3 ms·

I wouldn't have believed it either before spending some time in a financial company. One time I was sitting with a colleague who had been there many years and h

I wouldn't have believed it either before spending some time in a financial company. One time I was sitting with a colleague who had been there many years and he received an email like a newsletter but with more flashy graphics than the newsletter that already went out on Friday. He immediately groaned and said "that's one more email to ignore then". And ignore it we did. But someone somewhere decided we needed another newsletter, some team wrote the "news" and some other team designed the shiny new graphics. All just to be ignored and deleted by everyone. The financial sector is rife with this. It is surely the most inefficient part of the economy. Most things are automated now, yet the number of people employed has actually grown and it's mostly bullshit. There are people who literally spend all day creating what can only be described as entertainment for other people in the same company. I wish everyone could see it first hand.

xapata 8y ago
That's not just the financial industry. One company I was at built themselves a TV studio to broadcast the occasional C-suite roundtable. Executives love to see themselves in print (and video).
paulie_a 8y ago
I probably actually fully read about 1-2 percent of my email...skim upwards of 10 percent and ignore the rest.
Rjevski 8y ago
Speaking of newsletters, this is probably one of the most useless and delusional industries there is. They consider a 20% "open rate" on their garbage as "good" and anything above is exceptional. I don't know about you, but if I was running a restaurant and only 20% of people actually bothered to eat my food, I would close up shop and rethink my life choices. But the newsletter/spam-letter guys apparently think 20% is good.
repolfx 8y ago
It's not finance specific. Any company that's highly profitable will experience this. It's just that finance is full of highly profitable companies. The classical solution is more competition. Unfortunately finance is also full of factors that make it an uncompetitive market (e.g. the old joke that if you want to get into banking you start by buying a bank).

xapata 8y ago

That's not just the financial industry. One company I was at built themselves a TV studio to broadcast the occasional C-suite roundtable. Executives love to see themselves in print (and video).

paulie_a 8y ago

I probably actually fully read about 1-2 percent of my email...skim upwards of 10 percent and ignore the rest.

Rjevski 8y ago

Speaking of newsletters, this is probably one of the most useless and delusional industries there is. They consider a 20% "open rate" on their garbage as "good" and anything above is exceptional. I don't know about you, but if I was running a restaurant and only 20% of people actually bothered to eat my food, I would close up shop and rethink my life choices. But the newsletter/spam-letter guys apparently think 20% is good.

repolfx 8y ago

It's not finance specific. Any company that's highly profitable will experience this. It's just that finance is full of highly profitable companies. The classical solution is more competition. Unfortunately finance is also full of factors that make it an uncompetitive market (e.g. the old joke that if you want to get into banking you start by buying a bank).