We're Here For You

Posted by Bess Levin, May 16, 2007, 10:59am

dbishereforyou.jpgDealBreaker is not only a place for Wall Street gossip and a source for service journalism, but also a safe space in which readers should feel free to vent. If you have anything you want to get off your chest, we encourage you to go to your safe place (the comments section, our inbox), meet your animal guide (your keyboard), and tell us all about it. Like one loyal Dealbreaketeer who had some feelings about his time working for Tom Hudson that he needed to express.

Let's see, where should I start....ok I've got it, Tom is a total douche. I worked for the guy for a decent amount of time doing "investment related work." Typical hours were ridiculous which is fine if you are adequately compensated which everyone knows we were not. Then there was the whole idea of responsibility, when things go bad it's on you, things go well, Tom must have been magnificent. Now I know this sounds like a bitter rant from an ex-employee, but truth be told I left Pirate and have never been better. Moving on to food, this was a classic TH move, when times got rough during the summer of '06 (because someone got greedy on a few major positions and failed to adequately diversify (just a hint for investors who haven't yet bailed), Tom cut off lunch to his employees. That was fine, I didn't much care for the boring sandwiches anyway, the kicker however was not only no lunch, but no time out of the office to go and get something for ourselves, a real classy move. The guy has his head on so sideways it is ridiculous, losing his cool on down days, wait no he never was cool, so let's say going stir crazy, ok wait no he was already that too, ok well you get the point and on good days he would have the interns make margaritas because hey you can't lose money everyday (although Tom seems to try real hard). Blackberrys had to be on 24/7 which is fine, but when I am on a personal day and I almost get fired for taking "longer than necessary" to respond to an email, I start sending out resumes. Anyway, I should get back to the bloomberg terminal here, I would love to share more, I ultimately wanted to write this as a comment, but regardless...I'd love to answer any questions.

How do I get a job there?

I kid...I kid...but seriously, he needs people.

0Recommend this! 29Comments
Posted in: Pirate Capital

Comments

Posted by SDH, May 16, 2007 11:21AM

I WORKED FOR THOMSON FINANCIAL FOR OVER 7 YEARS AND ALL I GOT WAS A FUCKING HAT WITH THE THOMSON LOGO WHEN I LEFT. NOW THEY WANT TO GET ALL GLITZY BY SNATCHING REUTERS...........FUCKERS.

Posted by , May 16, 2007 11:23AM

I work at Bear Stearns and HATE MY LIFE!!!

Posted by Guy, May 16, 2007 11:25AM

"on good days he would have the interns make margaritas"...and this is bad?

Posted by 2L, May 16, 2007 11:26AM

I'm afraid I may end up having to work on the sell-side

Posted by , May 16, 2007 11:29AM

Working at Bear Stearns with a boss almost like Tom Hudson was the worst job ever! Bear is probably the worst firm on the street.

Posted by In the Industry, May 16, 2007 11:35AM

Sounds like a classic hedge fund manager

Posted by BSD, May 16, 2007 11:52AM

In the Industry - perhaps that's true but there are plenty of laid back managers too. Personally, I work better with a hardass and tend to be one to the traders myself - but my current boss is a genuinely nice, caring and decent human being (and yes our alpha is great despite this).
It's really all about fit with funds - you need to find one that matches your personal investment strategy and an environment that matches your personality. Shouldn't be that hard given the sheer number of [decent, not stellar] funds out there. Of course if you want to work for the very best and get paid the absolute most - you may have to make concessions to your sense of pride and morals.

Posted by NotNasser, May 16, 2007 12:11PM

Y'all have got to check out the new minyanville Hoofy & Boo thing.

Posted by anon, May 16, 2007 12:15PM

Your opinion on the PIPE space?

Posted by Anonymous, May 16, 2007 12:31PM

A lot of Tom Hudson's problems began late one night in October, 2005. That night, one employee - after returning from a business dinner - had to get his/her car keys from the office.

While walking to his/her desk, s/he accidentally brushed up against Mr. Hudson's chair, shaking his mouse and revealing an unlocked computer.

The employee, flush with drink and free time, decided it would be a good idea to read Mr. Hudson's e-mails. The original intent was to try and get a read on Mr. Hudson's thoughts on this particular employee (after all, bonuses were 2 months away).

Now, we all know the old rule - don't put anything in e-mail you wouldn't want your grandmother to hear on national TV. Well, most of us have heard it. Not Mr. Hudson! Mr. Hudson wrote enough stuff via e-mail to keep this particular employee busy for several hours that night.

First, there was the personal manipulation he engaged in as he pushed several employees to denigrate each other. Since there's no better place to be than in the dragon's lap, many employees said the worst things about each other. Personal opinions about said employees dropped commensurately in the eyes of the reader.

Then there was the talk about how he was going to screw his employees out of their bonuses. To the employee who personally made Tom Hudson $60 million in performance money, "He'll get the $250k I promised him when I hired him".

How much of an idiot can you be? I mean, it's one thing to screw people...it's a totally different thing to write it down and be lazy with your IT security. This idiot went on to discuss arrangements for escort services, on several different occasions (nothing wrong with that, unless you know what Mr. Hudson looks like. These girls truly have to work for their money, IMHO).

And then came the Isa Bolotin e-mails.

COME ON!!! Who engages in this stuff and writes it down? The e-mails might have made this employee throw up if they weren't so entertaining (you have to actually picture Tom Hudson and Isa Bolotin doing the things that were in these e-mails. Priceless.)

In addition, there were the comments by Ms. Bolotin about other employees. Mind you, Ms. Bolotin went to some second rate school, and I'm not even sure if she actually graduated. If she did, it hasn't gotten her far. Her whole family is f'ed up, and here she was basically calling every employee a knuckle dragger.

Anyways, Mr. Hudson and Ms. Bolotin eventually wised up that they were being monitored and changed their behavior (i.e. meetings behind closed doors vs. e-mail, more lunches out of the office together, that sort of thing).

Alas, it was all downhill after that. Since secrets are hard to keep, the employee was unable to keep his/her mouth shut. The employees s/he told were also unable to keep their mouths shut. I'm sure you can figure out what happened to this employee. Rest assured, however, the employee learned his/her lesson (we'll leave it to you readers to discern what lesson(s) that actually was).

Mr. Hudson should have taken a cue from Nicolo Machiavelli...

"Men ought either to be indulged or utterly destroyed, for if you merely offend them they take vengeance, but if you injure them greatly they are unable to retaliate, so that the injury done to a man ought to be such that vengeance cannot be feared."

Posted by anonymous, May 16, 2007 1:15PM

I, too, worked at Bear and it was a painful experience to say the least.

The Bear Stearns version of management assures that such qualities of principles and intellect as might enable a person to lead such a prestigious firm responsibly are precisely the qualities that would prevent them from subjecting themself to the demeaning performances of staff meetings and focus groups.

It is a general and useful maxim at Bear that no person who is running a department deserves to (not true for all but you could use a lot worse measures). Then again, to be a salesman or department manager at that place for that matter, one must develop a certain obliquity of conscience and an elasticity toward the truth to be effective

To rephrase a quote from an author: in place of ethics they have rules, size functions as quality functions for others, what is for some honor and dishonor is for them winning and losing. They put their fiscal campaign before the humdrum concerns for the well-being of their employees. A dollar won is well worth more than an employee lost.

Posted by Kim, May 16, 2007 2:52PM

Wow, he really is a psycho

Posted by Marb Queen, May 16, 2007 3:00PM

I would love to take my stab at Tom Hudson as well. When I interviewed with Pirate Capital for an open position. I spent three hours interviewing with his entire staff, they were GREAT! Until it was Tom's turn. The first question I was asked is do you smoke cigarettes? (Highly illegal, but after learning more about him, I have learned that is strong point breaking the law, and getting caught!) Needless to say the A-hole didn't hire me for that!!! IT WAS BEST thing that ever happened to me!

Posted by Anonymous, May 16, 2007 3:05PM

Yes, I can confirm that Marb Queen was not hired because she was a smoker. We intereviewed two people that day, and at the end we all did a secret ballot to see who we would hire. The unanimous pick was Marb Queen.

She was not hired because Tom Hudson hates smokers. And marijuana-heads (I think he used that word).

Posted by anonymous, May 16, 2007 3:06PM

The scary thing is that the industry is overrun with people like this

Posted by Drew Carey, May 16, 2007 3:40PM

Really, you hate your job? Did you know that there is a support group for that?

Yeah, it's called EVERYBODY! We meet every night at the bar.

Posted by Chris G., May 16, 2007 3:52PM

Cary -

Good point man...

Posted by EM, May 16, 2007 4:04PM

Chris G = former pirate trader chris G? what the hell are you up to these days?

Posted by Chris G., May 16, 2007 4:20PM

EM...Former intern EM?

Posted by anonymous, May 16, 2007 4:26PM

Why don't you two faggots get a room.

Posted by , May 16, 2007 4:29PM

why dont you stop using the word faggot you hateful "human being"?

Posted by Anonymous, May 16, 2007 4:35PM

"Why don't you two faggots get a room."

Hey...look carefully...do you, or do you not, wish to enable macros on this spreadsheet?

FOCUS ON YOU JOB.

tool.

Posted by anonymous, May 16, 2007 4:43PM

Sorry for breaking up the queer love-fest. I feel terrible about it, I really do. I'll leave you girls alone now.

Posted by , May 16, 2007 5:29PM

love this stuff

Posted by Anonymous, May 16, 2007 5:52PM

Dealbreaker should take this stuff and produce its own Vault.com type resource about employers.

Posted by EM, May 16, 2007 10:56PM

That's me. Good to know you're still alive and finding this shit hysterical.

Posted by Pablo, May 17, 2007 4:43PM

EM, as an intern at Pirate you must have an amazing GPA, I heard one kid there smoked a 3.9, how about you?

Posted by anonymous, May 17, 2007 5:37PM

I bet a 3.9 wasn't the only thing he smoked.

Posted by Rico Suave, May 18, 2007 12:53AM

Hola P. Pablo,

While I know how you got the 3.9 (our little secret, and Linda's), I was wondering - are your MDs going to let you wear your assless chaps on the trading floor?

Regards,
R. Suave

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