Office Friday

The idea is that you spend Monday through Thursday wherever the client may be, work really long and hard (which really often isn't all that big of a deal because there's just nothing else to do anyway in the isolated part of the world that your client is located in), catch the last plane home on Thursday evening and have a nice easy Friday in your home office - show up at 9:30 or ten, fill in your expense sheet for the week, go for office lunch (provided by the firm), exchange a few stories about the week's adventures, prepare a few things for Monday, go home at five, take a nap, start the weekend. When this works out, it's a really nice routine, and you are so much more likely to forgive the client his unforgivable location if your Fridays are spent at home.

When they aren't, it's really hard to suppress a foul mood. And over lunch on Friday those who did make it back in good time always have a few words of sympathy for those who didn't. 'Bob? Oh, still stuck in Tennessee I heard. He's with that crazy PL who doesn't let his teams go home on Thursday as a matter of principle, even if there's absolutely nothing to do.' If you are part of such a conversation, you are well advised to take a mental note of that PL's name, just in case staffing ever tries to match you with him (or her - women can be just as bad). Sounds suspiciously like someone on a mad power trip, which happens. And such persons ought to be avoided at all cost.

Or you come across colleagues who did make it home in time, just to be suddenly bombarded, at about four p.m., just when they were beginning to think about going home, by desperate emergency requests from freaked-out partners, PLs or CEOs. Poor souls. I myself made it back yesterday night and was out of the office today by 5:30 p.m. Not too bad.

Payday

There's this widely shared sentiment among members of the consulting crowd that our pay hasn't kept up with what competing jobs offer. That's mostly investment banking, hedge funds, and so on. Up until three weeks ago everyone was going on a bit about that. Not that we're not earning good money: but it isn't as outrageous a paycheck as what one might make at a hedge fund, and those people don't travel nearly as much as we do.

The complaints have subsided somewhat now that hedge funds have become a lot less attractive employers all of a sudden. But there's still this nagging sentiment that the firms we work for command such outrageous rates, there's little overhead (considering that expenses get charged to the client separately), and so we ought to get a bigger cut. Not saying I necessarily agree. Not saying I necessarily disagree either. Opinions out there?

Have a good weekend!

Really odd how people say that on a Thursday morning. I always wonder what this sort of wish is all about. Probably just a manner of speaking, but then...the fact that on the fourth out of five work days people start referring to the end of the work week suggests that what's keeping them alive is the thought that the drag of work will soon be over, for a little bit at least.

The really worrying thing is that this sort of message actually does cheer me up. 'Almost done!', I think when the guy in the coffee shop wishes me a good weekend on Thursday at ten a.m., fully aware though I am that I have another twenty or so working hours ahead of me before I'm off duty. Sort of suggests my job situation is less than ideal after all.

Implementation Dread

Now that we're in the last phase of our project, the question is whether we'll get to do the implementation too. It's not always the case that theory and practice are kept separate in this way, but in the case of our current project they were, maybe to give the client a chance to get rid of us if we didn't live up to expectations. Actually it may not always be such a bad idea not to let the theory guys do the implementing: top-notch consultants typically are much better at analysing and finding out what's wrong than they are at fixing the problem. Also they are so ridiculously expensive.

But our partner is drooling whenever the topic of implementation comes up. He wants it, and badly. The team, less so. Much less so. In fact, I can already imagine my colleagues' frenzied attempt to convince staffing that really the implementation phase counts as a new case which is in desperate need of fresh blood. In which case the staffing merry-go-round will creak into noisy action once again. See below.

Staffing

And off we are again to the Provinces. Even though consulting is famous for sending its employees wherever the customer may be (and it doesn't matter whether it's Sydney, Australia or Sydney, OH), not every project is as inconveniently located as this. Hence, on Sunday nights it's hard to suppress the thought, Why Me?

Yeah, why? Ask staffing. Towards the end of each project there's this placement routine familiar to everyone in the business. The nice person from staffing calls and asks, very nicely, what project you'd like to work on next. If you have any consulting savvy at all, you'll start by pointing out that a) the last three assignments were in places no educated person could find on any map, b)the topic had nothing, but nothing whatever to do with your preferences and expertise, and c) the promised four weeks turned into four months each time. Staffing person will say, with a voice dripping of honey and goodwill, that she (in my case) knows and that she'll find you something really good this time by way of compensation.

Great, you say cunningly, I'd like something in consumer goods, how about media. About six weeks, so that I can take my holiday in time. And ideally in (wherever you're located).

You'll like this, says staffing person sweetly. I've got exactly the thing for you. Steel industry. Michigan. About four months, but possibly half a year.

How's that got anything to do with what I want?, you scream.

It's all I have, says staffing person. Start next Monday. Sorry.

Then reactions vary. Some suck it up and suffer in silence. Some keep bothering staffing, every day, weeks after the project has started. Some lodge a complaint with a partner. Some, after too many experiences of this sort, decide to quit. The threat of which has, if the person in case was good, in some rare instances magically produced that desired media project. Or so rumour has it. I haven't seen it happening myself.

Musings

It's been a short week, in a fun place, crowned by a halfway successful presentation: not too bad, all things considered. And the team didn't have to go to Nowhere Land for once. Makes you realize how big a disadvantage the consultant's constant travelling actually is. And I'm single (sigh). Imagine what happens if you are in a stable relationship (or, worse, have a family). Your kids WILL go to that nice private school. But they won't have a very clear idea of what the person who pays for it looks like. Not such an appealing prospect. And I think it's a main reason why management consultants last an average of something under three years on the job.

But three years is still a long time, so why do people do it? Obviously, the money's good (though not as good as it once was), one learns a lot, one is in an ideal position to eventually land a cushy position in management. But the main motivator for consultants in the top firms is something quite different: no ordinary industry job offers quite the same mix of excitement, speed, variety of challenges, and eclectic assortment of colleagues. After you've tasted this, almost everything else will seem stale by comparison. And so, despite a lot of moaning, we soldier on.

A Bit of the Good Life

Since yesterday's Steering Committee Meeting took place in the big fun city where our client's headquarters are located, and since my firm has an office midtown, we decided to work from there today. So we went out last night, pretty extensively actually, enjoying a spot of nightlife, and all showed up rather under the weather this morning. I have to say that it IS fun going out with my team. You get to know your coworkers really really well on an assignment like mine, and if you click with them you do connect. I've said that before, but junior consultants can actually be very fun people. Our PL, the one who was in tears last week, came out too. She has definitely relaxed a bit now that that meeting is over. We'll see how long the peace lasts.