unfortunately often people carry this burden with themselves for a long time and it not only affects their mental health but also their performance. Like with everything feel free to reach out to us, we are happy to help or make referrals. Matthias
