A survey of nearly 500 employees at 10 top investment banks reveals the extent of burnout among junior talent
- A survey of nearly 500 employees shows many burned out junior bankers are planning exits.
- Wall Street Oasis released a side-by-side comparison of conditions at 10 top investment banks.
- Attrition has risen over years and will get worse, says Wall Street Oasis founder Patrick Curtis.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
Wall Street may face an exodus if it cannot improve working conditions for its junior employees.
If working conditions stay as they are, about a quarter of young bankers said they were more likely to leave their current employer in the next six months than to stay, according to a survey of 475 participants by Wall Street Oasis, a popular online forum for financial professionals.
While Wall Street Oasis did not verify respondents’ employment in this inaugural survey, the new data constitutes what is likely the most comprehensive picture available of Wall Street’s growing burnout problem since the pandemic began.
First-year analysts are struggling to adjust to the learning curve remotely, but second-years said they preferred working from home. Dissatisfaction and burnout, though, were rife at all levels regardless of preference.
37% of respondents have averaged five hours of sleep or less per night in 2021, 32% said they feel they have been victims of workplace abuse, and 84% said their work hours have negatively affected relationships with family and friends.
Patrick Curtis, the Wall Street Oasis founder, told Insider that the problems in banking have existed since he was an analyst in 2002. While some aspects have gradually improved, he said, attrition has worsened over the years.
“I think this current generation doesn’t value money and career opportunities as much as they value a balanced life. I think that’s proven to be a pretty significant challenge. It’s very hard to hang on to analysts, sometimes even past the one-year mark now,” Curtis said.
Curtis expects that after bonuses hit in June, banks may see the highest level of attrition that they’ve seen in decades.
BofA Securities (formerly Bank of America Merrill Lynch) came under scrutiny in 2013 when a 21-year-old intern at the firm suddenly died, spurring banks’ efforts to change the internship experience. Just two years later, a banker at Moelis & Co. and another at Goldman Sachs passed away after dealing with stress at work. While banks have implemented measures intended to improve working conditions, the data shows employees are still feeling the pressure.
We have included data from the Wall Street Oasis survey relating to 10 banks, each of which had 10 respondents or more who self-identified as employees of these banks.
Hours, sleep & WFH:
(Scroll to the left to see all 10 banks)
| Survey Average | BAML | Citi | Credit Suisse | Goldman Sachs | Houlihan Lokey | JP Morgan | Morgan Stanley | Rothschild | UBS | Wells Fargo | |
| % Working 90+ hours per week | 31% | 54% | 31% | 54% | 43% | 23% | 38% | 41% | 8% | 64% | 25% |
| % Working 100+ hours per week | 10% | 13% | 13% | 0% | 23% | 8% | 10% | 6% | 8% | 14% | 8% |
| % Satisfied with meal stipend provided by firm | 41% | 33% | 19% | 38% | 11% | 62% | 43% | 35% | 17% | 50% | 0% |
Workplace culture:
(Scroll to the left to see all 10 banks)
| Survey Average | BAML | Citi | Credit Suisse | Goldman Sachs | Houlihan Lokey | JP Morgan | Morgan Stanley | Rothschild | UBS | Wells Fargo | |
| Work hours have negatively impacted relationships with family and/or friends | 84% | 96% | 88% | 100% | 86% | 92% | 86% | 76% | 100% | 79% | 83% |
| Feels like a victim of workplace abuse | 30% | 54% | 38% | 23% | 20% | 23% | 38% | 24% | 42% | 43% | 25% |
| Have sought or considered seeking counseling, therapy, or any additional services | 38% | 54% | 53% | 46% | 46% | 46% | 48% | 41% | 33% | 7% | 42% |
Satisfaction & recommending the firm:
(These were on a scale of one to 10 with 10 being very satisfied. Scroll to the left to see all 10 banks.)
| Survey Average | BAML | Citi | Credit Suisse | Goldman Sachs | Houlihan Lokey | JP Morgan | Morgan Stanley | Rothschild | UBS | Wells Fargo | |
| How satisfied are you with your current firm? (1-10) | 5.8 | 4.9 | 5.0 | 5.4 | 5.2 | 6.2 | 6.2 | 6.1 | 6.3 | 5.1 | 5.3 |
| How satisfied are you with your work life? (1-10) | 4.7 | 3.3 | 4.1 | 4.0 | 4.4 | 5.3 | 4.9 | 4.4 | 4.9 | 3.4 | 5.4 |
| How satisfied are you with your personal life? (1-10) | 4.6 | 3.9 | 4.3 | 4.4 | 4.2 | 4.9 | 5.3 | 4.6 | 4.8 | 4.1 | 4.0 |
Curtis says that protections put in place years ago have started to erode away as deal flow surged during COVID. He says that while some banks fared better than others on the survey, results across the board are striking.
“Sometimes there’s specific groups or specific managing directors or specific partners that create 80% of the issues because of their workstream, and it’s more of a hazing culture. What’s important to know is that it’s not to say that all the banks are bad, or all the people [in banking] are bad. It’s more that there’s definitely something that should be done,” Curtis said.
The survey comes on the heels of months of mounting burnout on Wall Street
Burnout and discontent have been the talk of Wall Street in recent weeks, since two separate presentations created by analysts at Goldman Sachs leaked on the Internet in March, painting a despondent picture of painstaking 100-hour work weeks and rampant exhaustion and discontent at junior levels.
A record year for mergers-and-acquisitions, equity capital markets activity, and SPACs has kept junior bankers working around the clock since the pandemic started, with little opportunity to take a breather or catch up on sleep, despite bankers being stationed at home.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citi, and Goldman Sachs reported record investment-banking revenues this week, emblematic of a wave of activity that’s buoyed firms’ bottom lines, while dragging down some younger bankers who are producing the bulk of the work necessary to get these deals done.
Some banks have begun to take measures to counteract the strain that junior bankers have faced, such as by dispersing bonuses and raises at firms like Credit Suisse, William Blair, Bank of America, and Moelis & Co.
Editor’s note: Anita Ramaswamy was previously an employee of Wells Fargo in New York.
Are you a young professional on Wall Street feeling burned out after a year of remote work? Contact these reporters with your story. Anita Ramaswamy can be reached [email protected] or on the encrypted at Signal at 480-304-1996. Reed Alexander can be reached at [email protected] or on Signal at 561-247-5758.
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