No days off for junior staff at Morgan Stanley
INTERNS and junior staff should not be made to take weekend days off, Morgan Stanley’s chief executive James Gorman said yesterday, breaking ranks with other investment banks.
The boss said it is not practical to have fixed days off, instead saying the welfare of staff is down to “common sense” from their managers.
“These folks get very well paid, even the junior people, for what they do, and it is not surprising that the job is very demanding,” he told Bloomberg TV in Davos. “I am not sure how you can stop work if there is a deal on.”
Gorman’s comments are in stark contrast to other banks who have been pushing staff to take more days off.
The chief also stood up for the hiring of so-called princelings in China amid a growing controversy over whether investment banks are improperly using their connections to win lucrative mandates on deals.
Speaking to CNBC a day after it emerged rival JP Morgan had stepped away from a $1bn Hong Kong share listing because it feared a possible controversy, he said: “Hiring somebody who’s a child of somebody in government is not a bad thing. There are a lot of talented people who come from those families. All you have to do is have the appropriate conflict controls.”