A poignant presentation leaked by disgruntled Goldman Sachs analysts outlining 100-hour weeks, declining mental health and dismissal threats drew little sympathy from city bankers.
After all, strenuous hours are a banker’s rite of passage.
“Frankly, I did it all and nobody cared at the time,” said a managing director at a London-based investment bank about the research – an 11-page presentation by 13 Goldman analysts that highlighted the difficulties of those working in the lower classes.
The document drew an explosion of online attention and sparked a debate about whether complaints about such conditions are justified among workers with very high salaries and bright career prospects in the future. Goldman said it met with 13 analysts, as well as its peers, to discuss what could be changed. Analysts suggested a limit of 80 hours and a policy of “lowering the pencil” in presentations 12 hours before the meeting. The bank is also hiring more analysts and will seek to automate more jobs.
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“Should I feel sorry for them? No, there are 10,000 people wanting their jobs and they are paid more than any other industry. That’s what we all had to go through,” said another managing director.
“Goldman’s presentation shows a legitimate problem that has existed for many, many years,” said the managing director of a major investment bank in the United States. “The news here is that nothing has changed and will not change.”
A global head of investment banking in a major European player admitted that the pandemic has been difficult for start-up employees, especially those who joined during the blocking conditions at Covid-19 and had to deal with an increase in workload.
“Everyone is exhausted,” he said, adding that he organized a round table with 100 juniors, who expressed concern about the sustainability of the schedule. “The activity is growing and it is a great challenge for everyone at the moment.”
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Junior bankers fought during the pandemic. In August, juniors contacted by FN said they were close to being sold out, as executive directors expected them to be online all the time. JPMorgan has started virtual boxing classes and ‘escape’ games to keep juniors engaged this year, while Citigroup, Goldman and UBS have tried to offer greater access to senior bankers.
And in the midst of increasing stress, banks have been exceptionally busy. Investment bank revenues reached $ 194 billion last year, up 29% from 2019 and the best performance in a decade, Coalition found. In 2021, investment banks earned almost $ 25 billion, which promises to be a record start to the year, according to Dealogic.
A senior banker admitted that the outflows of analysts and associates have increased in the past few months, as the workload has increased amid the record flow of business. “I tried to probe two people to hire last week. One had already left and the other intended to leave the bank altogether,” he said.
The brutal life of junior bankers has been highlighted at several points in the past 10 years, but experts suggest that nothing has really changed. In 2013, the death of Bank of America intern Moritz Erhardt – who passed out due to an epileptic seizure after working 72 hours straight – prompted banks to impose limits on working hours, including protection on weekends. Meanwhile, a 12-year study by Dr. Alexandra Michel, a former investment banker at Goldman Sachs who became an academic and conducted extensive research in the sector, showed a litany of health issues among junior bankers who work strenuous hours.
“The loss of analysts has been increasing year after year as exit opportunities abound, alongside this generation that seeks a more complete existence,” said Logan Naidu, chief executive of Dartmouth Partners, who focuses on junior and middle bankers . “The analyst recruitment market is definitely very busy and there is a combination of growth and replacement hiring.”
At the junior level, banks typically transfer people who work in less occupied areas to those where business activity is growing. A senior banker said he had a team of people known internally as “Avengers” – a reference to Marvel comic book characters where a bunch of disparate superheroes gather to face a crisis – who would normally work on merger and acquisition deals and would switch to restructuring during busier times. Last year, this was not possible, as all units are running at full speed, he said.
“Sundays are busy with work and everyone is working late every night,” said a bank director in the United States. “It is almost unfair to focus only on juniors, but we recognize that they are abandoning more than the others.”
American investment bank Jefferies sent a memo to its 1,124 analysts and associates around the world on the day that Goldman’s presentation leaked, saying it would offer them a one-year subscription to a Peloton bicycle, home training system or an Apple Watch as a sign of his “deep appreciation” of his work over the past year.
“If Goldman really changes, the other banks will have to follow him,” said a junior banker speaking on condition of anonymity. “Analysts are fluid and can do the same job at any bank.”
To contact the authors of this story with feedback or news, send an email to Paul Clarke and Lucy McNulty