Cantor CEO: Burned Out Junior Bankers Should Choose Another Living
Junior bankers complaining about long hours and bosses’ stressful demands should rethink their career choice, said Cantor Fitzgerald LP Chief Executive Officer Howard Lutnick.
“Young bankers who decide they’re working too hard -- choose another living is my view,” Lutnick said Thursday in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “These are hard jobs.”
Working conditions for junior bankers have become a flashpoint at some firms. In one example, a group of 13 first-year analysts at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. prepared a presentation earlier this year that showed some were working hundred-hour weeks and experiencing declining physical and mental health. Goldman responded by easing up on weekend hours and vowing to beef up staff in the most-active businesses.
But Lutnick, 59, compared investment banking to careers such as medicine, where those breaking into the profession know they’ll have to work extremely hard to get ahead.
“There is a path to becoming an investment banker that requires an enormous amount of work,” including late nights and weekends, Lutnick said. Clients want their deals finished under tight deadlines, he said. “You should know that going in.”
Lutnick’s unapologetic comments on the plight of junior bankers follow similarly less-guarded remarks by some of Wall Street’s other veteran chiefs. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon called working from home an “aberration,” while Morgan Stanley’s James Gorman has said workers prepared to visit New York City restaurants should also be able to go into the office. Some peers have taken a softer tone. Citigroup’s new CEO, Jane Fraser, is pushing for more flexibility and boundaries between home and work as the pandemic takes its toll on well-being.
Some Wall Street firms are addressing bankers’ complaints by offering greater ability to work from home, especially after the pandemic showed that arrangement worked better than many executives had expected. But Lutnick said Cantor wants its key workers back at their desks.
“That is our model,” Lutnick said. “Front-office people are going to be working from the office,” and that will be a competitive advantage for the firm, he said. Back-office staff, such as technical support, compliance and legal, can “be more flexible,” he said.
The bulk of Cantor’s front-office staff have been in the office since last summer, and the rest were given a June 1 deadline to come back, a spokeswoman said in May.
Last year, Cantor paid some new analysts to defer their start date until 2021 as it contended with operating through the pandemic. In April 2020, it shrank its workforce, breaking with firms across Wall Street that vowed not to cut employees during a pandemic.
Lol why would anyone want to work at that shithole firm?
Another one of Cantor's executives was sued for squatting in a Hamptons house after his lease expired. he refused to leave and filed for a hardship reprieve from his eviction notice. hilarious.
Hope all his Jr. people see this and jump ship - never a better time. May the odds be ever in your favor, First and Second Years @ Cantor.
This is the guy that had the funds received from a 9/11 settlement against American Airlines distributed to the partners of the firm (of which he owns a majority) rather than the families of Cantor employees who died.
If this is true, this guy should be ashamed of himself.
RIP to the 658 Cantor employees who lost their lives on 9/11/2001.
source?
What's also insane about this is there were probably a handful of victims who were going to get laid off at some point soon if the attacks never happened. Cantor was doing a lot of layoffs at the time due to the brief 2001 recession (similar to a lot of banks during the tech bubble). So there is a possibility, a lot of those who got laid off months before had their lives saved by getting fired.
I know this is a "bump" but I can't help but wonder how disturbing it was for a friend's father. His father was calling a close friend that he often did business within S&T at Cantor around a few minutes before the Tower got hit. The line went dead and his close friend died amongst many other people he knew at Cantor. That moment apparently haunted his father for years even in retirement. Still hard to fathom almost 700 employees of a ~1000 employee company perished within an hour or so of what appeared to be a regular "workday" morning prior to the crash.
You would think the CEO of a firm that had like half their office killed would have some empathy or perspective but nope.
Closer to 70%
Give this guy a break. His mom and dad both died when he was 18 and to make matters worse his brother died during 9/11 -- its not surprising he's an absolute hardo.
His Villain Origin Story is pretty solid then, too bad he only made it up to Cantor
Wow what a hardo. I mean come on dude he can’t flex because every junior person I know that worked there wanted to lateral lmao. No one cares what he has to say lol. Cry us a river. NEXT.
Is no one else shocked that Cantor has been back in the office since Summer of 2020?
What's cantor fitzgerald?
There's a reason that they are the only firm in the western hemisphere that would even consider (and ultimately did) hire sage kelly after his debacle. Cantor is a cesspool. This stuff is top down.
delete
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