Though long hours in the investment banking industry have been standard for many years, and their negative effects seen for equally as long, these new rules to cap hours have not been implemented at this scale before. So, what do people think of it?
A popular podcast host, author, and entrepreneur, Scott Galloway, and his co-host had an interesting take on the situation discussed on their podcast. What is particularly interesting is that Scott worked for Morgan Stanley fresh out of college, making his words much more personal and meaningful.
Firstly, regarding the type of job investment banking is, he says this: "there are usually two types of jobs. Either really interesting but with a lot of pressure and stress, or they are incredibly boring, but easy, with not a lot of stress. But investment banking was a unique combination of a job that was incredibly mind-numbingly boring, with a massive amount of pressure placed on it." This is interesting as it gives a perspective on the overall satisfaction of the job investment bankers have, with their motives likely entirely on their paycheck.
In agreement with the grueling number of working hours, he says, "I worked probably 60 to 80 hours a week, and some weeks 100 hours." He said he did this mainly because he wanted to gain the respect of his fellow juniors and impress his managers. "At least once a week I would work through the night."
Galloway also speaks on the culture of investment banking. He says that managers need to be compensated for giving their workers "some semblance of balance" rather than encouraging them to work as much as possible by asking them to misreport their hours. He says the banks need to create a culture such that managers are held accountable for overworking their subordinates and need to be taken into account when promoting them. He creates a scenario where the manager is in a meeting with their higher-ups: "We were going to make you a VP, but we are not since the word is that your juniors are working f**king 80 hours a week, and here, we do not reward that, we punish it."
In regard to the self-report system, he says this: "the notion that you are going to electronically track how many hours people are working is just bullsh**t." He says a better approach is to "hire more f***king junior bankers so there is more bandwidth."
However, he also believes that for people who are willing to suffer the consequences, a job like this is still lucrative. "I do believe that there are some investment banks that position themselves in the job market where they say we own your a**. All your relationships are going to suffer. Your health is probably going to suffer. And guess what? In exchange, we're going to get you further and faster economically than you would anywhere else in the world." Galloway says that he knew these aspects of the job before signing up and was willing to endure them for the reward. "I wanted it, and some other young people want that too."
Sam Shiah, an investment banking recruiting coach, is in agreement with Galloway's last point. In a newsletter on the publishing site Medium, he wrote "most people in investment banking are willing to make this sacrifice at the very beginning of their careers (...), and in return, they get a lot of benefits for doing so. They get the effects of prestige that come with working with these top banks, they get to work with high-caliber people, they get tremendous exit opportunities like hedge fund jobs, they get to work on interesting deals, and of course -- they get compensated really well."
Comments