JP Morgan creates new role to prevent overwork among junior bankers

JP Morgan has created a global role to oversee the “wellbeing and success” of junior bankers, after the deaths of two Bank of America employees this year raised concerns about the health and safety of overworked staff in the sector.

Ryland McClendon, head of diversity and inclusion, has been named the bank’s first ‘global investment banking associate and analyst leader’, referring to its most junior staff.

“In this role, Ryland will be responsible for leading our employees and analysts globally, helping to support their wellbeing and success, and equipping and enabling them to deliver for our business, our clients and each other,” the bank said in an internal memo seen by the Guardian and first reported by CNBC.

McClendon will be based in New York but is expected to travel to JP Morgan’s other global hubs, including London, as part of her role. One of her first tasks will be to assess how the bank will enforce a new internal policy aimed at limiting junior staff to 80 hours a week. The limit has been communicated to investment banking teams but has yet to be formally announced.

JP Morgan, which employs 330,000 people globally, including 22,000 in the UK, also plans to hire more junior bankers to lighten the workload.

It is part of broader efforts to address the reputation of Wall Street banks for grueling working hours that have proven fatal for some staff.

The industry’s high-pressure culture has long been a concern, but came under further scrutiny in 2013 after a 21-year-old Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern was found dead in the shower of his London apartment. He had been working for 72 hours straight and died of an epileptic seizure. Two years later, a 22-year-old Goldman Sachs analyst committed suicide after complaining that he had been working 100-hour weeks and through the night.

In the midst of the Covid pandemic, the industry was also forced to do some soul-searching after a leaked presentation by 13 aggrieved first-year Goldman Sachs bankers detailed how their 100-hour workweeks and abuse by colleagues had led to “inhumane” working conditions for new hires.

This prompted some banks to offer one-time bonuses of up to $20,000, as well as Peloton bikes and sympathy snack baskets, and to tighten rules on not working on Saturdays.

But this year, Bank of America lost two junior bankers in the space of a few weeks. A 25-year-old trader from the company’s London office collapsed on a soccer field in May, while earlier that month, a New York employee who reportedly said he worked more than 100 hours a week died of a blood clot.

Social media was in turmoil over the tragedies, with users worried that bankers had little choice but to quit their jobs or leave the industry altogether.

In the UK and Ireland you can contact Samaritans on 116 123 or by email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at friends.org.