Why Do Investment Bankers Keep Working Themselves To Death?
Because it’s one of the most toxic professions out there
Investment bankers keep working themselves to death. The latest tragedy is Leo Lukenas III, an investment banking associate at Bank of America. Mr. Lukenas, 35, was a former Green Beret and a U.S. Army veteran.
From his past experience, it’s clear that this was a strong-willed individual who was relatively accustomed to difficult and stressful environments. Despite this, the 100+ hours a week that Mr. Lukenas was forced to regularly put in while working on a merger deal was too much to bear, and he passed away of a blood clot this past May just as the project was finally concluding.
A few years ago, I wrote about why bankers make so much money:
If on Friday just as everyone is going home, a corporate CEO wonders how many Korean BBQ restaurants there are in Peru, it’s the analysts job to deliver that number along with a nifty PowerPoint (plus Excel) analysis as soon as possible. And to give him the proper sense of urgency, the MD (managing director) will expect an answer by Saturday evening at the latest, which means the analysts’ superiors within the bank (the VP and the associate) will be spending most of their Friday evening and Saturday sending all-caps emails and texts…
