Bankers’ Hours

A quickie post before the weekend…

So, the New York Times‘ business newsletter, The DealBook, had an interesting article about the junior bankers rebelling against the banking industry’s crushing work schedule. Back when I started working, bankers in investment banking or related to Wall Street always had long hours but they were well compensated for the work. The pandemic last year (which we are still undergoing – it hasn’t gone away yet) made things worse though. Apparently there is so much more work to be done.

If you have access to the New York Times, the article is titled “Wall Street’s Sleepless Nights”, authored by Sarah Kessler and Lauren Hirsch. In the article were scattered some readers’ opinions, for and against, the crushing hours.

Me, I tend to question those long hours. What good do they really do? They, whoever they are, always say to eat healthy, exercise and get enough sleep. If one is working those long hours, then there is a very strong possibility that one is eating unhealthily, experiencing general lack of fitness and not getting enough sleep. I just don’t see how it is advantageous for companies to treat people like that.

Just because we’ve always done it that way doesn’t mean that it is “best practice”, to use an overworked phrase.

I’m dubious about these heroic efforts where one gives up one’s life for … what? I get it for the short term assignment where a crisis pops up and everyone got to do what they got to do to end the crisis. But if you are constantly getting crises or it is way of business to get last minute extreme demands, then that may be more reflective of bad management and poor planning.

I know when I get interested in something and trying to improve something, I’ll end up working longer hours because I’m really interested in the problem. Those longer hours are kind of like play to me. But at some point, people have to rest, to refresh their brain, to learn or do something else, far away from the current pressing issues. I find that if I step away and refresh myself, the answers to the sticky problems often come in during expected times…because I’m more rested and not trying hard.

So just a thought. Those heroic efforts may be wasted efforts and you end up doing what has always been done before just to get the job done.

I don’t know if this link will allow to get to the article – you may have to be a subscriber: New York Times article.