Morning Coffee: Junior bankers thrilled with time off, the $200k job that offers no work-life balance
Investment banks have been keen to point out just how much easier life is for its analysts and interns in the wake of initiatives aimed at reducing working hours. All of this, of course, follows the death of Bank of America intern Moritz Erhardt, who had reportedly been working for 72 hours immediately prior to his passing.
Goldman Sachs barred analysts from coming into the office from 9pm Friday and 9am Sunday (although they were still expected to check Blackberrys during this time), JPMorgan has introduced its “protected weekends” and Bank of America insists that junior bankers take “some weeks off”.
All of this has been received with something of a resigned shrug, as most fully expect juniors to cram more work into the rest of the working week and stay even later Monday to Thursday. Has it made much of a difference, though? New research from Vault.com, suggests it has, but this all very much depends on your standards of work-life balance.
“You get to workout [sic] and eat a relaxing dinner Monday through Thursday,” says one anonymous intern, enthusiastically.
Less cynically, one junior told the website that the no work on Saturdays rule has “begun to change the mindsets” of junior bankers. In other words, they’re not being encouraged to work away their lives and be at the beck and call of senior bankers in order to prove their ambition.
Separately, if the life of a junior banker seems tough, try working for an iron ore mining company in Australia. “Dockers” as they’re collectively known are paid around A$210k a year once all benefits are included, more (shockingly) than those in analyst positions in investment banks, who typically bring in up to $140k.
However, dockers are still striking over working conditions and a seemingly absent work-life balance. Not only is the work dangerous, but they have to work 14-hours days, spend weeks at a time away from their loved ones and don’t get any annual leave.
Meanwhile:
Retired investment banker buys minor league baseball team for record fee. (Bloomberg)
London is one of the world’s most unliveable cities – social unrest aplenty, but good culture. “The cities that tend to do the best [in the liveability index] tend to be the most boring cities.” (Financial Times)
2,500 former Lehman staff have had their pensions saved. (Telegraph)
Private equity firm Everstone Capital hires Goldman Sachs’ former head of southeast Asia as its new CEO (Reuters)
Exclusive business wine club that costs $5,000 to join. "Knowledge of wine is part of the DNA of the business community. This is a way for me to learn and get comfortable diving into wine conversations in a business context - it’s another arrow in my quiver,” said 32-year-old asset manager. (Bloomberg)
HSBC, which complained about the amount of money it needs to spend on compliance, says that costs may eventually ease (Bloomberg)
Goldman Sachs is taking its case against the Libyan Investment Authority to court (Times)
The Libyan Investment Authority is poised to appoint World Bank executive Ahmed Al Attiga as chief executive to shore things up (Telegraph)
Related links:
Ireland the new threat to London banking jobs, the six-figure salary no one seems to want
How to get a job at Brevan Howard now. Could repo traders bring down banks?
