BMO bankers sent each other crude memes before getting fired, investigation finds

financialpost.com:

Junior bankers who were recently fired from Bank of Montreal’s metals and mining group used work-sharing platforms to circulate crude jokes and at least one obscene image, which were discovered during an internal investigation after another employee complained, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

One of the photos that was distributed, known as the “Wood” meme, depicts a man sitting naked on a bed and became a popular internet meme during the pandemic. The investigation, which resulted in six bankers leaving the firm, also uncovered homophobic language used by employees.

A spokesperson for Bank of Montreal described the incident as “completely unacceptable,” adding that the bank takes matters of misconduct very seriously and immediately began probing the matter after the employee escalated it.

But multiple former Bank of Montreal employees who spoke with Bloomberg said it wasn’t the first case of crude jokes being circulated, and that in some respects, the junior bankers’ actions were in keeping with a culture that has existed in BMO’s high-pressure mining banking unit.

Bankers at competing firms in Toronto’s financial district, some of whom previously worked for Bank of Montreal, described its mining and metals group as extremely demanding — sometimes asking more of junior analysts and associates than other banks do. Employees have pulled all-night sessions to finalize deal documents and will work through weekends to meet deadlines. In recent years, the bank has explicitly encouraged entry-level analysts to take at least one day off on the weekends, to manage concerns about overwork.

The mining and metals group has previously faced at least one other similar workplace investigation that was sparked by