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Big Banks Change Practices After Overworked Employee’s Death

A 35-year-old Bank of America junior banker died in May of this year. Reuters reported that his cause of death was acute coronary artery thrombus, which is a blood clot inside a blood vessel of the heart. Press articles stated this former Green Beret banker worked approximately 100 hours a week over the few weeks before his death. He had been working on a giant merger. This banker had also been looking for a new job because of the stress from his Bank of America position. A recruiter told Reuters that the employee had asked for a job with a better work-life balance. This employee's death reverberated through the banking world, with public criticism of the hours demanded by big banks.

Seemingly, in response, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase Bank rolled out new rules on the number of hours bankers will work as part of their efforts to limit overwork. JP Morgan will generally cap bankers' hours at 80 per week unless the bankers are working on a live deal. These bankers have guaranteed time off from Friday evening to Saturday at noon and one full weekend every quarter. JPMorgan will continue to track banker hours through self-reported timesheets.

Bank of America created a new timekeeping tool that asks junior bankers to share more details daily about their ongoing deals, work assignments, and supervising senior bankers. It allows junior bankers to indicate their workload capacity on a scale of one to four. While the bank does cap workweek hours, a Wall Street Journal investigation showed managers often tell employees to lie about the hours they work to avoid Human Resources scrutiny. Some company workers pull all-nighters working on projects. A 2023 survey of banking analysts revealed they often work over 70 hours a week and go to sleep after midnight. One participant said that 100+ hours are standard and somewhat normalized. Senior bankers earn more flexible schedules.