“Nothing will change.” Why Wall Street Doubts 80-Hour Week Limits.

The policies come amid a renewed outcry over working conditions for young bankers following the death of Leo Lukenas III, an investment banking associate at Bank of America, who died in May. Lukenas just helped close a $2 billion acquisition as a member of Bank of America’s financial institutions group.

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

While limiting or closely tracking hours sounds good in theory, insiders said it can be difficult to enforce. Indeed, banks have gone down this road before – promising change and throwing up new railings – only to land back in the same position.

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

“You can track the hours and promise days off, but at the end of the day, if there’s work to be done and the expectation is for it to come from your senior banker because a client needs them, that’s how it’s going to be done. make money”.

A Bank of America spokesperson told BI that the new platform has been in the works for more than a year and allows for more efficient daily reporting by BofA employees. In response to enforcement concerns, the spokesperson added: “Our practices are clear and we expect all employees and managers to follow them. When we found out about the violations, disciplinary action was taken.”

JPMorgan did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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

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

Working a live business

Juniors are motivated to outwork each other because their manager’s opinion of them determines their year-end bonus, the deals they receive personally, and the work they are assigned. In trying to impress that person with their work ethic, they may end up feeling pressured to go against the railing that is supposed to protect them.

A finance professor who teaches aspiring investment bankers at a top business school put it this way: “You develop a reputation as the person who’s always on call 80 hours a week, and all of a sudden you’re the smallest analyst who gets the worst. There’s acceptance at the top that this is the best thing to do, nothing changes.” The professor spoke on condition of anonymity to protect his students’ job prospects.

Adding to the skepticism about the effectiveness of these policies are some of the key exceptions that are included in them.

The WSJ pointed out that JPMorgan’s new limited hours policy has “exceptions for certain circumstances, such as a live business.” The Journal said JPMorgan offers US juniors “one fully protected weekend every three months, plus protected holidays with guaranteed time off” and enforces “pencils down” between 6pm on Friday and noon on Saturday – “with exceptions”.

The analyst and professor said such warnings would make policies moot because live trading is exactly when overcrowding becomes a problem.

“To the extent that there is an ebb and flow in live trading, then the 80-hour cap prevents at least one doctor from working 100 hours a week for you while they frantically pitch to try and win business.” said the teacher. “But for a busy group that always has live deals that don’t have to go out and release, then it’s nothing.”

Even with limited working hours, no one wants to disappoint their boss. If senior bankers don’t unilaterally enforce the cap and take it seriously, junior bankers may feel pressure to let the rules slide for the sake of the team and their own careers.

“My concern is that it won’t be implemented, that there will be too much of a dynamic within the office of not wanting to report to HR if a junior banker is pressured to work overtime,” the incoming analyst said.

The death of BofA in 2014

Bank of America, for its part, has HR notified “when hours worked exceed 80 per week,” stepping in “after extended periods over that limit to grant time off” and offering a “protected weekend day without work, no time frame specific”, according to the Journal.

It is a modification of a process adopted by the bank in 2014 following the sudden death of an intern in London. Moritz Erhardt died after what was later determined to be an epileptic seizure that may have been triggered by fatigue. He had spent long days at the office, and reports at the time suggested he hadn’t slept in three days.

Until Lukenas’ death in May, the bank’s overdraft reporting system — a tool known internally as the “banker’s log” — had its share of pitfalls, according to BI reports. Bank of America bankers told BI that they regularly work 100-hour weeks, and that the bank’s system of flagging employees logging more than 80 hours a week to human resources didn’t necessarily result in the promised protections.

“If you work 100 hours a week at Bank of America, you get a call from HR asking what you’re doing. But it is so surface level,” BI said at the time. “Apparently the purpose of the call is to cover the bank so they can say, ‘Yeah, I spoke to her and she said it’s fine.’ That’s how it made me feel.”

How these new policies are implemented may determine their success, critics said.

“I wish there had been more effort from the senior bankers, or at least the role they play in this. We had time tracking tools,” said the person who worked at Bank of America.

“You’re not going to change anything about how hard CEOs work their analysts unless you change the culture,” the professor said. “As long as the old guard say, ‘Well, that’s the way it was when I was in your shoes,’ then nothing’s really going to change.”

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