Asymmetrical Information

Interesting. I am an attorney. I am between jobs. My last was working for a senior partner who did insurance/med-mal defense. I was called on the carpet regularly for my sins. I remember being told (before I was canned) that I would act in those skinning sessions as if it was the partner's fault for the error I was being skinned for rather than mine (the skinner's, not the skinnee's, as it were). My reply was non-committal ("I am sure I wasn't aware of that."). Of course I was aware. It is just that I am 36 and, God Damn It, I am not scared of a two bit tin tyrant anymore - what, did he think I was, 17? What was he going to do, bite me? Well, he fired me and I am still on the pavement. And to this day, though I look financial annihilation in the eye, I am certain that I did the right thing in getting let go. Sorry, if after all these years he needs to act as a complete despot for his ego, he has more problems to be addressed than a house in Grosse Pointe can cure. Same with Merrill Lynch's pet chimps. I remain me, I remain a man (for whatever that is worth. Ah, foolish pride!).

Have you read Liar's Poker, by Michael Lewis? It's dated, but it sounds like nothing has changed.

Funny you should mention. The Spy quote at the beginning of the post is actually from a 1987 article *about* liar's poker (predates the book.)

Yeah, but those bankers are so subservient and agreeable when they talk with corporate clients.

Funny post.

They're the equivalent of a tribal hunting or raiding party. What #1 received was the equivalent of being cast out from the troop. You still have your self-respect.

Jane,

Terrific post. Scathingly insightful, yet humorous in the best sense. Hope you'll have the chance to keep up as your new career unfolds.

Congratulations, by the way.

Cheers,

I work with guys and gals like this now. They provide me with endless entertainment. I happen to be the network admin, and it puts them in an emotionally conflicted state to have to deal with me.

I see them openly abuse the help desk, but they never raise an open finger in my direction. I stand up to them without flinching, which confuses them. I know nothing about banking, which confuses them, because, clearly, investment banking is the chosen path for all superior men. But it helps that I'm 6'4", 240 lbs, and most of these guys are 5'8". I haven't been too scared of anything since my last football coach told me block Carwell Gardner on an off tackle dive, and he hit me so hard a pint of my own blood flew into the stands.

It is an interesting study in human behavior to them struggle to assert their brilliance and control over technology to me, when we both know they are either lying or disgracefully inept. It puts them in an akward situation. I know everything about them, their files, their work habits, their porn preferences, their secret emails, their SEC violations, and their false superiority, which absolutely infuriates them. It makes them feel impotent, because anyone in my position will have the same effect.

You did the right thing, Michael Orris. There is no price high enough for your dignity.

There was a very funny and insightful article published in the San Jose Mercury News Magazine several years back during the venture capital boom in which the writer took a primate anthropologist (that's not the right term, but you know what I mean) who specialized in baboon relationships to a restaurant where VCs met with entrepreneurs. The PA watched the interactions between VCs and the people begging for money and described them in terms of baboon social dynamics--and they fit almost exactly. I was howling with laughter--wish I'd kept the article. Can't find it in the archives.

Amusing. But come now, do you really think investment bankers are any different from everyone else? Think of academics -- do you think the relationship between junior faculty and their tenured elders is any different? If so, read some David Lodge or Kingsley Amis. How about Hollywood? Now there's an industry where junior employees don't act deferential and obsequious to their superiors. Uh huh. This is all just human nature, and investment bankers, believe it or not, are human.

It's not that I think that the rest of the world is some sort of harmonious eden of kindness and light where everyone is equal. However, investment banking, because it places a very low premium on collegiality, and because egos at the top tend to be large, and because it is almost totally a boys club, shows the relationships in a more pronounced, overt way than other industries.

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