Exit
the banks didn’t seem all that
concerned about the toll their
long hours were taking — until a
21-year-old summer intern died.
In August, an intern working
for Bank of America’s investment banking division was found
dead in his London apartment
toward the end of his sevenweek summer assignment. News
reports first said Morris Erhardt
died of exhaustion, worn out after working all night for several
nights in row. And though that
turned out not to be the case —
an investigation after his death
determined he died of natural
causes, according to Reuters —
it was too late to quiet the firestorm of criticism about the way
the financial industry treats its
youngest workers.
The banks were forced to
reckon with what many view
as an old-fashioned office culture that no longer meshes with
how 20-somethings view work.
At least six banks have since
changed key workplace policies
as they aim to entice 20-somethings to stick with the company
and help young workers carve out
more time away from the office.
Bank of America now requires
that the bank’s youngest staffers
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take at least four weekend days off
per month. In addition, bank officials said in January that BofA
would have staffers dedicated to
monitoring junior bankers’ work
hours and making sure they were
developing important skills. Citigroup was the latest of several
Wall Street banks to acknowledge
it had at least a PR problem when
the company announced in a
memo to staff last month that ju-
We’re at a period of
time where the people
seem to be screaming
‘We want more balance.’
We’re listening to them.”
nior bankers should stay home on
Saturdays and are expected to use
all of their vacation days.
Goldman Sachs saw the writing on the wall before some of the
other banks woke up to the fact
that junior bankers were decamping to different industries to avoid
such long hours. The company created a “Junior Banker Task Force,”
focused on making conditions for
young staffers a bit more livable,
months before Erhardt’s death.
“We’re at a period of time