Morning Coffee: Overwrought 27 year-old bankers on $456k are trying to save exhausted juniors on $150k. A new approach to long haul flights
We observed in March that working hours in banking were back to the 100-hour weeks+ that led Goldman's technology banking team to bitterly complain during the pandemic. Since then, things have possibly got worse.
Get Morning Coffee ☕ in your inbox. Sign up here.
Despite the shock of Bank of America associate Leo Lukkenas' death of a heart attack in early May, Bloomberg reports that junior bankers are working harder than ever. The average is 80 hours a week. The extreme is 140 hours a week, leaving only four hours a day, every day, for eating, sleeping and living. Junior bankers with heart pains and have been Googling «heart attack symptoms» at their desks.
In this situation, Bloomberg says it's the «staffers» who assign junior bankers to deals who are trying to make a difference. Staffers are typically junior vice president (VP) level bankers, and are usually aged around 27-years-old. Their average pay, includingsalary and bonus, was around $457k (£361k) last year according to search firm Prospect Rock Partners. They are the main bulwark against exhaustion for more junior analysts and associates in their early 20s, whose pay on Wall Street starts at $153k.
It's not easy being a staffer. Bloomberg says it falls to the staffers to tell senior bankers there simply aren't enough juniors to work on their deals. Stressed senior bankers respond angrily. Stressed staffers sob and become ill themselves. It's a hard job, but one staffer told Bloomberg she took the role to protect the juniors after her own time as an analyst and associate involved bringing a sleeping bag into the office.
In theory, staffers can appeal to a form of higher authority when they turn down senior bankers' requests for juniors: the computer systems
Read more on efinancialcareers.com
