Employee experience
First year investment banking analysts work an average of more than 95 hours per week.
86%
The percentage of banking and finance employees that struggled with their mental health as a result of lockdown.
38%
The percentage of banking employees that say they were less productive because they were feeling depressed during lockdown.
1/3
The number of banking employees that reported consuming more alcohol in the first lockdown, with 16% saying they used more recreational drugs. Helix Resilience
28
Worse still, people suffering problems with mental health are often stigmatised, discriminated against or excluded. An environment where employees are hesitant to disclose a condition, or seek help because they fear negative career consequences, can lead to dire outcomes. “At least once a year a junior banker will take their life or have a heart attack and banks will respond by paying juniors £20,000 more,” says a former high-ranking executive in a major global bank, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity. “It is really dumb,” he adds. “They scour the world for the best graduates and make them ill over the next two years. I saw the junior investment banking problem up close. No junior should work 70 hours a week. I want the work done without killing a kid.”
Counting the cost of stress
Nor is this executive alone. The WHO report confirms that “high workload increases the risk of symptoms of mental health conditions”. In the notoriously stressful banking sector, high workload and long hours are par for the course. For instance, the 2021 Working Conditions Survey by Goldman Sachs found that first- year investment banking analysts work an average of more than 95 hours per week. Anywhere between 60 and 100 hours a week is likely too. What’s more, across all industries, these psychological burdens can also impact productivity. Efforts to improve mental health could go a long way to recovering the estimated £1trn in revenue that the WHO estimates is lost each year as a result of staff depression and anxiety. “Good well-being and good performance are inextricably linked,” stresses Unsted. “People need to feel well to perform well. Looking after well-being is not just the right thing to do, it is good for business
performance. Many people thrive in high-demand environments, many people want to have a successful career – the challenge is when workload and stress become unrelenting and unsustainable.” The mental health crisis in banking, especially, is screaming for attention here. A survey of London-based professionals conducted by employee well-being firm Helix Resilience in 2020 found that 86% of employees in the industry struggled with their mental health as a result of lockdown. Furthermore, 38% reported being less productive because of feelings of depression. There is no shortage of anecdotes about high-profile burnouts in the banking industry either. Take, for example, Tom Blomfield, founder of Monzo, who opened up to The Guardian about how the pressure of the pandemic was a huge contributor to the stress of running a challenger bank. Among other things, Blomfield recounted that the first lockdown caused funds to halt their investments, putting the venture in jeopardy. Unable to sleep from worry, he ultimately left the bank in January 2021 and now refers to himself as “a recovering tech founder”. “I am not optimistic about financial services and banks will continue to do what they do, which is to pay people more to work in a bad environment,” says the former executive. “If you lead in the right way you will retain your people and there will be fewer accidents, fewer problems, better response to crises and less absenteeism, but you need to build a body of evidence to prove that.” At the same time, the executive describes leaders as sitting in one of two camps. Some act from a moral imperative where they think that they should care about their impact on other people – while
Future Banking /
www.nsbanking.com
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Shutterstock.com
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