80 hours a week. This is already the maximum authorized time for employees of the famous investment bank JP Morgan Chase, according to the Wall Street Journal. In the same vein, the second largest bank in the United States, Bank of America, has announced the deployment of a new time-reporting tool. This involves regulating working hours more effectively in response to the culture of overwork that is regularly pointed out.
This situation is quite common in the world of investment banks, As Christine, an analyst interviewed by BFM Business, testifies: “I often worked until two or three in the morning and, several times a week, I even spent the whole night in the office.”
The death of a Bank of America associate in his thirties, Leo Lukenas, following a blood clot, sparked a strong reaction last May. The young banker regularly worked 100 hours a week. Although the bank had stated that working hours were monitored, an investigation by the Wall Street Journal highlighted the fact that young people were asked not to declare certain hours worked.
Quite insignificant working time management measures
In the United States, there is no equivalent to the 35-hour week in France or to minimum weeks of vacation. Internal human resources policies of companies take the place of this. In this respect, the limitation measure adopted by JP Morgan seems rather derisory. This is in addition to a mandatory disconnection period from Friday at six in the morning to Saturday at noon and the certainty of a full weekend every three months. Other banks such as Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley do not have an internal policy on the maximum number of weekly hours worked.
Faced with this inhuman pace of staggering salaries, up to 200,000 dollars for a starting salary, some employees risk their health for this price. And for a single job offer, applications number in the thousands.
Source: BFM TV
