..this is a straight outta college consultant in the financial industry. Feedback has already been poor for this individual and we’re trying hard to be empathetic. They’re making this hard 🧐

Does anyone else deal with attitudes like this? And genuinely, what would your response be?

I mean, your response should be to just answer his question. If he’s done his work then what do you actually expect him to do? If there is something specific then it seems fair enough to find out by asking.

Actually.. claps to this dude. How many of us WASTED hours of our lives sitting around just to prove that we work hard…. Kudos to this guy. We should be able to log off if we finished all our deliverables..

This dude is asking a tough question which you clearly aren’t capable of handling and are blaming on his attitude. No wonder consulting loses talent at such great speeds and those who stay have their own definition of “attitude”. Problem with consulting is most managers are very poor people managers and they act like project managers which they mostly are.

Reread his email and I love the balls on this kid to call out that he was basically deceived when he was hired.

Bruh what if he’s on here lol

There is ALWAYS something to do, whether it’s support with business development, client relationship development, planning ahead, finalizing deliverables. If you’re not willing to put in extra time and effort, don’t expect a bonus or a promotion.

All of these folks turning this on OP are missing one key thing - the attitude of this person. Its not “hey Im done, what else can I do to support”, but its “why do I have to be here until 5pm?” Your manager is a person too who also just wants to get out asap on a Friday, so you can help them.

I only have 5YOE, but I cant imagine fresh grads being this low energy back when I started out. Everyone was trying to prove themselves and grow professionally. There is no team mentality anymore, I can sense that in my own company as well. One of the things that made this job enjoyable was being able to work with people who really hustle.

I don’t think their message was phrased very tactfully but I agree with others that you could just answer the question? If it’s company policy/culture to work on BD or other activities until EOD if you finish your regular work before then, it seems reasonable to spell that out for a new hire.

Personally I’ve finished my Friday work before 5PM at BCG before and no one had any issue with my signing off early, especially since I’d been working 12+ hours per day M-Th. I don’t think it’s entitled to want to sign off when your work is done, but if that’s not okay it’s on management to explain why not.

I sort of disagree with the collective opinion here.

I am hyper focused on “if I already have my hours in” and read this as significantly different than “if my deliverables are done”

The former puts meeting a billable hours target as the definition of done…the project may or may not be really behind. There’s multiple remedies to this (combat scope creep, use a partner NBUE, re-prioritize work) but I dont think any of that is taking off on a friday.

If this was about deliverables finished though I agree with the collective feedback here. Be available for a reasonable amount of time in a Friday, sneak in a nap, and take off early

I wonder if his performance is low because he’s actually bad at his job or if it’s because he is only doing what he’s paid to do.

Yes. So hard to deal with new generation (sometimes). I would suggest that this kind of thinking won’t work in the long run, so either find out by themselves why, e.g network around, or kindly ask them to find a new job. Long term issue is that this person expand this kind of thinking to others in the team, and that is a hard no-go

Idk I can see the email that triggered it? If you want us yo blindly support you fine.

If the email said, team I expect that during standard biz hours, 9-5, you are responsive then yeah odd response.

If you had t given them any work and they clipped early on a Friday and you noticed they were idle… comeon man…

What urgent client situations newly arise at 5pm on Friday?

Lol you guys are so indoctrinated you can’t even see it. “I’ve finished my work and already worked 40 hours, now what?” Is a pretty reasonable question.

The answer “you should space out your work so you can keep looking busy, and bill more than 40 to boost utilization” is not intuitive

I don't support their communication style but why the question was brought up? We work different time zones and if a team member puts additional hrs on a Wednesday night to get a deliverable out, why would I care if they "punch" their card at 4 or 5pm on a Friday?
If they have performance issue, address it directly with examples.

I think there's an unspoken assumption going on here, which is that the rules of the game are clearly understood by everyone playing. But that's not the case: if you're new to consulting, it can be genuinely worrying if you find yourself at a loose end with no work on your plate.

I came into consulting after fifteen years in industry, and I still get a little nervous if I reach a point where I have nothing to work on. For someone out of college, who's still getting acclimatised to the field and who's hearing peers talk about long hours and late nights, realising that you have nothing to work on can be genuinely scary - what happens when someone comes to ask you what you've been doing?

It feels very unreasonable to blame this person for what is, in reality, a consequence of certain things being assumed rather than said aloud in consulting.

It is a fair question. Efficiency should be applauded. Why make them sit on a bill code just to keep them till 5pm?

Think this speaks more about your leadership style than the other person.

I tend to have a problem trying to keep my team from overworking themselves; having to mandate an early Friday here and there. It’s been like this at every firm I’ve worked at so I know it’s not just the recruiting at one firm.

I prefer to assign roles and areas of ownership with their target outcomes over being a taskmaster. If you are done with the area you own for the week then start your weekend.

That may sound like I’m a “nice” manager but I’m not particularly so. There are principles by which I run my team: outcomes over hours, swift & actionable feedback, and clarity of role expectations tied directly to your evaluation.

If you are done with specific work and have hours left, work ahead to make life easier in the future. There are always peaks and valleys, working ahead (preparing material, researching the client, or flexing to help a teammate) during a slump helps to smooth the crazy peaks.

If you don’t have hours left by Friday, you likely had to work long hours during the week to meet project demand. If *everything is covered* I prefer you to take an early day to recover. Just communicate so I know you didn’t get hit by a bus or something.

I feel like if I asked my manager what I should do with my free time, I would expect a response like “go ask this person if they need help with something” (even if they don’t mean it). If I hit my billable hours and I know I’m not going to get in trouble, I might log off early or go do my own thing but still be online. I wouldn’t ask directly.

However, post covid grads don’t have anyone to learn from. Not sure what your WFH policy is but as someone who grew up with 0 people working corporate jobs and 0 professional training in my major, these are the kinds of things I picked up from watching other people and having convos with my peers. I don’t think his question is actually invalid, and it might be really hard to pick up on the culture remotely.

Umm… Firstly this person is fresh out of college. How is asking questions to stuff you don’t know a bad thing? Secondly, how is feedback poor for a newbie. I hope he/ she isn’t being compared to seasoned ‘athletes’. Thirdly, how is answering a simple question hard? It seems there’s more work to be done in terms of people management rather than this.

Honestly, I’ve found experienced/busy consultants usually having razer thin patience and overall bad mentors. A lot of them scoff when such things happen. We forget this is a people industry and everyone has learned the culture over time.

You must be a poor manager EY