An Open Letter to Wall Street Firms

Introduction

On Thursday, May 2, 2024, I received an email about the passing of a Bank of America associate. Initially, I thought it was satire, but sadly it turned out to be true.

Leo Lukenas III, a 35-year-old investment banking associate in the Financial Institutions Group (FIG) at Bank of America’s New York office, had reportedly been working several 100-hour weeks on a $2 billion merger announced three days before his death.

According to a Reuters report, Leo died of natural causes, specifically an "acute coronary artery thrombus," which occurs when a clot forms inside a heart blood vessel.

A fundraiser for his family has raised over $350,000 at the time of writing, with notable contributions of $10,000 each from hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and Jefferies CEO Rich Handler.

While we may never fully understand the impact of Leo’s 100-hour work weeks on his death, the tragedy sparked a broader discussion about work culture on Wall Street.

Then, just two weeks later, on Thursday, May 16, another Bank of America employee collapsed and died while playing soccer at a charity event.

It was 25-year-old credit trader Adnan Deumic, based in the bank’s London office, who reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest, though the cause of death has not been confirmed.

Adnan was reportedly working 60 hours a week, handling highly stressful trades worth as much as $1 billion on some days, despite his young age.

Our industry is experiencing a deeply tragic period. Holding a unique position within the industry as the voice behind @overheardonwallstreet, and after receiving hundreds of similar stories, I felt compelled to draft this open letter.

This letter aims to shed light on the harsh realities hidden behind closed doors on Wall Street and to offer tangible solutions and actionable steps to foster positive change throughout the industry.

Who We Are

Before delving into this letter, let me introduce myself. In 2018, I started an anonymous Instagram account, @overheardonwallstreet, while working as an investment banking analyst in New York.

Initially, the account was a way for me to destress and share things I “overheard” in the bullpen. Within a few months, I had built a strong organic following and started receiving submissions from all corners of Wall Street.

In 2021, I decided to take the Instagram account further by launching a daily newsletter and hiring a talented team to transform @overheardonwallstreet into a high-finance media company, catering to professionals in investment banking, private equity, hedge funds, and related industries that lacked targeted coverage. My goals remain to entertain, educate, and increase transparency on Wall Street.

I also recognize the importance of my role in aggregating and disseminating information on Wall Street. Everyday, people send me stories from their banks, such as changes in meal policies, screenshots of emails, #REF! errors in their Excel models, or someone getting hit with the “pls fix” at dinner.

I have consistently aimed to shine a light on the realities of Wall Street. By conducting audience surveys and compiling detailed reports, I have provided insights into the culture at Wall Street firms, as well as up-to-date compensation and bonus data.

Which Brings Us to Now

When I posted about Leo’s death, I received hundreds of messages from people sharing similar experiences.

To gather more insights, I conducted a survey to collect stories, suggestions for improvement, details about hours worked and slept, and physical and mental health scores. (You can find the full survey results here)

Times of great adversity are also times of great opportunity. Our industry has made strides over the last few years, but there is still much more to be done.

When Goldman’s working conditions deck was leaked in 2021, banks gave raises and implemented policies that helped. I attribute much of this progress to myself and other large finance Instagram accounts covering these issues.

Why is it only when something really unfortunate happens that we’re reminded of the need for change and driven to restart the conversation?

When I was an investment banking analyst, I struggled with mental and physical health issues. A lot of the advice I received was to be more “thick-skinned” and accept that this is just how the industry works.

I want to show you the stories of juniors across the street and encourage us to collectively think about how things can be better. The boilerplate response, “this is how things have always been done,” is no longer acceptable. Listen to these stories yourself and consider how much of this is truly necessary.

The next section will be divided into two parts. The first highlights what is still wrong with the industry, and the second provides suggestions on ways to improve.

Stories

Here are just some of the harrowing stories I received from employees across various firms:

(You can find all the responses in our Working Conditions Report here.)

• “Associate on my team got hospitalized a few years ago after a long stretch. Had developed GBS… HE COULD NOT WALK. Informed MD of his situation, first response was "who is going to man the model?" Stayed committed for 3 weeks. Resigned shortly after. Nobody batted an eye.” - IB Analyst

• “Have a system called banker diary, where junior bankers input their weekly hours. It is supposed to safeguard us from overworking by flagging anyone who inputs more than 80 hours a week with further escalations if this happens consecutively or if hours breach 100 etc. I cannot actually even start to count the number of times I was asked by MD/Ds to lie on my banker diary so that it wouldn’t get flagged. The number of times bank holiday exceptions were requested. I have led deal calls with clients from a hospital bed before, apologizing for the sound of my heart rate monitor in the background. Then returning to work after sick leave only to be made to feel guilty for getting sick and taking time off for my health when the job is the primary cause for my health issues. They will throw money at you each year to make you forget the utter torment you were put through over the last year and you end up staying because “hopefully it will get better”. Before you know it, you have golden handcuffs and are completely priced out of any other industry. Investment banking is the definition of a vicious cycle.” - IB VP

• “MD never had issues calling me at 3 or 6am to scream at me about any number of things. An Analyst ended up moving into an empty office to complete a project and no one even noticed he had been living there for months. Someone was always crying in the bathroom. I gained 20 lbs from eating only crap take out or vending machine food to sustain myself and only had enough time at home to shower, sleep for 4 hours and repeat the grind daily. My boss's misery was infectious and I had to cold quit after 2.5 years after I started lashing out at others and having too many dark days. Bosses regularly made jokes about not wanting women to be promoted or that we should work on Christmas. One late night around 11pm, I was the only female working on the floor with about 5 guys when a Director tried to solicit me into joining an Epstein-esque sex ring for Billionaires. After that, I began to leave the office at 6pm and finish my shift remotely.” - Equity Research Analyst

• “I had a health emergency in the office from an interaction with medications and my VP had to take me to the ER. She was there with me in the office trying to keep me conscious. Eventually, I was stable and discharged and she took me home that evening. I was still set on going to the office the next day but decided I couldn’t. When I called her in the morning to tell her, she berated me and asked me if I knew the position I was putting the team in…” - IB Analyst

• “When I was a first-year analyst in a tech M&A group, I had to get a chest X-ray due to severe chest pains from stress and no sleep. The X-ray technician, an older man, said he had never seen a more stressed-out 22-year-old. After the X-ray, I found 5+ missed calls from my MD, who thought I was interviewing elsewhere instead of being at the hospital. I handed him my hospital bracelet when I returned, which was a real awakening moment for how little they actually cared about me as a person. Thankfully, all was okay, and I left the firm a few months later. The industry is terrible.” - Anonymous

• “The culture is notoriously horrendous, driven by psychopathic mid-senior levels with no life outside of banking. Those who are not working until 4am at least 5 nights a week are forced out. One VP consistently does work on the side, closes out without saving, then provides vague guidance to the junior and forces them to work until the product is identical to the analysis that they have already done.” - IB Analyst 

• “Moved to London from NYC - told the bank it was a lifestyle move and I was burnt out from the hours in NYC. They assured me it was a good work life balance etc - I worked 80 hours my first week. While I was there one of the senior partners committed suicide and they had an all hands call, HR gave us 6 therapy sessions each and wasn’t mentioned again. Countless weekend pitches that didn’t need to be sent. A lot of “don’t stay up too late” at 2am. I asked one of the analysts if he was ok after an all-nighter and his response was ‘no one has asked me that, thank you.’” - IB Associate 

• “This is just one example of many. A staffer emailed all juniors before the long weekend saying “if you’re not working day and night this entire long weekend then you can take more staffings.” The group had minimal deal flow, seniors were all mentally unstable and analysts would get comments on a pitch on Friday nights with “high importance” flagged, simply because the deck had sat with the VP/ED for a week and they did not review until they were chased. Seniors freak out about the most trivial things that do not f*cking matter. MDs should be bringing in real deals instead of abusing juniors. Absolutely f*cking dumpster fire of a group and a firm.” - IB Analyst

• “Absolutely horrendous - besides the usual (fake protected Friday nights and non urgent urgent deadlines) ended up on a terrible deal after working months without a break and several all-nighters a week ended up fainting several times in the office due to lack of sleep/food - once broke down crying on my desk could not control any emotions or anything anymore MDs pass by don’t even look at you and send an email to get done work asap - zero sh*t given about people” - IB Analyst 

Life Quality Analysis

In our survey, we also asked respondents about weekly hours worked, daily hours slept, and physical and mental health scores on a scale of 1 to 5. The results are presented below, with the detailed deck here.

Despite many banks implementing protected weekend policies, more than 90% of respondents indicated that their protected weekends were breached. The breakdown by position is shown below:

How Do We Become Better?

These stories are shocking, but there are plenty of others I have not included.

Considering the size, history, and culture of our industry, is there even any hope? Can things change? The answer is a resounding ‘Yes.’ 

In our survey, we asked for suggestions on how conditions can improve and received some great responses that I will summarize here:

1. Better Enforcement of Hour Caps and Protected Weekends

While some firms have introduced hour caps, there needs to be a more effective implementation and serious repercussions for senior bankers who break these rules.

We need to create an environment where employees feel empowered to speak up. A truly anonymous whistleblowing system should be established for reporting senior staff who force juniors to lie about their hours.

To address the issue of breached protected weekends, firms should consider staffing "reserve" analysts a few days or weeks in advance to cover for those on their protected weekends.

2. Tools for Productivity

Many juniors complain that Excel and PowerPoint are antiquated tools, which crash frequently and don’t allow sharing like Google Docs does. 

While it may be challenging to replace Excel and PowerPoint in the finance industry, banks should adopt software that saves their junior staff time.

In addition to Capital IQ and FactSet, there are numerous companies leveraging AI to simplify analysts’ tasks. Financial modeling and deal diligence tools/software should be explored.

Outsourced teams should also be utilized to handle menial tasks.

3. Flexible Work Arrangements

Many respondents advocated for remote work, as commuting consumes hours that could be better spent working, exercising, or even sleeping.

Flexible working conditions should be implemented, allowing employees to start later if they had a late night or worked over the weekend.

4. Marking Work as Non-urgent or Urgent / Penalties for Fake Deadlines

Many respondents complained about non-urgent deadlines being treated as urgent. This quote illustrates the problem: “A pitch due to a client next month becomes due in 2 weeks to the MD, due in 1 week to the Director, due in 2 days to the VP, and due tonight to the associate.”

Managers at all levels need to stop pretending that everything needs to be done right away, when it simply does not. Stop magnifying the impact of delays in work as critical when you’re aware this is not the case.

There should be stronger repercussions for whoever makes their teams work on “fake deadlines” and the team should have an anonymous way of reporting managers.

Consider an Uber-like rating system for MDs, where junior staff can anonymously rate senior staff after a deal.

5. Add a Work-Life Balance Score in Bonuses

Similar to how certain investments have an ESG score, consider adding a “work-life balance” score to MD bonuses.

Bonuses should be tied to MDs’ commitment to work-life balance and not purely on fees brought in/revenue generated. This will incentivize MDs to treat junior staff well.

6. Incentivize Promotions Internally

A lot of banks’ most talented staff leave for the buy-side or just get burnt out. In banking, top performers often get "rewarded" with more work, leading to higher burnout rates.

To combat this, banks should incentivize more Analyst-to-Associate promotions, which will increase firmwide productivity.

High turnover in banking means deal teams often include less experienced members, slowing down the team and increasing hours worked.

Promoting internally will reward high performers and help retain talent, reducing turnover and enhancing overall efficiency.

7. Allow Junior Staff Limited Control Over Staffing

Junior people need to find VPs/Ds/MDs that respect their time and health. There are good and bad senior people at all banks, regardless of policies designed to protect junior staff.

One respondent noted that some MDs with bad reputations were forced to change their behavior because they couldn’t get any good junior people to work with them consistently.

If analysts and associates have some limited control over staffing and can choose to work with supportive senior staff over their preferred sub-industry or product, everyone will benefit.

8. Mental Health Support

An average mental health score of 2.1 out of 5 across investment banking highlights that mental health is a significant issue in this industry.

In particular, male mental health remains an under-discussed topic. There is a pressing need for broader education and access to mental health resources, such as in-house counselors or subscriptions to mental health services.

Banks should consider implementing firmwide “rest” days, during which systems are turned off for 1-2 days and no emails are sent, allowing employees to fully unplug.

9. Physical Health Support

Banks have improved their health initiatives, such as subsidizing gym memberships, but there's still much more to be done.

Our survey revealed an average physical health score of 2.5 out of 5. Programs like Gympass (now Wellhub) should be implemented. Banks should consider offering free gym memberships, wellness programs, and regular health screenings to encourage and support maintaining physical health.

10. Better Sleep Habits

Our survey revealed an average of only 5.2 hours of sleep per night among investment bankers, highlighting a significant area for improvement. Sleep has a big impact on physical and mental health, with doctors recommending at least 7 hours per night.

Banks should encourage better sleep habits by not expecting responses to emails sent during certain hours, such as no “urgent” emails between 12-5 am.

11. Cultural Shift: Productivity Over Hours

Transforming the work culture from one that glorifies long hours and "all-nighters" to one that respects personal time and work-life balance is essential. Management should lead by example in this shift.

We need to prioritize productivity over hours and ensure better alignment between what MDs/Partners want and what VPs/Directors ask for. Oftentimes, a quick sketch could save hours of work.

Instituting frequent recognition of employees' hard work and providing real rewards for efficiency and productivity, rather than just long hours, is crucial. Consider incorporating a productivity score in employee bonuses.

12. Better On-the-Job Training and Resources

Finance is an industry that glorifies learning on the job, and most tasks come without an instruction manual. This results in wasted time and longer working hours.

To support both new and existing hires, consider developing a comprehensive library of "how-to" resources for every level. This library should cover technical tasks (e.g., financial modeling) and provide qualitative guidance on topics such as effective communication, staffing practices, and workload management.

13. Staffers Should Focus on Staffing

Many respondents complain of complaints falling on deaf ears. But while most bankers will complain to their staffer, the staffer is too busy themself to respond adequately.

Most staffers just stumble into the job and are overworked with their own deals.

Staffers need better support and training. Their sole job should be staffing and constantly monitoring analyst deals and well-being of junior staff.

Staffers should be trained to recognize signs of burnout and stress in their teams and to support a healthier work environment.

14. Open Dialogue

Establish open channels for employees to express concerns about work-life balance without fearing negative impacts on their career progression.

Consider publicizing feedback and complaints to deter bad behavior and promote accountability.

Conclusion

I believe I speak for the entire community when I say we need reform before any more lives are lost.

I love finance, I love the work we do, and so do the countless others for whom working on Wall Street was a dream.

But we need to be better. I don’t know many thriving industries that would score 2.1 out of 5 on mental health and 2.5 on physical health.

(Certainly not any industries that can continue to hire and retain world-class talent.)

No type of work should push someone to their absolute limits, and yet this has somehow become acceptable–and expected–in many offices.

We don’t need any more fruit baskets or Pelotons; we need real, long-term solutions.

My hope is that every bank reads this letter. At the very least, a dialogue is started, and at best, concrete action is taken to improve the lives of junior staff at firms everywhere.

This time, let’s make real change.

Best,
Overheard on Wall Street

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