Wall Street's top chief executive has rejected concerns that young bankers are suffering from burnout, arguing that junior staff should be able to tolerate long hours in “interesting” work.
Lazard CEO Peter Orszag appeared to downplay criticism that newcomers to the banking industry are overworked, even as JPMorgan is limiting the hours of junior team members to 80 hours a week.
The Wall Street titan's comments come after a junior executive at Bank of America died earlier this year after being forced to work grueling 100-hour weeks.
“There are a lot of jobs where you can't get away from the hard work,” a former Obama administration official told Bloomberg TV, arguing that financial-services giants create a “sense of excitement” for new hires.
Democratic kingmaker Orszag The donor said new financiers enjoy the excitement of “working on things that matter,” such as M&A deals that make money.
“A lot of people would rather work many hours a week on something that is interesting and important than a few hours on something that is uninteresting,” he told interviewer David Rubenstein, founder of the Carlyle private equity firm and owner of the Baltimore Orioles.
“That's what we're looking for. That's the trade-off,” he added, warning potential hires that a glamorous career on Wall Street is not a “made-up job” – a term that means meaningless work created just to keep someone busy.
The 55-year-old, who served as budget director in President Barack Obama's administration from 2009 to 2010, pointed to the company's flexible two-day work-from-home policy as evidence that it offers a good work-life balance.
“Even if you work hard, if other things are important in your life, you need some autonomy and the ability to take time off,” he said in an interview that aired early Monday.
His comments may raise some eyebrows at a time when Wall Street's work culture has come under intense scrutiny since the death of New York-based Bank of America banker Leo Loukenhas from a blood clot in May.
The former soldier was just 35 when he died. He was reportedly working more than 100 hours a week and wanted to quit his job due to his gruelling work schedule.
There is no evidence that Mr. Lukenas' death was caused by his day job. Bank of America has since implemented a new time-keeping system that lets bankers record their work schedules by day rather than by week.
This movement, The Journal published an extensive exposé It details how managers at Bank of America instructed their direct reports to lie about working long hours, even though they were exceeding the 80-hour limit that was introduced more than a decade ago after a trainee's death due to overwork.
Wall Street has long been characterized by grueling hours and the promise of big pay that can't be matched anywhere else.
Employees writing anonymously on the Wall Street Oasis website also complained about “incredibly long hours” at Lazard.
“Even when you take time off for holidays or weekends there is very little communication,” wrote one US-based investment banker. “If you join this company, be prepared to work every weekend.”
One junior analyst complained that the company had a lot of “busy work” and expected them to work hard over “a lot of weekends.”
Overheard on Wall Street, another social media platform popular with bankers, interviewed junior Wall Street staff in May who said their demanding workloads were taking a toll on their health.
One Lazard banker who left last year told the website that he continued to work long hours despite suffering cardiac arrest because he feared retaliation from his superiors.
In a survey, 200 junior bankers said they were only able to get four hours of sleep each night because of long working hours.
According to the survey results, when employees were asked about their physical and mental health, they gave an average rating of 2 to 3 out of 10.
The Journal asked Lazard how many hours Orszag would work each week and whether it planned to implement a cap like JPMorgan has done.
A spokesman for the financial services giant did not respond to The Washington Post's request for comment.
