Two of Wall Street’s biggest investment banks, JPMorgan and Bank of America, are cracking down on the industry’s notorious “always-on” culture, which was recently linked to the death of a Green Beret turned investment banker.
Now JPMorgan will limit the working hours of junior bankers to 80 hours per week in most cases, the company told Assets– a first for the bank.
These regulations complement the company’s existing “pen-down” period from Friday 6 p.m. to Saturday noon, as well as the guarantee of a full weekend off every three months.
BAnkers told the Wall Street Journal For example, the 80-hour work week of a young banker at JPMorgan might consist of six days of work from about 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. with short meal breaks, or seven consecutive days of 11 hours of work each.
By comparison, that’s still double the average 40-hour workweek of an American worker.
There is also a significant catch: certain cases, such as live deals, are exempt from JPMorgan’s new policy.
Meanwhile, Bank of America – where work hours for junior bankers are already technically capped at 80 hours but the rule is reportedly routinely ignored – is rolling out an internal platform this month that will closely monitor individual employees’ workloads.
The company’s new time-tracking software requires U.S.-based employees to log their hours daily instead of weekly, and to specify which deals they are working on when and which senior bankers are overseeing the orders, according to the WSJ.
Assets Bank of America has asked for comment. JPMorgan declined to comment.
Former Green Beret died just one year after working as an investment banker
Earlier this year, Leo Lukenas III, a Green Beret turned Bank of America investment banker, died of a blood clot while working more than 100 hours a week on a $2 billion deal at Bank of America.
Although the company had already reviewed and limited its employees’ work hours (after an intern died in a similar manner a decade ago after working several nights in a row), those policies are still frequently violated today.
After the tragedy, numerous young bankers complained to WSJ about weekly night shifts and weeks of more than 100 hours, about which they are regularly forced to lie by their superiors.
Now bank bosses are re-examining the culture of overwork that has long prevailed in the industry.
A Bank of America spokeswoman said WSJ At the time it said: “Our practices are clear and we expect all employees, including managers, to follow them. Whenever we became aware of violations, disciplinary action was taken.”
However, the release said senior bankers were immediately instructed to better monitor the workloads of their subordinates and that policies would be more strictly enforced in the future.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank was asking itself “what can we learn from” Lukenas’ death in May before rethinking its policy.
