J.P. Morgan to Workaholics: Knock It Off

Didn't see a thread here, so I thought I'd put one up:

J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is giving its investment bankers an unusual mandate: Relax, take some time off.
The firm launched a new effort on Thursday to encourage its investment bankers to take their weekends off—as long as there isn’t a live deal in the works.

Really?

A couple great lines:
- A spokeswoman said that “a vast majority” of employees aren’t expected to be working on the weekends.
- J.P. Morgan has also made efforts to streamline more work processes. For instance, the bank’s high-grade bond desk now uses an application that automates bond prices and issuance information rather than requiring younger bankers to fetch data and fill out spreadsheets

Any comments?

http://www.wsj.com/articles/j-p-morgan-chase-tells-investment-bankers-t…

13 Comments
 

The new initiative is called "Pencils Down," and Carlos Hernandez - JPMorgan's (JPM +0.8%) head of global banking - is urging the investment banking staff to take every weekend off (provided there's not a hot deal they're working on).

 
"seafood92"

"as long as there isn't a live deal in the works" lol

That was my first thought. Although I've heard of some banks where it is taken seriously (MD's have to approve, and only have a limited number of approvals to give) I'm highly skeptical of a Caveat like this....especially at a bank like JP Morgan with massive deal flow.

Besides which good luck changing the culture in an industry which, to be perfectly frank, attracts a long number of ambitious folks and therefore a large number of ass kissers who don't mind staying in the office just for the sake of being seen.

 

This means they'll just work longer hours during the week, right? 120 hours on, 48 hours off, baby. Increased production!

Commercial Real Estate Developer
 

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