Morgan Stanley

I cannot think of anything worth mentioning.

This firm has the worst work culture in the financial services industry.

When I was working in their Listed Sales and Trading group, there was a Junior Developer (he is Vice President now) who constantly used a commonly used curse word.

Once, he used this word when he asked me to urgently submit a code review, and I told him I had to first prepare evidence of the testing I had done as per the firm's policy.

Later, he used this word when a colleague (who was troubleshooting an urgent issue) refused to go with him for lunch.

He did this in an open workplace where both men and women work.

Given his behavior, I asked Human Resources what the firm's policy was on the usage of profanity in the workplace. They said it was definitely not permitted.

But despite my complaint to HR, he continued to use that word.

This was because there were 2 Executive Directors (1 of which he was directly reporting to) and the Managing Director of the group who also used that word.

But the difference between them and him was they did it occasionally. Whereas, he always did it and assumed he could get away with it because they also did it!

I have worked in the financial services industry for over 20 years.

But this was the first time I worked at a financial services firm where the work culture resembled what one would find in a third-rate auto body shop!

According to HR, certain words are prohibited in work-related conversations. Yet this rule was broken time and again by both junior and senior personnel. So, it is not enough to have rules on paper; they should also be strictly enforced.