Young banker's burnout after 100-hour weeks leads to death, sparking outrage over Wall Street's grueling work culture - 2oceansvibe News

(Image source: LinkedIn / Leo Lukenas)

In response to the outcry following the tragic death of a 35-year-old Bank of America employee who endured grueling 100-hour weeks, two of Wall Street's largest banks are reportedly set to introduce stricter work hour limits for junior bankers.

Following investigations sparked by the tragic death of former Green Beret Leo Lukenas III, who suffered a fatal heart attack in May, Bank of America is rolling out a new time tracking tool that will require young bankers to report how their hours are spent, The Wall Street Journal reported in September.

Meanwhile, JPMorgan is upping the ante by capping junior bankers' hours at 80 a week – the first limit ever imposed by the country's largest lender – and allowing exceptions only for critical situations such as live deals, it said Journal.

These initiatives follow a lengthy Wall Street Journal expose that revealed Bank of America managers instructed their direct reports to misrepresent their extensive work schedules – even as they set an 80 hour limit more than a decade ago after the tragic death of an overworked intern -hour limit exceeded.

Lukenas' death cast a sharp spotlight on Wall Street's pressure-cooker culture and prompted intense scrutiny of the guardrails for junior bankers — and whether managers turned a blind eye when their subordinates worked long hours, the New York Post reports.

Months after Lukenas' death, as he tried to help complete a multibillion-dollar merger, the BoA executive above him was stripped of responsibility for a key money-making division.

Gary Howe, the hardline boss of the Wall Street giant's Financial Institutions Group (FIG), lost control of the FinTech investment banking team in August, sources told The Post.

Although Howe is not facing any disciplinary action, it was reported that around 50 of the 150 New York FIG employees in the lucrative FinTech division moved to its Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) group, according to Bloomberg.

Meanwhile, in the world of the living, Lukenas left behind a wife and two young children who tried to close the deal.

Image: Les Lukenas/LinkedIn

Shortly before his death, the father of two was looking for a new job because he had to work at least 16 hours a day as a logger, The Post previously reported. Although there is no direct evidence that his work had anything to do with his death, numerous studies have linked acute stress to thrombosis. It wouldn't be so strange if sleeping pills were used to increase the pressure on his body.

This story is horrifyingly similar to the one underlying the first season of this hit HBO financial show industryand gives viewers a glimpse into the lives of Wall Street guys in their 20s – full of sex, drugs, high finance and lots of banking mistakes.

The drama series premiered in 2020 and was hailed as “the new 'Succession'.” It follows a group of graduates as they kick-start their careers in the London offices of Pierpont & Co, a fictional bank likely inspired by JPMorgan Chase. Famous 19th-century banker JP Morgan's middle name was Pierpont.

“Industry” paints a picture of an intense, overbearing work environment with screaming matches on the trading floor and even the death of a young employee.

“As the story developed, we came to the conclusion that we would actually do a drama for HBO and not a documentary for PBS,” Konrad Kay, one of the series' two creators and a former Morgan Stanley salesman in London, told The Journal.

You can catch industry on ShowMax. It's worth watching: