The recent death of a 35-year-old Bank Of America associate sparked outrage on Wall Street as bankers slammed the toxic work culture they feel contributed to his death, particularly the long work weeks. According to the New York Post, Leo Lukenas III's death came after he had allegedly been working some 100 hours a week for several weeks in a row on a $2 billion merger.
Two weeks after his death, Adnan Deumic, a 25-year-old London-based trader, died suddenly while playing soccer. While there is no known connection between his work and his death, Mr Deumic's colleagues said he worked closer to 60 hours a week.
''He probably worked 11 to 12 hours a day and those hours were incredibly intense… he didn't have time to get coffee,'' a source told The New York Post.
In the wake of these tragic deaths, several employees have been opening up about the ''demanding and challenging'' work culture and outlining the harsh realities of working on Wall Street. Multiple Wall Street sources told The New York Post about scary health issues they claim are related to their high-stress occupation.
''There have been incidents where analysts pass out in meetings due to lack of sleep/food, and other times where analysts are hospitalized due to panic attacks — and nobody steps in to check in on them,'' a Bank of America employee alleged.
Investment banking, the division in which Mr Lukenas worked, is said to be the most gruelling where bankers regularly clock 100-hour work weeks.
''VPs do not respect junior people's time. They will proactively give someone a piece of work at 6 p.m. on a Friday that could have given it to them on Tuesday, but [managers] were distracted,'' a managing director told The Post.
The outlet reported that most junior employees, known as associates, ''go through hell'' as they have no control over their schedules for two years. A survey conducted by Overheard on Wall Street reported that junior bankers average just 5 hours of sleep a night.
An investment banker who left her job said that she used to be so exhausted that she had to rest her eyes in a bathroom stall every few hours just to function. Another employee who endured chest pain and heart palpitations was told by a doctor that her pain was because of ''incredibly high stress and a lack of sleep.''
A former Goldman employee told The Post there's no excuse for the exhausting workload. ''While not working with one's hands like in a factory, working 100-hour work weeks as a junior financial analyst has similar features to serious labor — in being physically demanding and taxing — that are under appreciated. There's an overall culture that needs to change which requires both employers and employees to put health and well-being first, above incremental low-productivity hours.''
