"My experience in prop trading: awkwardness, shaming & inappropriate flirting"

A number of years ago I used to work for a proprietary trading firm. Overall, I had a negative experience.

I was not a trader, but I interacted with them on a daily basis. They were all very polite, interesting people. The firm had hired a lot of math PhDs, people with lots of education who weren't very outgoing. For many of the people there, English was not their first language which I think contributed to, what I perceived as, social awkwardness. 

I have nothing against the traders, my issue was with one of the directors. He was an old buddy of the founding partners, and his wife also worked there. He would frequently make inappropriate remarks to his wife in my presence, and there was nobody I could complain to about this, as she was really the only person there working in HR. There were implications of sexual acts, and innuendo. It didn't happen too often, and the wife was really embarassed when he did it; I get the sense that he was immature and oblivious, rather than malicious or anything like that.

There was also one woman there who was very two-faced. In one-on-one meetings she would ask me about my progress on certain projects and accept my answers, but in larger meetings she would ask me again and grill me on the answers. She would bully me, suggesting I hadn't done my job right when privately, she did not take issue with how things were going. 

This was a long time ago now, I've since gotten much more comfortable sticking up for myself and I haven't spoken to anyone at the firm in a long time. I still think about it though and wonder if this is normal for the sector?

Kim McGill is a pseudonym.

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