Vishesh Raisinghani
4 min read
Wall Street’s notoriously brutal work culture isn’t just causing sleepless nights, it’s costing lives.
Junior employees at Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated — a major investment bank based in Milwaukee — were compelled to work roughly 110 hours a week, resulting in at least two hospitalizations, according to a recent report by the Wall Street Journal. One of these overworked bankers was diagnosed with a failed pancreas.
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This isn’t the first time Wall Street and the banking industry in general have drawn scrutiny for bankers working punishingly-long days. In recent years, two junior bankers — Carter McIntosh of Jefferies and Leo Lukenas, a former BofA analyst — died while logging up to 100-hour workweeks, according to the New York Post.
While managers might argue that hustle culture and long hours drive productivity in a competitive field, there’s research that suggests this approach is actually counterproductive.
According to a survey from the Workforce Lab at Slack, 40% of desk workers said they often worked past regular hours every week. The survey didn’t include professions such as trucking and nursing, where long work hours may be necessary.
Surprisingly, the report found that employees who feel pressured to work beyond the standard eight-hour workday were 20% less productive than those who didn’t put in overtime. The reason for this, according to a study published in the Industrial Health journal, is that those who are overworked are more prone to mental and physical exhaustion, which can lead to a greater degree of errors and absenteeism.
Simply put, managers forcing employees to work more than the typical 40 hours a week are not only putting their employees’ health at risk, they're also negatively impacting the company’s overall productivity.
Here’s how workers and managers can tackle this issue and improve the outcomes for everyone involved.
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