Morning Coffee: 22-year-old JPMorgan bankers on $160k are wild for overwork. Goldman Sachs' newly perpetual job cuts

If you work for JPMorgan, you're supposed to work no more than 80 hours a week. There are exceptions, like times of live deals, but 80 hours are the mandatory norm. And yet junior bankers seem to be abusing JPMorgan's trust. 

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The bank has mandated 80 hours, but JPMorgan's 22 year-old bankers earning circa $160k (as per the Prospect Rock Compensation Report) cannot be trusted to abide by its edict. They want to work more. Therefore, the Financial Times says JPMorgan has stepped up its scrutiny of what its junior bankers are doing and will no longer rely upon the old self-reported time sheets as a measure of hours worked, but examine what they're up to on their computers. "Digital footprints" don't lie; if a 22 year-old analyst spends 100 hours making "keyboard strokes," video calls and attending "scheduled meetings", JPMorgan will know. JPMorgan will command that less work be done.

Given that in many walks of life people attempt to evade work, the situation at JPMorgan might seem freaky. But junior bankers are well documented as having a tendency towards working so hard that their hair falls out. This can be self-imposed. "Their sense of self-esteem is constructed around being an elite individual," said Alexandra Michel, the ex-Goldman Sachs associate who's built a career studying the phenomenon.     

Not all young bankers would agree that they're wild for overwork though. Nor would they agree that they're intentionally misleading employers by marking down the hours they work on self-reported time sheets. In many cases, senior bankers at all banks are said to encourage juniors to understate their hours so that they can keep on working. Bank of America, for example, denied that Leo Lukenas worked 120 hour weeks before the associate died in 2024, but the Wall Street Journal subsequently discovered that managers had been asking juniors to under-record banking hours to avoid HR intervention and keep working.

There will no more of this at JPMorgan, and this be welcome. From now on, every keyboard stroke at the bank must matter.

Separately, as we reported yesterday, Goldman Sachs is job cuts. Insiders at the bank tell us that lists have been drawn up over the past month. The bank had been hoping to avoid layoffs through natural post-bonus attrition but this hasn't come to pass. 

Business Insider confirms that cuts are coming. They will start in April, but they will not stop then. Instead of a single round or rounds Goldman is reportedly planning for a series of "ongoing, smaller rolling cuts" that may never end.   

The new approach is intended to "give divisional leaders more control over timing than waiting months for the next firmwide review," says BI. Goldman Sachs says there is nothing to see here. "Regular, consistent head count management is nothing out of the ordinary for a public company," a spokesman declares.

Meanwhile...

Point72 and Balyasny recently banned employees from trading on prediction markets in their personal accounts. (Bloomberg) 

Being a trader is an exhausting business now, but AI is helping. “I was up for almost 48 hours straight, monitoring the interceptions in the United Arab Emirates while simultaneously running scenarios and preparing for the market open. That’s precisely the kind of moment where AI becomes indispensable." (Bloomberg) 

Traders have been pouring over real time alt data. This week, the key data point was whether Ras Laffan had gone into “cold shutdown" (refrigeration is still ongoing), or “warm,” which would take much longer to recover from. (WSJ)

Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan have assembled baskets of listed companies with exposure to private credit and are creating products for hedge funds to trade against. Goldman's index includes European financial institutions. (Bloomberg) 

Bank of America suggested that clients bet against companies exposed to European private credit, including Deutsche Bank, but now it says this was all a terrible mistake. “Those views do not reflect those of BofA Research or the broader organisation. ​We apologise to the companies that were inaccurately referenced.” (FT)

Morgan Stanley hired James Machin, a managing director at Bank of America in London for its healthcare team. (Financial News) 

Fabrizio Campelli who runs they investment bank at Deutsche Bank might replace Christian Sewing. But so might Stefan Hoops, who's just been promoted to the management board and who runs the asset management arm. (Financial Times) 

Michele Faissola says Deutsche Bank caused irreparable harm to his career and wants £500m in damages.  (Bloomberg) 

Ex-Point 72 guy says you need to work weekends at the start of your career to compounds knowledge. "What I learned was if you work six hours a Sunday, 50 Sundays a year, right? That's 300 hours." (YouTube) 

Starting next month, bankers may not be able to make long haul flights to clients due to a shortage of jet fuel. (The Times) 

Jes Staley's wife wants a divorce. (Bloomberg) 

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