[imagesource: LinkedIn / Leo Lukenas]
In response to the outcry following the tragic death of a 35-year-old Bank of America associate who endured gruelling 100-hour work weeks, two of Wall Street’s biggest banks are reportedly set to enforce stricter limits on junior bankers’ hours.
Following the scrutiny sparked by the tragic death of former Green Beret Leo Lukenas III, who suffered a fatal heart attack in May, Bank of America is introducing a new timekeeping tool that mandates junior bankers specify how their hours are spent, The Wall Street Journal reported in September.
Meanwhile, JPMorgan is stepping up to the plate by capping junior bankers’ work hours at 80 per week—the first-ever limits imposed by the nation’s largest lender—allowing exceptions only for critical situations like live deals, according to the Journal.
These initiatives follow a comprehensive exposé by The Wall Street Journal, revealing that Bank of America managers instructed their direct reports to misrepresent their extensive hours—even when they surpassed an 80-hour limit established over a decade ago after the tragic death of an overworked intern.
Lukenas’ death cast a harsh spotlight on Wall Street’s pressure-cooker culture, leading to intense scrutiny of guardrails for junior bankers — and whether managers turned a blind eye to underlings working excessive hours, the New York Post reports.
Months after Lukenas’ death trying to help close a multibillion-dollar merger, the BoA executive above him was stripped of responsibility over a key money-making division.
Gary Howe, the hard-charging boss of the Wall Street giant’s Financial Institutions Group (FIG), lost oversight over the FinTech investment banking team in August, sources told The Post.
Although Howe will not face any disciplinary measures, it was reported that roughly 50 of the 150 New York FIG workers in the lucrative FinTech unit were moving 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 trying to close the deal.
Image: Les Lukenas/LinkedIn
Just before his death, the father of two was looking for a new job due to the grind of logging at least 16 hours each day, as The Post previously reported. While there is no direct evidence to suggest his work had anything to do with his death, numerous studies have linked acute stress to thrombosis. It wouldn’t even be so odd if sleep-avoiding meds were being used, adding to the pressure on his body.
This story is chillingly similar to the one that drives the first season of that hit HBO finance show Industry, giving viewers an inside look at the lives of twenty-something Wall Street types — full of sex, drugs, high finance, and lots of banking errors.
The drama series premiered in 2020 and has been hailed as “the new ‘Succession,’” following a group of graduates as they jumpstart their careers at the London offices of Pierpont & Co, a fictional bank likely inspired by JPMorgan Chase. The famed 19th-century banker J.P. 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 built out, we decided that we were actually making a drama for HBO, not a documentary for PBS,” Konrad Kay, one of the show’s two creators and a former salesman for Morgan Stanley in London, told The Journal.
You can catch Industry on ShowMax. It’s well worth the watch:
[source:nypost]