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Deaths Draw Attention to Wall Street’s Grueling Pace

nytimes.com

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Re: Deaths Draw Attention to Wall Street’s Grueling Pace

#81

Post by Zigurd »

dlss wrote: post #71
DomreiRoam wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it would be better for most people but coordination cost doesn't grow linearly. So if part of the job imply coordination or communication you will need more than doubling to have the same output.

Very much this. Also: knowledge production isn't a linear function of time. "If it takes one mathematician 12 months of work to prove a theorem, how long would it take 12 mathematicians?" ... probably 13 months :p

That would be true if each problem were unique, as it is in mathematics. FTA:

> You can’t really stand out because most of what you’re doing does not require original thinking. So the only way you can distinguish yourself is by sheer endurance.

Re: Deaths Draw Attention to Wall Street’s Grueling Pace

#83

Post by makecheck »

I knew someone doing corporate accounting who left at 6 in the morning for work, and almost always came home after midnight. 7 days a week (because who needs weekends, right?). Since the work cycled quarterly trying to get "the numbers", the only thing that resembled a break was the end of a quarter; and even then, this pathetic "break" was like a single day because they felt they had to get started on the next quarter.

He actually told me that divorces were fairly common among his co-workers. I wonder why.

He appeared to be paid well but (as others have noted) certainly not nearly enough when you divide a seemingly-impressive salary into an hourly rate.

And frankly I think peer pressure was a big problem. All throughout the chain, it's like they're all too afraid to be the first to say "wtf is this?" and propose a sane work week.

If I extrapolate this type of job to the number of large companies out there, I am astounded by the number of people whose lives are essentially ruined by quarter-to-quarter. It's garbage. Decades ago companies did not seem so pressured to show results each quarter or come up with insane ways to avoid taxes; they just pursued a reasonable profit.

Re: Deaths Draw Attention to Wall Street’s Grueling Pace

#84

Post by dredmorbius »

asimilator wrote: post #12

> there is no evidence that the incidence of suicide by young professionals on Wall Street is higher than in any other industry. Doesn't this undermine the premise of the article? The deaths are tragic, but if the suicide rate of Wall Street professionals is no higher than normal how can the suicides be tied to the "grueling pace" as opposed to whatever causes suicide in the general population?

Numeracy and journalism aren't exactly bossom buddies.

Re: Deaths Draw Attention to Wall Street’s Grueling Pace

#85

Post by eachro »

enraged_camel wrote: post #58
morgante wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This in all likelihood describes 1%of the 1%. Just adding in a little perspective. It's way more than 1% of the young people slaving away in finance. Especially as finance has gotten less racist, a lot of high-achieving immigrant students go into it under pressure from their family.

Yes, but just because someone is an immigrant doesn't mean their motivation for working those jobs is to lift their family up. Immigrants can be selfish too. And they, too, can simply get addicted to money and power.

Sure, but my original point is that greed/power are not the only reason to take these finance jobs.

Re: Deaths Draw Attention to Wall Street’s Grueling Pace

#86

Post by FelixP »

cm2187 wrote: post #63

Junior doctors do similar hours, sleeping a couple of hours at the hospital when they can. What is absurd is that the long hours juniors do in investment banking are terribly inefficient. First because they spend them on tasks that could be automated or outsourced: compiling financials, formatting powerpoints (Microsoft shares a large part of responsability for their poor UI!). Second because the more tired they beco…

Banker here. We actually have automated and outsourced quite a bit of the drudgery, although doing it within the framework of Excel and PowerPoint often requires some pretty strange contortions from a UI perspective.

Re: Deaths Draw Attention to Wall Street’s Grueling Pace

#87

Post by eru »

sdenton4 wrote: post #60
Mikeb85 wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A lot of good talent is wasted on Wall Street. Why do you say that? Finance funds most of society's ventures, the 'system' would look much different without the capital and services that the banking sector provides...

What should we put as the price tag of 'increased liquidity,' just one of a few of the mantras that the middlemen of finance use to justify themselves? http://www.tcf.org/blog/detail/graph-how-the-financial-secto...

Liquidity actually means that the middle men get less..
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