I could not put this book down.

The author exposes the dark underbelly of the elite world of Goldman Sachs. From being physically assaulted at work to being mooed at after pumping, Fiore Higgins survived the toxic, sexiest environment and lived to tell. And us lucky readers were along for the ride.

Like any abusive relationship, Goldman offered plenty of tantalizing highs. From the prestige of the firm to the sky high salary, there were plenty of reasons that kept Fiore Higgins working in a toxic environment for decades.

Powerfully, Fiore Higgins shares her own complicity in the unfairness at work. She also explores her own immigrant family’s role in shaping her pursuit of financial stability, and later in the book, what she wished she had done differently.

This book made me think deeply about workplace dynamics. Can one individual resist? What is the true cost of the financial stability and prestige of some organizations?

Great book. I highly recommend it.

So fun - it reads like the best kind of financial thriller. And she is someone who definitely made it to the highest levels. I’m glad she was able to reflect on it and decide it wasn’t with her soul. I hope books like these will change the culture!

I attended a session at ALA where the author was part of a panel and this was the book that most intrigued me because I don't often think of women when I think of Wall Street so to hear about this life from a feminine perspective was bound to be eye opening.

I loved this book because Jamie Fiore Higgins didn't flinch away from even the things that she herself did that wouldn't look good in the eyes of others. Although I wasn't surprised at the abuse she received at the hands of her fellow male co-workers, I was surprised that she was so successful despite all of that. I wasn't terribly surprised at the bad behavior of the men around her and it saddens me that the wealthy clients expect strip clubs and other perks from these managers which would make it difficult for any woman to become part of the inner circle.

Thank you to Netgalley for the free copy of Bully Market by Jamie Fiore Higgins.Jamie was a wide eyed college graduate with a degree in Math from Bryn Mawr when she started working at GoldmanSachs.There motto was Minds Wide Open.Nothing could be further from the truth.Over the course of 18 years she advanced to managing director but sacrificed so much including almost losing her marriage and time spent with her children.Although her salary was astronomical she felt like she was selling her soul to the devil.She endured harassment and abuse because she had children and breastfed.She tells a very difficult story of all her encounters and how she was able to break freeof this cycle of workplace to live the life she wanted.

Having no knowledge of what workers on Wall Street did, I found this book horrifyingly fascinating. It is a true story, based on what author Jamie Fiore Higgins lived. It is a quick read and incredibly interesting. I was amazed at her annual bonuses ($1,000,000?) and what she was put through to get paid that much money.

This book reads like fiction. It is fun, engaging, and entertaining. I'm just sorry to realize that it is true.

Thanks to #NetGalley for the advanced readers copy, which was provided to me in exchange for my honest review.

I have a bookshelf with a special section called "Evil Corporations" and this book belongs there. This is a completely honest, no holds-barred account of a young woman's rise within Goldman Sachs. What makes this book so compelling is the author shares her inner thoughts and doubts about whether she belongs there (is she good enough) - when clearly she is smart and ambitious. But when you work in a culture of toxic masculinity, if you are a woman (or identify a anything other than a white male) then you will never fit in the culture. The worst part about all this is all too often women are complicit in upholding the toxic culture because of a scarcity problem that turns into a zero-sum game and competition among women. The real villain here is a company that espouses principles of diversity yet turns a blind eye to horrific bullying behavior particularly against employees with children. This to me is a cautionary tale about not letting your identify and self-worth be defined by an employer. Ultimately, she is able to leave the situation (and as she describes it is like having Stockholm Syndrome). That is why they call it golden handcuffs - difficult to leave when you get hooked on the money and status. At the end of the book, she offers suggestions for how to address bullying cultures and the cynic in me says companies like this will just "check-the box" by espousing great values while doing nothing to dismantle the systemic issues. I highly recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

So happy to get a copy of this from Net Galley - I read it the whole thing this morning - loved every bit. The author did not hold back on details from her experience working at Goldman Sachs - even those times she wasn't her best self and perpetuated some of the bad behavior she herself had experienced - and I appreciated her honesty. She was also candid about how her marriage was impacted by her all-consuming work life - again this made the books so much richer and I am grateful So well-written and a perfect read!

Bully For Jamie

Notwithstanding this Goldman Sachs expose of sorts, Jamie Higgins uncovers the inner workings of the largest financial firm with emphasis on misogyny and racial discrimination.

I could not stop reading this book. I was glued to every page; I understand trading tactics, hedge funds and the systemic competition at Goldman Sachs. Notwithstanding my own career in visible corporate positions as a woman, I understood the depth of trauma “climbing the corporate ladder.” This author presents her grueling twenty years at Goldman, not as a rich young woman with connections. She attained her position because of perseverance, intellect, and math.

She did not come from a wealthy family that was connected. No one offered her a place at Goldman because she knew the right people. Her family convinced her to apply for a job that would pay her lots of money. They had monetarily sacrificed their lives for her health and education and believed she needed to attain monetary goals. And so, she did, with a fervor. She was clever and if you read her responses to her bosses’ complaints, she was surprisingly subservient and always looking to the future.

Seduced by the naked need to get a bigger bonus and excel at every aspect of any job bestowed upon her, “Jamie from Goldman” learned how to play the toxic game. She amassed clients who increased the companies’ coffers. It was all at a price, she worked unspeakably long hours, and remained one of very few women who attained Managing Director. Jamie was married with children, and it was no surprise that her occupation negatively impacted her marriage, and she was often an absentee mother. You cannot do it all when you are a woman.

The author did not show Goldman Sachs in a good light. Yes, they hired the best, brightest and the connected. Their reputation with women employees was abominable. It was almost impossible to compete with the white and wealthy males. However, Jamie succeeded until she had to make life choices.

I highly recommend this book. The author is forthright, and her depiction of Goldman convinces the reader that it is not an equitable workplace, but the salary and bonuses are seductive and life-changing.

My gratitude to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for this pre-published book. All opinions expressed are my own.

This memoir is so honest and raw, I had a tough time putting it down. I found myself in awe of Jamie's strength and courage as she reveals the good, the bad, and the ugly events in her life. I think about her husband, Dan, and her family, who will now know that complete strangers will know intimate details about their marriage. Jamie really puts herself out there, and you can feel her desperation, her sadness, her hopelessness. Jamie shows how beaten down she was by the culture at Goldman Sachs and how she felt she had to fight her moral compass to survive in this culture. As Jamie's career accerated, her family and her values suffered, which definitely precipitated her downward spiral. Only when Jamie was able to forgive herself with the loving support of Dan, was she able to make a plan, prioritize what really mattered to her, and give up the prestige of being a Goldman Sachs managing director and the hefty salary that came with it.. I'm just in awe of Jamie and, when I meet her (not if), I'm just going to want to hug her tight! Go Jamie!!!!

Phew...what a compelling memoir. Bully Market is a riveting, and often disturbing, behind the scenes account of life as an investment banker at one of the world's most prestigious organizations. It also explores the evolution of a young woman from a working class family in NJ and who then goes from a math major at Bryn Mawr to a high level position at Goldman Sachs.
Ms. Higgins openly writes about the good, bad and ugly of Goldman Sachs, and the world of hedge fund trading (and her descriptions were very understandable and interesting). Importantly, she was also very open about her behavior and at times, complicity. There were a couple gaps in time (especially in her early times/marriage) that might have been interesting to include.
As an HR person, I broke out into a cold sweat multiple times while reading Ms. Higgins' descriptions of things employees and managers said and did (and didn't do), management practices, etc.
Bully Market is a quick read and well worth exploring. Thanks to Netgalley and Simon and Schuster for the opportunity to read Bully Market in exchange for an honest review.

In the last year and a half, my own interest in the stock market has risen, likely because I have reached that certain age where I am teetering between the fierce saving for my children's college 529 plans and our own retirement. I've often cursed that my own passions didn't line up with a career that lined up with the compensation it deserves, but I cannot help but love what I love.

Higgins didn't choose that path, which is perhaps why I wanted to read the book--I wanted to see what it would be like to set aside a social service profession's path for something that would make money not a concern. Higgins, when Higgins was Fiore, wanted to be a social worker, but her family influenced her to pick a path that earned real money, and earn it she did. Her hours left little room for anything else, though she did manage to get married and have four children, a feat I cannot understand until I realize she sacrificed time for those things--she saw her kids on the weekends, even though they slept in the same house, and she almost lost her marriage as they drifted apart.

There is a portion where that marriage begins to fall apart, but the passages feel as if a lot is left out, which is fine--it is not my business to know the sordid details--but the thing is, Higgins presents it as if she's given us all the information. We get two scenes in which she seems to be telling all, but also, she is able to excuse away so much. I feel that these moments could have been handled differently; she could have said, there were moments when I was unfaithful, and my husband knew, and given us some paragraphs, but to feel as if we were let behind the curtain when I'm sure there was more felt strange.

It felt that much of the book, Higgins was painting herself as a "this is not me" and "these are not my morals" kind of person, but she stayed in an abusive environment for nearly two decades. Yes, there is so much that shows how hard it is to leave an abusive relationship-like situation: she is assaulted and yet she stays, she is demeaned and yet she stays, she has to make an exit plan and yet she stays right up until that day. Instead of suing, she stays. Instead of reporting most of the incidents, she keeps quit so she can stay. She writes about how she wants to be a role model for women rising in the company, but she keeps quiet when one of them takes actual action. She doesn't sue because she claims she wants to keep her reputation intact but then she writes a tell-all memoir, and perhaps that is what could do more harm to Goldman Sachs than suing, but to me, I've always been told to report those things and make those changes. For me, reading this book, I couldn't understand how she didn't report things within those first months, but I would not have lasted for nearly two decades and never would have made the bonuses she had. That's what makes reading this memoir so difficult.

I don't want to imply that I haven't been in similar toxic situations; I have. I've just left because I knew I couldn't influence the change that needed to happen. This could be why and how I can't understand all the things I wrote above. I was also raised differently--my parents told me I have to feel good and passionate about what I do.

For a bit, I felt envy that her bonuses were more than I could make in a decade and a half.

I do wonder if Higgins will end up in social work. At the end of the book, she's a stay at home mom, and more power to her--I was one too for a few years. It was its own kind of wonderful and hard.

The writing itself is fine. It is no literary memoir, so I am not sure what kind of shelf life it will have, but it's competent and truly interesting to see things from a world I will never live in. I'm glad Higgins wrote this book because I think women need to tell their stories. I have criticized her above for not speaking out before, but she's doing it now, and that takes a hell of a lot of courage. She does it in a way that reads in a smooth narrative and I found myself looking forward to returning to the pages.

This would be a good read for anyone who is interested in the real stories of women in powerful positions (who are made to feel powerless) and wants to read a true story of those things. Honestly, I hope this book ends up making the change it should make, and I hope women in power find more ways to break away from that feeling of powerlessness to get what they truly deserve, which is so much more than what Higgins got.

I read this via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.