More banks join bid to cut hours for junior staff
CREDIT Suisse yesterday became the latest investment bank to tell its interns and junior employees to take more time out of the office, after increased worries that young staff are pushing themselves dangerously hard.
The giant Swiss bank has told junior staff they should try not to come into work on Saturday, in an effort to give them some time off.
The wave of new guidelines sweeping the industry marks a sharp change of practice for the sector where young employees expect to work long hours and take few days off.
Competition typically begins with internships where students work all hours over their summer breaks in a bid to impress bosses and get taken on as full time staff.
There is no let up after that stage as analysts and associates – typically the bottom rungs of the career ladder – again have to get ahead by working harder than colleagues.
The new staff also want to impress clients both to stop them leaving for rival banks and to make sure they get to work on the biggest deals.
To reduce some of the pressure of this constant race between young staff, some of the biggest names in the City and on Wall Street have introduced new guidelines.
Bank of America Merrill Lynch has told interns to take at least four weekend days off each month. Analysts and associates are also being required to use up their full holiday allowances each year.
Goldman Sachs’ boss Lloyd Blankfein has told junior staff to take more time off.
Deutsche Bank is also thought to be working on a similar plan.
JP Morgan is hiring more interns and junior staff to spread the workload further, an idea also understood to be under consideration at Barclays’ investment banking arm.