Keeping a work-life balance is a delicate equation that the Wall Street culture shattered beyond repair. A Midwestern investment bank took work up many notches as it forced its junior employees to work a 110-hour work week.
This unfathomable workload got many of the bank employees burned out and two of them were hospitalized, with one of them suffering from pancreatic failure.
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They were assigned extremely long workdays
The century-old, privately held Robert W. Baird investment bank based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin forced its junior bankers to undergo 20-hour workdays.
If anyone dared to leave their desks after pulling an all-nighter, they were scolded, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Not the first employees to suffer from overworking
During the last few years, many employees suffered drastically due to being overworked.
Two junior bankers — Carter McIntosh of Jefferies and former Bank of America analyst Leo Lukenas, 35 — died due to working as much as 100 hours per week, the former dying from a suspected overdose while the latter died from a blood clot.
Their death created an impact
Lukenas’ death earned plenty of scrutiny, so much so that some banks implemented tighter regulations, including caps on hours and guaranteeing proper time off for employees.
However, the bank still mistreats its employees and many people shared their stories online.
Anonymous Baird bankers weighed in
“As an analyst and associate, you are treated as scum,” an anonymous Baird banker wrote in a post on Wall Street Oasis.
His post went viral in April to the extent that hundreds of other Baird employees related to the anonymous banker’s post.
Two employees were hospitalized
Two former members of Baird’s industrials were hospitalized due to being overworked.
One of them voiced his concerns to human resources. At the same time, another suffered from pancreatic failure, a medical crisis that the doctors attributed to their intensive 20-hour workdays, and was eventually terminated due to alleged low productivity.
Some surprisingly deem the situation normal
Some of the current Baird junior bankers deem the debilitating working hours normal, as they deem the situation typical for the industry.
However, former employees begged to differ as they recall being hesitant to complain, fearing being seen as weak or incompetent by senior staff, and this made their working conditions inhumane.
