Work Culture / Op-Ed
Toxic work culture in high-paying jobs: Is it worth our lives?
Another 22-year-old in Finance commits suicide!
The death of an Indian girl, 22, working at a Big 4 accounting firm (EY) a few days back basis unsurmountable work stress and toxicity has sparked an outrage across social media!
But is this even news?
As shocking and harsh as it may sound-
In the world of finance where monies are free-flowing and egos are high, a toxic work culture is the least of anyone’s concerns!
On a piece of paper, many of the Fortune 500 companies or the highest paying jobs in the world advocate for a healthy work environment and culture albeit the reality is anything but that. Check Glassdoor for any company’s ex-employee reviews if you don’t believe me.
More so in finance (investment banks, accounting firms) and law where even a fresh college graduate makes a $ six-figure a year to start with so the unsaid expectation is that you are NOT supposed to have a life outside of work.
People are expected to work for 16–18 hours a day [read- 9 AM to 1–2-3 AM are the norm] not just for days or weeks but months back to back at a stretch.
But the sad reality is that everyone is replaceable!
I am not advocating for or against this. I have personally worked in Investment banking and have lived this life during my junior banker years (as an Analyst at Goldman Sachs)
Overpaid and Overworked: Working with the Best
Despite complaining about the crazy work hours, one could hardly argue against how the job pays well. There are countless instances of people getting money in the bank and doing outrageous things on a spending spree. Be it buying Ferraris or Lamborghinis the day after the year-end bonus cheques worth hundreds of thousands of pounds come through in the bank or those uber-expensive luxurious accessories.
The underlying toxicity (price to pay) comes with the role. I recall how we used to work 100+ hours every week for months during live deal execution times which is mostly ALWAYS for good bankers and rarely for the other kind, once you’re stamped internally in the category you fall in. If one does not know which category one falls under then the odds are in favour of the person being in the latter bucket.
I remember the story of this Indian guy coming from a humble background (a Marwari from Rajasthan, India) and who used to work at Goldman Sachs’ Silicon Valley offices and who committed suicide a few years ago
Despite making a six-figure salary as a twenty-two-year-old analyst, the guy was struggling to cope with the stress, the work hours and the underlying toxicity. Every time, he would tell his parents back home how he was struggling to acclimatise with the setup, his parents would push him to man up and think bigger, long-term, and go through the grind and work it out.
To be fair, anyone and everyone who joins a new work setup — be it a fresh graduate straight out of school or a seasoned employee — appreciates the unsaid rule that the initial few months, 6 months at most places, are probationary and that most of their errors are looked at with empathy during this time — the basic time it takes for someone to settle into a new role, get aligned with its operational semantics and thoroughly acquainted with the ins and outs of the business.
I tell myself that maybe that’s what this Indian guy’s parents were also inherently assuming in their mind for their 22-year-old kid in the demanding investment banking setup and think long term for his career trajectory and the financial benefits that come along with it. Little did anyone know that the guy was bottling up inside.
Unable to cope with the pressure, he committed suicide by jumping off the top floor of the Goldman offices.
My heart sank when I learnt this. The repercussions were enormous. It was all over the news and everyone on the street (finance world) and outside started talking about this 22-year-old analyst.
Goldman took the course correction path and brought in the ‘Friday 9 PM to Sunday 9 AM’ work curfew rule, which essentially entailed that bankers wouldn’t work during these 36 hours unless absolutely required, which shall be decided and signed off by the managing director of the relevant business group.
The idea was to avoid burnouts for junior bankers and to avoid people working like zombies 16 to 18 hours back-to-back for days, weeks and months at a stretch and be able to sleep or rejuvenate or ‘healthify’ their lifestyle over the weekend.
No one needs to explain or validate the necessity or the requirement of the concept of the weekend but such is the workload on junior bankers at investment banks that this 36-hour work curfew precedent that Goldman set became the talk of the town! Eventually, almost all banks started implementing this and has since become a norm.
Recently, the son of a CXO of a blue-chip private equity firm, who was a junior banker at Goldman Sachs, along with his colleagues put together a ‘deck’ (presentation) wherein they showcased the flip side of investment banking to the world, be it the crazy 100-hour work weeks, the stress, the toxicity of culture and borderline pedantic activities at work.
Obvious fodder for press, media and conversation on the street!
CXOs of some investment banks came out and defended the setup in banking, noting that this is how it’s been and that almost anyone and everyone in banking has endured through their careers.
‘The banking life’ per se and not the conventional ‘nine-to-five’ job with the classic work-life balance that most people seek. The fact being emphasized was that- this role is not for everyone but for those very few who are willing to go through the grind, put in the effort and take the ride along the exponential growth in career trajectory.
Be it learnings or the enormous financial benefits and the negatives that the highest paying job in the world comes with.
The downside: the failed marriages, infidelity, insecurities, receding hairlines, giving up on your social and familial life and health.
A lot of people leave banking in a few years with some sensible money in the bank to do something else such as private equity or hedge fund roles or their own start-up or very senior bankers going on to become corporate CXOs or in government roles. For instance, Rishi Sunak, the ex-Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, is an ex-Goldman Sachs banker. Emanuel Macron, the current President of France, is ex-Rothschild MD.
Some just retire in their early forties given the toll that such high-stress long hours take on our lives.
The point I am trying to make here is that the job comes with its flipside and the people who we see in this field mostly come from difficult backgrounds or some other circumstantial challenge in life such as those with limited means or typical ‘middle-class, common man’ who then end up working harder than most regular people normally would, so as to have a better standard of living for themselves and their families.
But this obviously takes a toll on their familial situation, broader personal and mental health.
Hindu Manuscript Bhagavad Gita rightly notes-
‘Jeevan Madhya me hai’ i.e., life’s essence is in balance or equanimity.
Being able to fulfil one’s familial duties, personal and professional work, making an impact in the ecosystem whilst fulfilling the bigger purpose of the soul.
Should some of the readers or your acquaintances be better able to opine and decide on treading down the investment banking path or swindling away from it, based on some of the inside scoop shared here, then I would consider my job done just fine.
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