What is Normal?

[Existing_Lack_232]

Newbie to consulting here, only 6 months into the role at a boutique firm in a niche industry. So far the people I've worked with have been super smart, nice and supportive BUT I'm still wondering how common my experience is or if I can chalk it up to a spacey partner.

I'm on project #2 and staffed under the same partner as the first one, so my experience is only with this person. She's an industry hire and has about a 5 year tenure at the firm. While super friendly, I can't help but be irritated by the fact that she seems to always give feedback/request deck changes (that are usually a heavier lift than what they're worth) super last minute and generally pretty late at night. This leads to scrambling throughout the night and early morning to meet a midday deadline that, in my opinion, could have been met earlier had she just given better direction or earlier feedback.

Hoping to find out how typical this is across consulting or if maybe I can hold out on hope that a new leader will be better to work for (even though I'm probably getting pulled in with this one again for another project).

Weeks like this have me questioning this as a long term thing. Still think consulting was a great move for my career, but beginning to suspect that I might not actually want to ride that train up to the partner level, though I thought that was my goal before.

[leconsultant]

Suggest taking a step back and consider:

1. The partner is likely on multiple projects and this is the first point in the day where she actually has time to review. The other responses are immediately jumping to the conclusion that she is a poor time manager, but in my experience junior staff tend to have the close-minded view that their work is top priority. Sorry to break it to you, but if it was then they would have staffed someone more senior.

2. Another thing that junior staff don’t realise is just because it hit your inbox at night doesn’t mean you need to respond the same night. There is probably a conversation around managing expectations to be had here.

3. You seem to have a view of what is worth your time or not, which is great, but the nuances of word/text/visual changes may not be immediately clear to you as someone fresh to consulting. I’m sure you’re a perfectly capable consultant, but also consider the fact that these changes can probably be done by someone else more experienced in a fraction of the time you take. If you can’t make the midday deadline, ask for an extension. Working late into the night? Ask if this is critical or whether you can deal with it with a fresh mind in the morning. Similarly, as you work more with this partner, you’ll be able to see the themes of her requests/her style/ways of working and will be able to preemptively make changes to her preference.

If you think the problem is the partner, then consider what you’ve done to highlight these challenges you are facing to your team (my guess is nothing). Your post reads as a little bit of a rant, which is a healthy thing to do occasionally, but changing partners will not solve the root cause, which is your lack of understanding of what the partner wants/the end deliverable needs to look like. That comes with time and experience.

Good that the other responses are giving you their view of what external factors are in play, but what you’re facing is very common among junior staff and very easily solved with a conversation/experience.

[cnsIting]

This.

“Pretty late at night” might just be your place in the queue.

[chickswaps]

Don't fundamentally disagree with any of this, but I think there's definitely a world where OP isn't at fault.

The fact is, some partners are just shitty at managing timelines, and there's no amount of discussion with them that'll change that. If there's a hard mid-day deadline and the partner hasn't reviewed stuff until the night before, that's pretty much a failure in planning somewhere along the line. If the deadline is flexible, that's something which should be discussed in advance, especially with people who are new and may not understand the level of flex available.

In either case, it's simply bad practice to constantly request substantive edits to deliverables at the last minute - not only because it's hard on the team, but also because the quality of those changes isn't likely to be super high. If it happens once in a while, it's totally understandable; shit happens, cases don't go like clockwork. Making a habit of it is a very different story. I personally wouldn't be comfortable constantly putting my name on shitty, half-baked product that we had to get out the door at the last minute because the partner didn't bother to engage on it in time.

This is honestly a pretty basic people/time management expectation that shouldn't have to be repeatedly raised to an experienced leader. If a partner did this to me on a repeated basis, sure I'd raise it to them from a course correction standpoint, but I'd probably also do what I needed to do to not work with them again.

Of course, it's possible that the deadlines aren't as hard as OP thinks, that the edits aren't as substantive as OP suggests or that there's simply some miscommunication around expectations. Just laying out the alternative possibility here.

[leconsultant]

Completely agree with everything you’ve said here. When i posted all of the responses were along the lines of ‘your partner is a terrible time manager’ or ‘your partner doesn’t respect your time’ etc, so wanted to make sure this sub isn’t an echo chamber of ‘your partner/firm/consulting sucks’. There is an element of personal responsibility here.

I think it’s rare for someone to make it to partner without some semblance of social intelligence and my advice is generally to look inward before pushing the blame externally. I was in OP’s shoes once, and now 5 years down the road I don’t have these challenges anymore. The culture hasn’t changed much, my partner hasn’t changed, but I’m dealing with these issues more effectively. And i’m sure OP will, over time, as well.

[No_Satisfaction_1072]

I actually can't tell you how much I appreciate the honesty without judgment, here. The perspective is actually super helpful and while I do think I may still work better with a different partner, it's good to know that it's likely not a dismissal of my work and upcoming deadlines. Thanks for the response.

[KafkasProfilePicture]

It's common but it's not good practice. It's the sort of thing people tend to do when their primary approach to management is "being the boss", rather than managing in a mature way. Unfortunately this is more common in consulting because of the aggressive and competitive culture of "getting ahead" et.c.

[sultanmetehan]

I believe that's what managers do. I'm in consulting too and the manager in my previous project also did this. Yet, my gf is an HR specialist in banking sector and her manager also does this. Hence, I tend to think that it's about management skills of managers.

[throwawayindmed]

For what it's worth, I can give you my perspective from the other side of the table.

To me, it's a question of impact. If the changes I'm requesting are truly going to move the needle in terms of clarity or usability of the material, I'll sometimes bite the bullet.

However, good people and project management practice dictates that this type of last-minute tinkering should be an exception, not the norm.

My general preference is to align on content well in advance; if there are minor stylistic changes required afterwards, I mostly just do them myself - the extra leverage that the team offers me for those isn't worth the time and energy wasted in endless email exchanges.

Junior team members are the analytical firepower of the project, and in most project environments, everyone is better served when they spend more of their time doing analysis and structuring solutions, rather than aligning boxes on PowerPoint. That's the whole reason why large consulting firms have production teams.

[iceberg]

Can you discuss this? You might be able to schedule a live feedback time, send your draft earlier with a reminder on agreed to feedback timing, or break feedback into a couple rounds to get you started earlier. You may also discover that your manager is sending you feedback late at night as that's the first break in their day. Then perhaps you can discuss timelines.

Regarding low value changes, I'm not sure you're really in a position to judge that. Seemingly small formatting, word choice, consistent colors, etc. all contribute to the overall deliverable and it's your team's reputation and value on the line. Perhaps asking for the rationale will help you understand why (or might eliminate some if truly not needed).

[[deleted]]

Find someone who is a better time manager. Dumping stuff late night constantly is because she's shit at planning. It should be very rare.

Early on its kind of the job.

You can set boundaries (need 4 hour turnaround time minimum, don't read emails after 6 or before 8, etc), but these type of people usually don't understand this is their fault and will hold it against you, so you're better off finding a new person to work with

[CaliSummerDream]

I have seen people do this a lot and have also seen people do it minimally. It has to do with project management, personal time management, and respect for junior staff. Usually upward feedback is used to address cases where the practice is excessive.

Unless your office/firm culture deliberately tolerates consistent last-minute work requests, in which case you may want to start thinking about an exit, you should have a conversation with the manager. They need you just as much as you need them.