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For those that have survived the 6 month trial period and have not been labeled a complete dud, it’s time to start getting real… real lazy. By this time at minimum you’ve established a reputation for being a hard worker and willing to learn, check that off the box. Once a reputation is set in finance it is difficult to have it move into the opposite direction unless errors are made, so continue to show up on time and be error free and you can focus on becoming the next politician. Here are your action steps:
Casual Conversations: Out in the open make sure you don’t make passive aggressive moves, simply be nice to everyone in the office including the underperformers, nothing is worse than creating tension. Be nice to your assistants and publishing teams and any other non-front office role so people believe you’re a good guy.
Closed Conversations: During closed conversations with politically positive people, slowly start agreeing with the people they dislike but in a non-attacking manner. Align yourself with their views and some jabs here and there are actually okay, people definitely bond over disliking another person just don’t be over the top. When you have a closed conversation with people who are politically in the red, make comments such as never having met someone you dislike and everyone has their strong points. Overall, be upbeat and positive 100% of the time around poor performers and you can use some leeway with the good performers by listening and agreeing with their view points.
Time Off: Time this with medium work months, March, June and September come to mind. You want people to realize when you’re gone life sucks a little bit more but its manageable but when you’re there life is easy. If you take time off when life is hard or easy, you’re giving the message you’re not needed or that you’re no longer a hard worker.
Arrival Time: By now you know when your group is generally showing up, my advise is to show up earlier on Mondays when people are more likely to arrive unhappy and be productive. When you get to Friday you can push the envelope a bit because less people are willing to notice since they are in a better mood. If you’re noticing a pattern already, it is to time your good actions when people are in bad moods so you cheer them up and time your bad actions when they are in good moods and likely do not notice.
Undersell Over Deliver: You should have a good idea for how long it takes you to accomplish items, when you receive a new project always take it happily and don’t push back unless there is really no way for you to get it done. Once a deadline is set, turn it in slightly early maybe a day or so and never turn in a project multiple days early (you’ve moved the bar up too high).
Emails: When you find some news articles that are good or information you think should be sent and it happens to be late at night, think briefly about having it sent out at an off time. You don’t want all your emails coming early and late making it seem like you’re a complete machine, so you send the email with a set delivery time in outlook so you can imply you’re in love with your job when the time is right. Notably, do a lot of these for Sunday night and maybe one Friday morning once a month. Sure you’re not actually in the office, but outlook does not know.
Set Precedence: The last piece of advice is to remember that your first 1-2 years you’re setting precedence for who you are. Don’t blatantly imply you must have vacation or can’t live without work, both messages are bad. Find ways to maximize your time off and lazy features without stepping on toes and making you seem slightly more valuable. People grow accustomed to patterns so your general work ethic during the first couple of years will be pegged against you going forward. It’s much better to be the low end of top-tier than the top end of top-tier since you’ll be paid the same and work substantially less.
Conclusion: Don’t burn your time trying to be a perfect Wall Street employee. You’re much more likely to burn out quickly and surviving an extra year at the lower end of top-tier or dare I say even 75th percentile nets you much more in terms of health, happiness and money. There will be a year, maybe two, where you’ll need to burn the midnight oil to get moved up the pay scale but trying to do this the entire time will eventually destroy either your personality or health.