"My quant team is falling apart because of my new manager and his fantasy KPIs"
Quant finance, in theory, is one of the most intellectually stimulating environments to work in. You're at the intersection of markets, math and coding, surrounded by talented, experienced people. This was the case for me until my team spectacularly collapsed under new management.
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This manager joined and immediately began to restructure the team under the guise of separating the wheat from the chaff. Underperformers were let go and, once the manager's non-poaching period expired, they were replaced by his former subordinates. When he had enough of his own chess pieces on the board, the downfall began.
The team was separated in to sub-divisions led by people close to the manager. He allocated his people to these sub-teams not based on where they would do their best work, but where his people would benefit the most. Senior management refused to acknowledge how difficult the situation was for the rest of us and kept everything on a highly selective, need-to-know basis (which usually means management-needs-you-to-not-know).
Because of this, a lot of our best people have voted with their feet and left. Morale has plummeted unrecoverably, making more people want to leave. It's a vicious cycle.
The business rarely understands where the actual expertise lies with which quants, and has created a few fantasy KPIs despite all the internal chaos. These get even harder to achieve the more people leave. The workload on the remaining experienced team mates is soul crushing. I've been biding my time and interviewing with other firms; soon I'll do my part to sink this ship even further.
Brock Newsom is a pseudonym
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