Does anyone else feel that we overemphasize WLB?

I’m not saying 80 hour weeks are okay, but i have always seen this job as a way to learn a lot and get paid a lot in a short amount of time. WLB wasn’t in my Top 5 when I took it. Never wanted a 9-5.

Curious to hear other POVs.

likefunny
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I think what people don’t realize is that long hours (within reason; not IB hours) are actually quite tolerable when other factors are good, such as working on something that you’re interested in, having good teammates/leadership, good financial compensation, a meaningful stake in the outcome of your work (equity), etc. The reason people optimize for hours is because those other factors almost never all happen.

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I do. But I like my identify at work just as much

helpfulfunny

I think wfh has upset people because it’s shown how little firms care for their people. Previously you finish at 7 - 8 then get home/hotel maybe an hour later and that’s that.
In WFH a reasonable assumption is you finish at 7-8 and yay you just got an hour of your life back. Instead we’ve somehow started finishing at 9-10 our wlb has deteriorated despite the opportunity for it to improve, it’s made people rethink if it’s worth it because it’s hit them in the face that their firms don’t care

likesmart

I 100% agree with the comments here. In addition, MS Teams, precisely because it’s great tech, has been the bane of my existence because it encourages annoying behaviors.

In addition to the endless *scheduled* calls (which regularly spill way past their scheduled end times), people tend to ping me with messages that just say “Hi”. Those “Hi” messages are just designed to break my concentration from what I’m doing so the person can ask, “Can we connect on a quick call?”

And these calls are never quick, but rather me staring at their screen as they try and fail to find what it is they wanted to show me while I’m wondering, “Why wasn’t this an email?”

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Yeah man. To each their own. When people get married etc, most want to keep their marriage intact - hence WLB. But I never stressed working until 6:30-7 regularly when I was 22-26

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Don’t think people are trying to make it a competition, just trying to point out that for people saying 6:30/7 is doable and we are a bunch of whiners, there’s a lot of people facing even longer hours.

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Strong A1 vibes

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Good for you. You da man.

(I'm going out on a limb that you're a guy)

likefunny

You say its not a big deal, but then in the comments directly say that you plan to leave for something slower.

This is a good example of why companies should care. If you want a talented workforce past the age of like 26 WLB is key

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I hear you...I was former consulting myself and pretty much followed the model of learning in consulting and exiting.

since leaving my thinking has evolved quite a bit. Creating a barely tolerable work environment where the biggest prize is your exit I strongly believe is a flawed talent model. The only way you can retain is through increasing pay, your workforce is uninspired and focused on exits vs. delivery, and you lose your best talent more quickly.

I also believe the exit potential into tech specifically is diminishing.

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I’m not trying to be snarky, but you provide your own counterpoint in your comments. You are like “I only want to work here for 5-6 years and then leave. Our companies are trying to over index for WLB because you are finally JUST hitting that point where you are an asset instead of a liability, and you are leaving for more WLB.

Our companies are watching our clients create their own in-house strategy functions (based on talent they are poaching from our firms). People are leaving because they are done with this meat grinder of a business and are hitting the phase of their lives where they want to free up space for other priorities. Our firms are trying to shore up those loses by providing a means of doing this job and having a life outside of consulting.

As for only focusing on the people who are ok with 80+ hour weeks; there are only so many A/SA’s that we can throw at a project before the clients start asking where the tenured and experienced people are. If our firms want to be able to show value with deep experience, then they have to make concessions for people with 10+ YOE who have competing priorities.

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I like this 😀

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I want to make as much money as I can while doing as little as I can.

likeupliftingsmart

Title fits.

Personal choice is right.

40 isn’t enough for me. 50-60 is good. 80 is miserable but I can handle it a couple times a year. 90+ is death.

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I prefer to stay busy vs being slow.. if that means 45-55 hours rather than 40-45, so be it. However at some point it starts to be too much (65+ seems to be the number for me).

likehelpful

OP- how many YOE have you got?

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Well that’s part of it. This POV works because you’re young

like

many good points here but i’ll throw in that the resourcing at EY has been all over the place. Some people are working 60-80 hours a week while some people are on the bench because the scheduling right now has been sooooo bad. at a staff level, there’s no real incentive to be a top performer so why WOULD i want to work that much when other people are working their 45 and we’re getting compensated the same

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It’s completely a personal choice with no right or wrong - like sure, I knew that when I joined Consulting, it’s not going to be 9-5 and last minute/ad hoc requests are going to be very common. But that sometimes translates to Managers who don’t understand the concept of personal time at all whatsoever. Like let’s give 120 percent to our clients, but what’s the need to go to 150 percent or 180 percent? What’s the additional value? Zero.

Plus the pandemic has made many of us rethink our lives. If I don’t have enough time at the end of the day to unwind and watch TV in my own house, sure that will make me rethink my lifestyle 😊. This was all hidden earlier because we used to travel and stay in hotels doing team dinners and happy hours!

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Edit: Age is another big factor. Increasingly, as I start my enter my 30s, I value my personal time a lot more.

upliftinghelpful

You do you but there are others unlike you

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I think outside of family there are sometimes other things people really want/need to stay healthy and that’s time to see friends here and there, time to relax, time to cook food to eat well, time to sleep and time to workout. Even if you’re young, stopping work at 9pm or later nightly can cut into these things and reduce your health. But if you’re able to cover all these bases and work then you should be ok.

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OPs post is reeking of toxicity

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Good for ya champ

Just because it isn’t your view, doesn’t mean we “over emphasise”... 🙄

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And I’m pointing out that, despite possibly poor word choice in my opening post, I have showed a willingness to meet people halfway in every comment I’ve made on this thread.

Hence the comment about Ow1 nitpicking every bullet on a slide.

I don’t really like my job so I’m just fine working 7-8 hour days.

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I think this really depends on the role and effort required.

I barely work 40 hours and my team is thrilled with my output. I have plenty of ways to automate what I do so I can get a lot of done in a little time

What I think gets missed in the WLB discussion is the time period you expect things to be in balance. If you are looking for balance everyday or even every month and sometimes year, then consulting is not for you. You need to seek long term balance. Every little league game is not the World Series. Every choir concert is not Carnegie Hall. But at the same time, every client request is not life or death.

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This is a good post - gotta know when to dial it down. I’ve gotten better at that over the years. I feel bad for the poor team I led on my first project as a M. Every thing had to be PERFECT hahaha

WLB not emphasized enough.

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More WLB please! We are so grossly underpaid so we should also get raises. Working over 40-50 hours means you have bad management who did not staff the project well. Period.

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I’m definitely not underpaid

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