After the banking industry faced major criticism for allegedly overworking its employees following the death of Leo Lukenas III, a 35-year-old Bank of America employee who died after working 100-hour workweeks, two of Wall Street’s banking giants are making some major changes.
Bank of America BAC and Chase Bank (JPM) have rolled out new rules to help enforce limits on the number of hours its bankers are working in an effort to crack down on overwork, according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal.
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The Journal revealed that Chase, in most cases, will cap work hours for its junior investment bankers to 80 hours a week. The only exception to this rule would be if the bankers are working on a live deal.
Bank of America, on the other hand, will be rolling out a new timekeeping tool that will require junior bankers to share more details about how they spend their time. The bank already has a cap on workweek hours, but an investigation from the Journal last month found that employees are allegedly often instructed by managers to lie about the amount of hours they work so that they can avoid scrutiny from Human Resources.
A pedestrian walks past a Bank of America location.
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The impact of Lukenas’ death
Lukenas’ death brought to light the toxic work culture in the banking industry. Lukenas reportedly died from a blood clot in his heart in May amid his search for a new job after facing stress from allegedly working 100-hour workweeks at Bank of America.
Douglas Walters, a recruiter who was in touch with Lukenas months before his death, said in an interview with Reuters in May that Lukenas was searching for a job with a better work-life balance, and he was even willing to take a pay cut in order to achieve that.
“He made a comment saying like, ‘Hey, I’ll trade hours of sleep for a 10% (pay) cut,'” said Walters in the interview.
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A few days after Lukenas’ death, some Bank of America employees even contemplated a walkout on social media in order to fight for better working conditions such as stronger policies that enforce more caps on work hours.
Lukenas’ death also prompted the Journal to launch its investigation into Bank of America’s work culture. The investigation found that some workers at the company often pull all-nighters working on projects. One former employee even revealed that she and her team at the company often worked until 5 a.m. and was allegedly instructed to lie about their hours.
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“Our practices are clear and we expect all employees including managers to follow them,” said a Bank of America spokesperson in a statement to the Journal in August. “When we’ve learned of violations, disciplinary actions have been taken.”
Even before Lukenas’ death, the banking industry has been exposed for having employees work long hours. According to a 2023 survey from Wall Street Oasis, it found that investment banking analysts, on average, work over 70 hours a week, and go to sleep past 12 a.m.
“Analysts and Associates in the team work extremely hard (without exaggeration, 100+ hour weeks are very common and somewhat normalized),” said a Barclays industrials analyst in the survey.
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