More than three-quarters of Wall Street’s junior bankers want to quit their jobs — despite big banks hiking compensation to record levels during the pandemic, according to a new survey.
The analysis, conducted by UpSlide, found 76% of bank analysts — first-, second- and third-year bankers — said they’d take less money for more flexible hours and more work-life balance. Indeed, 86% of junior bankers said they had to take days off due to the stress of their grueling responsibilities.
Another 33% said they weren’t able to use all their vacation days because of their demanding schedules, while 72% of respondents said they were pushing to keep their hybrid work schedules amid worries of being forced to return to the office five days a week.
“It remains a demanding culture, but juniors spend a lot of time on repetitive tasks,” Rob Jones, chief operating officer at UpSlide, a business software consultant, said in a statement.
“Juniors want banks to take restrictions on working hours seriously, and minimize the need for weekend working and after hours by avoiding wasting time on some of these tasks,” he added.
Last year, a leaked slideshow presentation compiled by 13 junior Goldman Sachs analysts detailed complaints about 100-hour work weeks. Some employees griped of shifts as long as 20 hours that left them little time to eat, sleep or shower, claiming that the grind damaged their physical and mental health.
The complaints led Goldman and JPMorgan to vow to hire more staff, with the latter pledging to boost its headcount by 200. Private equity firm Apollo Global Management has reportedly offered some associates as much as $200,000 to stick around.
Elsewhere, Citibank CEO Jane Fraser told employees she was banning Zoom meetings on Fridays to address Zoom fatigue. Investment bank Jefferies even offered its junior staffers a Peloton bike as a “thank you” for working long hours.
While bonuses on Wall Street hit record highs last year as financial giants like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan grappled with a dire lack of bankers amid a surge in dealmaking, it’s unclear if compensation will remain as high this year.
As economic headwinds loom, jobs may become tighter and analysts may be forced to suck up complaints, some senior bankers suggest. Some also are confessing to a bit of schadenfreude as they watch the junior set finally facing reality, The Post has previously reported.
“Many of the little f–kers were unhappy in March (before bonuses),” one senior banker told The Post. “Most entitled group of people in history of mankind.”