Kate

Yeah, part of it is that we happen to be a business that really took off during the pandemic, like who would have anticipated what lockdown would do as far as getting people trading, or making some people a lot richer. So I’m glad I got into this industry when I did, but holy shit, what it did to our work life balance.

Yeah, the early meetings are often to accommodate India, which is fine, but Bangalore folks are online until 11 or 12, they work different hours than we do. And often it’s just because that’s when calendars are free. Like, yeah, but that’s when people need to drop their kids off, or work out, or whatever things people do in the morning. And there needs to be time for people to eat and pee during the day but increasingly there isn’t.

I agree, she’s weird. She’s a good person with good intentions, and I do appreciate that she’s direct and gives feedback, but that was pretty cringe. I know her from years ago, but we aren’t, like, personal friends, just have a good working relationship.

Does anyone else feel like their work culture has gone in the shitter since the pandemic? We used to be quite civilized where I work (big company, financial services). No meetings after 4, Fridays very chill, nothing crazy. We’ve been remote this entire time since March 2020, and it’s now like, meetings at 8am or even 7:30, meetings at noon, meetings at 4:30, 5. Regularly. And while you’re in that meeting you have to multitask, and people are pinging you on Teams asking questions that need to be an email, not caring if you show as busy. And people are working at night, and just generally way overextended.

And in the last 6 months, my boss has become noticeably unhinged. There are a few things I know of going on with her, and probably some things I don’t, but she’s acting bonkers on the regular now. We’re all like what the fuck.

She’s frantic a lot, often visibly acting frantic in front of business partners. And she says bizarre stuff to me one-on-one. Like about personal stuff.

Today she gave me the weirdest piece of feedback “because she cares about me.” I presented something to the CMO this morning and she had told me I did an awesome job. Then later in a meeting we had about something else, she said it again, that it was great, and then she was like, “wanted to give you one piece of feedback, you didn’t do this today, but sometimes when you’re presenting you *look up, like this*, and imitates me, which, now that she mentions it, I think I do when someone asks me a question and maybe I’m recalling the data while answering? Basically I’m thinking about what i want to say. She told me it makes me look dumb, and she doesn’t want me to do that, because I’m youthful looking and attractive – no really, she said this – and she cares about me, and as soon as I start talking, people know I know what I’m talking about and have command of the data, but I should be aware of my facial expressions while presenting.

This reminded me of one time my Zoom froze in our 1:1 and she made a screenshot of my face and sent it to me and laughed about it! It was basically that face because I was answering a question and thinking. But she didn’t give me the feedback at the time, just laughed at me.

Honest to god. Good thing I have a thick skin.

Oh ok, I didn’t realize it’s free if you’re over 50. Still, seems worth paying for.

I have a fake Instagram account I use just to keep tabs on this shit, and the Explore tab would *blow your mind* – it’s the information equivalent of a porta-potty that’s been sitting in the hot sun for months and is about to explode. It’s truly horrifying. But yeah, they eat their own shit and believe every word.

I have a test in my bathroom right now! Also she lives in walking distance of a major drugstore.