Wall Streeters criticize new limits on the 80-hour week

The measures come amid renewed outrage over working conditions for junior bankers following the death in May of Leo Lukenas III, a Bank of America investment banker who died in May. Lukenas, a member of Bank of America’s Financial Institutions Group, had just helped complete a $2 billion acquisition.

Lukenas’ death shocked Wall Street in part because he was a 35-year-old former Green Beret who was considered strong and fit. Even JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon addressed the death at an investor presentation, saying the bank’s leadership had been conferring to understand “what we can learn from this.”

Although limiting or closely monitoring working hours sounds good in theory, insiders say it is difficult to enforce. In fact, banks have been down this path before – promising changes and introducing new guardrails – only to end up in the same situation again.

“I think it’s fantastic that they’re taking the concerns of junior bankers seriously and taking the situation that happened this summer seriously,” a junior banker who left Bank of America last year told Business Insider. She spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her career. But the nature of working in investment banking makes it hard to believe such guardrails will stand the test of time.

“You can track hours and promise days off, but at the end of the day, if there’s work to be done and there’s an expectation that it’s coming from your senior banker because a customer needs it, then it’s going to get done. That’s how they make their money.”

A Bank of America spokesperson told BI that the new platform has been in the works for over a year and will allow Bank of America employees to conduct more efficient daily reporting. In response to concerns about enforcement, the spokesperson added, “Our practices are clear and we expect all employees and managers to follow them. If we become aware of any violations, disciplinary action will be taken.”

JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A new investment banking analyst, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his job prospects, described the changes as “saving face.” He interned at an investment bank in New York last summer and accepted a counteroffer to start full-time in 2025.

“It’s sad that it takes a death to send this shockwave through Wall Street,” he said. “In reality, nothing will change.”

Conduct a live deal

Juniors have an incentive to perform better than others because their manager’s opinion of them determines their year-end bonus, the contracts they sign, and the work they’re assigned. In trying to impress that person with their work ethic, they may feel pressured to break the very guardrail that’s supposed to protect them.

A finance professor who teaches aspiring investment bankers at a top business school explained it this way: “You develop a reputation for being the guy who calls 80 hours a week, and suddenly you’re the worst analyst getting the worst work. Unless there’s agreement from the top that this is the best thing to do, nothing changes.” The professor spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect his students’ career prospects.

Scepticism about the effectiveness of these measures is further reinforced by the fact that they contain some important exceptions.

The WSJ explained that JPMorgan’s new work-hour restrictions allow for “exceptions for certain circumstances, such as a live deal.” The Journal said JPMorgan also gives U.S. juniors “a full weekend off every three months, plus protected holidays with guaranteed vacation” and requires them to “put down their pens” between 6 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday — “with exceptions.”

The future analyst and professor said that such reservations could render policy measures ineffective because overwork becomes a problem, especially in live deals.

“To the extent that there is an ebb and flow in current deals, the 80-hour cap at least prevents a managing director from working 100 hours a week while desperately trying to close deals,” the professor said. “But for a busy group that is constantly involved in current deals and doesn’t need to go out and pitch, that’s nothing.”

Even if there is a limit on working hours, nobody wants to disappoint their boss. If senior bank employees do not unilaterally enforce the limit and take it seriously, junior bankers may feel pressure to relax the rules for the good of the team and their own careers.

“My concern is that this is not being enforced and that there are too many dynamics within the office that people don’t want to report to HR when a junior banker is being pressured to work overtime,” the new analyst said.

The death of BofA in 2014

Bank of America, for its part, notifies human resources “when weekly work hours exceed 80 hours,” “intervenes in cases of prolonged overtime to order time off,” and offers “a protected day off on the weekend with no specific time frame,” according to the Journal.

It is a variation of a procedure the bank introduced in 2014 following the sudden death of an intern in London. Moritz Erhardt died following an epileptic seizure, which it later emerged may have been triggered by fatigue. He had spent long days in the office and reportedly had not slept for three days.

At the time of Lukenas’ death in May, the bank’s system for flagging overtime hours – a tool known internally as the “Banker’s Diary” – had its flaws, according to BI reports. Bank of America employees told BI they regularly worked 100-hour weeks and the bank’s system for flagging employees who logged more than 80 hours a week into HR didn’t necessarily result in the promised protections.

“When you work 100 hours a week at Bank of America, you get a call from HR and they ask you how you’re doing. But it’s so superficial,” BI reported someone saying at the time. “It just feels like the call is about protecting the bank so they can say, ‘Yeah, we talked to her and she said she’s OK.’ That’s how I felt.”

The success of these new measures could depend on how they are implemented, critics say.

“I wish senior bankers had put more effort into it, or at least the role they play in it. We had time tracking tools,” said the employee, who worked at Bank of America.

“If you don’t change the corporate culture, you won’t change how closely CEOs work with their analysts,” the professor said. “As long as the old guard says, ‘When I was in your shoes, it was like that,’ nothing will change.”

“I’m a bit cynical about it,” he said of all the new measures, “but at least it’s something.”