A recent Wall Street Journal article has exposed the troubling work conditions at Robert W. Baird’s industrials team, where junior bankers have reportedly been working more than 110-hour weeks regularly. The situation gained public attention after a Wall Street Oasis post detailing the grueling expectations went viral, describing how young analysts and associates were being pushed to their physical limits.
According to the Wall Street Journal, “On Baird’s industrials team, working more than 110 hours a week wasn’t unusual, former employees said, and managers would regularly get exemptions for the firm’s required Saturdays off” (WSJ via Biztoc). Aaron Haney, a vice president at Baird’s industrials team, was let go this month following these viral posts that complained about a mid-level banker assigning 20-hour workdays.
The conditions proved so challenging that “more than a dozen junior members of the team have left since the start of 2024, including several this year” (WSJ via Biztoc). At least two employees ended up hospitalized following extended work periods, including one employee who was diagnosed with pancreas failure. As the New York Post reported: “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” (New York Post).
The Wall Street Oasis thread that sparked the controversy contained numerous disturbing accounts. One former analyst described how his work schedule was determined by his VP’s gambling habits: “If he cashed a parlay, I was in good shape… if he lost $25K on the Pirates, he would work us until the sun rose on tasks that never saw the light of day” (Wall Street Oasis).
Another former associate shared on Wall Street Oasis: “When my kid was being born, I asked for two weeks off. Group head and MD each called. Group head ranted at me about how he didn’t take time off when his kid was born and that anything more than a day was overkill” (Wall Street Oasis).
In one particularly stark incident reported by the Wall Street Journal, “One former analyst said he worked for a year on a drawn-out deal that entailed all-nighters creating pitch materials. When he stepped away for about 25 minutes to grab dinner one evening, his boss was infuriated and said that he shouldn’t leave his desk for more than five minutes without notifying him” (WSJ via eFinancialCareers).
The Wall Street Journal also described a troubling meeting: “A team of junior bankers had been regularly working until 4 a.m. for weeks when they were called together for a pizza party last year… Instead, the managers who organized the gathering in Chicago told the group they needed to step up their performance” (WSJ via Biztoc).
A current junior banker posted on Wall Street Oasis: “The vast majority of juniors are pulling 90+ hour weeks on a regular basis with plenty having 100+ hour weeks back to back to back. VPs are up to 3am turning pointless items and MD/Ds are pushing unrealistic deadlines without a care in the world for junior wellbeing” (Wall Street Oasis).
Haney’s dismissal has raised questions about accountability. Several analysts noted that Haney “was well-liked and often worked as hard as his juniors” (Wall Street Oasis via Daily Beast), suggesting he may have been made a scapegoat for more systemic issues.
According to eFinancialCareers, “Haney has since disappeared from LinkedIn. However, his FINRA profile lives on. It shows a circuitous route to an investment banking career. After graduating from the University Of Illinois Urbana – Champaign in 2014, Haney initially worked for JPMorgan’s finance team as an audit analyst in commercial banking. Then he joined Stout Risius Ross, a consulting and corporate finance firm in Chicago. Then he finally moved to Baird and worked his way up as a junior investment banker, despite being four years older than the rest” (eFinancialCareers).
The situation at Baird follows a troubling pattern in the industry after the deaths of young bankers at other firms. According to the New York Post, “Leo Lukenas III, a 35-year-old associate at Bank of America, died of a blood clot last year” while “Carter McIntosh, a junior tech banker for Jefferies, died of a suspected drug overdose earlier this year” (NewsBreak).
These tragic incidents have prompted some banks to institute tighter regulations. As the Wall Street Journal notes, “Many of the country’s biggest banks have responded by stepping up policies to protect young employees, including capping workweeks at around 80 hours” (WSJ via Wall Street Oasis). However, former Baird employees report that their bosses would regularly break these rules.
Following the viral Wall Street Oasis post, “senior bankers convened a town hall for the team… They encouraged juniors to come forward with concerns and said they would listen more, a response that left some young bankers feeling better” (WSJ via Biztoc). Whether this will lead to meaningful changes remains to be seen.
Impact on Junior Bankers and Industry Reform Efforts
The Baird scandal comes at a critical moment for investment banking culture, as the industry has been struggling for years to balance grueling demands with junior banker wellbeing.
Wall Street’s reckoning with work-life balance isn’t new. In 2013, following the death of a Bank of America intern in London who reportedly worked sleepless nights, banks began implementing “protected weekends,” where junior employees couldn’t work on Saturdays or Sundays without manager approval (CNBC).
Goldman Sachs pioneered this approach in 2014 with its “Protected Saturday” policy, stipulating that junior bankers would not have to work between Friday nights and Sunday mornings. As one analyst noted at the time, “It’s started to change the way that senior people in our group think about weekend work” (Slate). Other firms quickly followed, with JPMorgan introducing “protected weekends” each month and similar moves from Citigroup, Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, and Bank of America.
However, as the Baird case demonstrates, these policies often exist more in name than practice. The Wall Street Journal reported that at Baird, “managers would regularly get exemptions for the firm’s required Saturdays off” (WSJ via Biztoc). One Baird employee posted on Wall Street Oasis that the protected Saturday policy was “never enforced,” and if analysts logged Saturday work, “the lead MD on that deal would then call to scream at you for embarrassing them and chastise you for recording it” (Wall Street Oasis).
The issue resurfaced dramatically in 2021 when Goldman Sachs junior bankers complained in an internal survey about 100-hour work weeks during a SPAC-fueled boom. This prompted CEO David Solomon to strengthen enforcement of the “Saturday rule” and hire more junior staff (CNN).
Despite these efforts, a 2023 survey by Wall Street Oasis found first-year analysts still working nearly 80-hour weeks, with some banks faring worse than others. At Goldman Sachs, 22% of respondents reported working over 100 hours per week (eFinancialCareers).
For junior bankers evaluating their options going forward, the Baird case presents a stark warning about ignoring red flags during recruiting. Banks often tout their “culture” and work-life balance initiatives, but as one banker noted on Wall Street Oasis, “Can you name one bank that does not advertise its culture in the recruitment process?” (Wall Street Oasis).
Industry experts suggest several potential reforms to genuinely improve conditions, including setting “hard stops” for each day’s work, dedicated break times, better enforcement of weekend policies, and hiring more analysts to distribute workloads (Mergers & Inquisitions). Others have proposed treating analysts more like how Silicon Valley treats junior employees – recognizing they have lives outside work and viewing them as assets to develop long-term.
The exodus of talent from traditional banking to technology, private equity, and hedge funds has added pressure for firms to reform. As Scott Rostan of Training The Street noted, “Lifestyle is very important, especially for millennials now” (Wall Street Prep). With some banks seeing 60-80% of analysts leave before their two-year terms end, Wall Street may finally be forced to make substantive changes rather than superficial policies that are routinely circumvented.
As the industry watches the fallout from the Baird case, junior bankers may increasingly demand not just written policies but actual enforcement mechanisms, transparency around workload expectations, and accountability for senior bankers who violate protections. Without meaningful reform, investment banks risk continuing to lose top talent to competitors offering better work-life balance and comparably attractive compensation.
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