Is The Grindset Killing You?
If you work on Wall Street as a Junior Partner then you might be putting in some wild hours. An entry level position at somewhere like JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America can fetch in the ballpark of $200,000, so you might want to show your boss you’re worth the money they’re putting on you. What’s a little overtime? What’s a seven day work week going to hurt, apart from your mental and physical health. Sleep is for the weak and the poor, probably. Money waits for no one.
There are 168 hours in a week and a Wall Street Journal investigation found that some people on Wall street are working 100+ hour weeks. Over the years this has led to suit clad go-getters dropping dead briefcase in one rigour-mortis hand, cocaine laced coffee in the other.
The most famous example of this happening recently was when Bank of America associate Leo Lukenas III, a former Green Beret, died of a blood clot, possibly due to overwork and stress.
To combat this JPMorgan will limit junior banker hours to 80 per week… Mostly. If the employee is working on a “live case” then they’ll be exempt from this very ironclad ruling. They also have a pre-existing “pencils down” period from 6pm Friday to midday Saturday. They are also guaranteed an entire weekend off once every three months to do things like introducing themselves formally to their children and to ascertain that the sun still exists.
The stories coming out are harrowing, epileptic seizures in the shower after a long stretch at work. People passing out in boardrooms. People stepping out the windows of their apartments.
Long work hours contributed to 745,000 deaths from stroke and ischemic heart disease in 2016 according to the World Health Organisation. This number is steadily on the rise, up 29% from 2000. “Long working hours” according to WHO and ILO is “at least 55 hours a week”. 72% of these deaths occured in guys. The study found that working 55 or more hours a week gives employees a 35% higher risk of a stroke.
2021 research from AUT estimated that 11% of kiwis are feeling burnout and stress in their job. Burnout can lead to physical health breakdowns, as well as anxiety, depression and psychological and psychosomatic symptoms.
A 2023 Umbrella Wellbeing Report found that 14% of workers feel pressure to work long hours, up 4% from 2021. 43% have dropped the ball on their tasks due to their high workloads. These people are also twice as likely to experience psychological distress, and are three times more likely to ditch their job entirely in the next 6 months. Perhaps washing out is the best case scenario if boundaries can’t be properly erected. At a mercenary level business owners should consider if overworking employees is worth the trouble of needing to retrain a fresh batch from scratch every couple months.
Numbers have been thrown out of whack somewhat by covid era samplings but every company has been feeling the pressure as the economy hasn’t let anyone off the hook yet from the lockdowns. A price has to be paid and we’ll be paying for it for a while.
If you’re doing an 80 hour work week consider this: you are wasting your time and are delivering sub-optimal results. Research shows that the optimal work week is about 38 hours. Productivity drops off sharply at 50 hours and from there you get even less returns for your time worked. Likewise a 7 day week without a solid day of rest also impacts your hourly output overall. If you’re working 80, chances are you’re mostly just making yourself exhausted by looking busy.
The Wall Street boys perhaps have different considerations than us. A competitive pressure to stand out any way you can counts for everything. “You can’t really stand out because most of what you’re doing does not require original thinking.” said Kevin Roose, the author of “Young Money,” to NYT. “So the only way you can distinguish yourself is by sheer endurance. Gluttons for punishment are rewarded on Wall Street, especially at the young levels.”
So what’s railroading you into an unhealthy amount of work? Company culture? The inability to separate your work-life from your home life? What are you achieving? Are you an entrepreneur putting in the time, or are you a cog spinning way too fast to no real benefit. Manage your time, and not only will you work better, you’ll feel better too.
