work accomodations - mbb

It depends on the firm and the home office.

For Bain Middle East office, all consultants were given an allowance during the pandemic to be used for “home office setup” (e.g. monitor, ergonomic chair, headphones, etc.)

In cases of severe medical conditions, they would sometimes accommodate for your medical conditions by staffing you on cases that do not require travel (quite rare though)..

Covid made the consulting industry a lot more flexible, so most projects now can accommodate that you work from home (at least for a part of the week or outside of key meetings). Generally, my advice is to ask for what you need. Be polite, but assertive. You are a valuable asset so the firm will make an effort to accommodate for that. 

We requested height-adjusting / standing desks in our office and had them installed in a few weeks. And this was for a small office. Larger offices are already ergonomically equipped. Then for client sites, the situation is similar. The IT team can send you a monitor or a keyboard stander. 

Also, don't overestimate the amount of time you'll be spending uninterrupted at your laptop. Even in more junior positions you'll be getting up quite often for meetings or impromptu problem solving sessions. 

So ask, and even if your office did not historically accommodate for whatever you need until then, you can take the initiative and push for it. That always brings you bonus points in the evaluations because it shows you're involved in the office and trying to make life better for yourself and your colleagues.

Hi there,

This is indeed an interesting question which is probably relevant for quite a lot of users, so I'm happy to give you my perspective on that:

• Generally speaking, there has been a shift in recent years and consulting companies seem to have understood that the physiological and psychological safety of their employees (which are, frankly speaking, their assets) is a value to protect.
• When it comes to your home office setup, I agree with what other coaches said that companies will do their best and have vast resources to help you (to a certain point).
• Nonetheless, I am still conviced that you will most probably have an even better work setup in the office.
• At the client site, unfortunately, there is very little decision-making power on the setup you will face. In the past, I have had very lucky situations where we were even provided with height-adjustable tables, but I have also had very unfortunate situations where you are basically provided with the room and setup that none of the client employees want.
• Regarding your question about an option to mainly work from home office, I fear that in the long run, consulting companies will get back to having their employees at least in the office in case they're not at the client site. Still, as you seem to be primarily concerned about the best work setup, I would advise you to have a look at specific companies that have a slight different approach to working Monday to Thursday at the client site (e.g. L.E.K.) or at specific industries where you mainly work from the office (i.e. private equity).

In case you want a more detailed discussion on how to stay healthy physiologically and psychologically over a long period of time in consulting, please feel free to contact me directly.

I hope this helps,

Hagen

Interesting question!

BCG Middle East has an arrangement where they give you 50% discount on monitor, chair, table etc. And they give you peripherals such as Jabra, mouse, headset etc. from the office itself. I believe McK should not be far behind.

Further, last I know, BCG ME had a system where they periodically conducted survey of the consulting staff to understand who all are comfortable in travelling. And depending on the response, staffing was being done accordingly. For those who were okay in travelling, the travel options were inline with the latest travel policies. They will try their very best to not force you to travel. Hats off!

Back/neck problems - we used to arrange from monitors from the IT team in the client's city. Sometimes chairs as well (sometimes). Apart from that, broadly client arrangements were pretty good.

If you are finding that client arrangements are presenting a medical problem to you - be sure to raise that to your PL and Partners - and I am sure they will help you find a solution.

Hi!

It depends on the specific office but they are very open to these topics.

I'm sure you'll manage to arrange a comfortable situation.

Best,

Anto

Hi there,

First, remember that MBB has vast resources at their disposal, in particular when it comes to encouraging you to work longer/better.

Just ask!

Get that 2nd or 3rd monitor. Ask for a better chair, keyboard, mouse, etc. We even had an ergonomic specialist come in to checkout out setup.

Take advantage of all the offerings + knowledge of these firms - you are not the only one to have back/neck issues from working 12+ hours/day!

Caveat: Client comes first. So, if you're asking whether you can not have client face-time, you'll probably be veteod. WFH will work in the current environment, but if the client needs you there, you need to be there!

Hello,

Absolutely - let HR/staffing know what you need, and it can definitely be arranged. A lot of consultants end up working on local cases where you can do a lot of work from your home office. It might limit to some degree the projects you are able to work on (e.g. some will require more business travel than others), but absolutely should not be an obstacle to you working at the firm if that is something you need!

Regarding managin back/neck problems, some MBB offices will have options to use standing desks or other ergonomic set-ups. I would also recommend taking regular breaks to stand up and walk around (get coffee with your colleague, take a call outside, etc.)

Short answer: it depends

I work at MBB and we get no allowance for work at home setup, and our food expenses are only covered on one day.

if you work in nice regions, you maybe get perks, if u work in shit regions in Europe, you get nothing