I guess that a few stories to represent the level of this company are better than a list of the cons:
- Week 4 of training, we are taught how to answer the phone/make a phone call following a script. Been called off as I was laughing during this "lesson" (note I was coming from Commodities Sales at Citi) and was obliged to make mock calls with the "teacher" until I got it "right" (bloomberg style right).
- Comments/sexual allusions that would be unacceptable even at a Uni party made towards women colleagues (I am a man, I worked on trading floors, I saw most of those stuffs in many places, but here it was literally "oh we have this opening, you want it? Then why don't you show me your tits?" - disgusting).
- Micromanagement part 1: after working straight 7 to 11 (meaning I didn't even leave my chair to get a cup of water or going to the toilette), I decide to take a 10 mins break to pee, drink, and smoke a cigarette. When back I see chats coming from 5 different "managers" asking me where I was and why I wasn't taking questions flowing in from clients.
- Micromanagement part 2: I come in the office with nausea, I end up vomiting in the toilette after 30 mins on the desk, disappearing for a good 20 mins. When back, I see I received the usual amounts of chats from people asking me why I wasn't working, I ignore them and go to the "supervisor manager" asking to leave as I just got sick. He asked me EXACTLY what I had and to give him more details. Well, I gave him all the details he wanted.
- Snitching part 1: after months doing a particular process in the same way, I got called by manager who is livid and shouting at me as I didn't follow the correct process for that task. The next day I find out there were many people that knew about what I was doing (it was my 1st month there) and didn't say anything but were instead complaining about what I was doing... because of course in any normal company you spot an error and you don't help out, right? Absurd.
- Snitching part 2: the infamous story of a guy who started with me, 35yo with wife and kids. He left his previous job as a store manager to start at Bloomberg, after 6 months he was fired. The funny thing being, his manager put him under "performance plan" after 5 months, which means you have 1 month to get better or you are out. He did become better. His manager calls him to get a meeting with HR on friday afternoon, telling him not to get worried, as everything will be fine and he passed his performance plan. What happened that friday? Fired.
- Many stories, really many, of very stupid, not smart at all people getting promoted just because they were brown noses. Literally, as long as you say yes to managers ans swallow all their sheeets you'll have a great life, but then how can you look at yourself in the mirror in the morning?
- Once we had a "meeting" to discuss a new product (a bloomberg function really, nothing more), we were asked to call clients (traders, equity) first thing in the morning at 8am. I suggested that maybe, just maybe, is not a great idea to call traders around market opening as 1. They won't listen to you, 2. They will shout at you, 3. If you keep doing that, they will finally hate Bloomberg, 4. Is simply a very stupid idea. Guess what? I've been called off by the manager and the guy doing this ridiculous presentation.
I would love to call out names, those people really deserve the public shame. I'll limit to this, but please, if you really want a career in finance and you want to be recognized for your work, then don't work at Bloomberg. The job description they place online is one the best scam ever done on heart!
