Lesson from Wall Street: Overworked doesn’t equal overperformance

While some Wall Street banks have made the effort to lighten the load on their junior staffers, it’s no secret that the 84-hour work week is still more the norm than the exception.

Published on:

21 Apr 2018, 2:00 am

By Stuart Lowman

Rudyard Kipling famously wrote that "More men are killed by overwork than the importance of the world justifies".

A pedestrian carrying an umbrella passes a U.S. flag on Wall Street in New York.

And while some Wall Street Banks have taken note of this and made the effort to lighten the load on their junior staffers, it's no secret that the 84-hour work week is still more the norm than the exception, with death the outcome in some instances.

A recently leaked email from a mid-level banker at boutique investment bank Moelis & Co, sent at 12:30am to the junior professionals complaining that only 11 of them were at their desks after doing the rounds, demonstrates that some lessons remain unlearnt.

Something to remember next time the clock chimes at midnight and you're stuck in the office, because at the very least it'll impair your judgement.

Wall Street