Employee hospitalized, diagnosed with failed pancreas after US investment bank forced 110-hour work week: report

A Midwestern investment bank forced junior employees to work grueling, 110-hour workweeks that resulted in at least two people being hospitalized — including one who was diagnosed with a failed pancreas, according to a report.Junior bankers at Robert W.Baird, the century-old, privately held investment bank based in Milwaukee, Wis., said they were assigned 20-hour workdays and that they were scolded if they left their desks after pulling an all-nighter, according to the Wall Street Journal.The report follows a spate of incidents in recent years during which at least two junior bankers — Carter McIntosh of Jefferies and former Bank of America analyst Leo Lukenas, 35 — died after they were made to work as much as 100 hours per week.

McIntosh died of a suspected drug overdose while Lukenas suffered a blood clot.The death of Lukenas prompted scrutiny of Wall Street practices — moving some banks to institute tighter regulations including caps on hours and more stringent oversight guaranteeing time off for employees.“As an analyst and associate, you are treated as scum,” one anonymous Baird banker wrote in a post that went viral earlier this month on Wall Street Oasis, an internet message board that is popular among professionals in finance.Hundreds of other anonymous Baird employees responded to the post with similar stories and claims of mistreatment by the bank.Two former members of Baird’s industrials team required hospitalization after extended work periods, including one who had previously voiced workload concerns to human resources, the Journal reported.Another employee reportedly suffered pancreas failure, a medical crisis attributed by doctors to their intensive 20-hour workdays.After this banker was forced to pay a second visit to the hospital due to health issues, the banker was terminated due to alleged low productivity, according to the Journal.In one particularly stark incident, a former analyst reported angering his manager by stepping away br...