J.P. Morgan to Workaholics: Knock it Off
January 21 2016 - 10:00AM
Dow Jones News
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.
Carlos Hernandez, J.P. Morgan's head of global banking,
announced the policy Thursday morning on an internal call, saying
the rules applied to everyone from analysts to managing directors,
the firm said.
The initiative, dubbed "Pencils Down," is unusual in a
high-powered corner of Wall Street where 100-hour weeks are worn by
some as a badge of honor and dreaded by others as an antiquated
aspect of the job that leads to early burnout.
J.P. Morgan, the largest bank in the country by assets, joins a
number of Wall Street firms that have taken steps to retain their
junior bankers and improve work-life balance.
"At the end of the day continuity matters, developing people who
understand the firm, understand the culture," Mr. Hernandez said in
an interview. "We're not tearing the whole place upside down, it is
enhancements...and realistic to what this generation wants."
Mr. Hernandez says the policy is designed to get people out of
the office and back home, or wherever they choose to relax. The
firm isn't imposing guidelines on how often employees should check
their smartphones but the expectation is that most weekends will be
free of time-consuming work obligations unless a deal is
breaking.
Mr. Hernandez also announced that the bank is rolling out an
accelerated promotions program in all global offices that was
previously only available for certain North America locations. The
program speeds up promotions for top performers in every position,
reducing the time it takes for an analyst, the lowest rank at the
bank, to rise up to managing director.
A typical progression for a J.P. Morgan investment banker starts
with three years as an analyst, followed by 3½ years as an
associate, then three years as a vice president, and three years as
an executive director before reaching the managing director title.
Staffers who receive an "E" performance rating—for "exceeds
expectations"—can shave off up to one year at each position.
Mr. Hernandez, who has worked in different groups across the
world for the bank, also discussed an initiative called "Team
Connect" that boosts the bank's apprenticeship program and adds
more membership events for analysts and managing directors in an
effort to make junior bankers feel more included.
"All this stuff is really making people feel—across the whole
spectrum, but primarily with juniors—that they do matter," Mr.
Hernandez said.
In November, Chairman and Chief Executive James Dimon spent more
than an hour answering questions at an analyst and associate
investment bank "appreciation event" hosted at J.P. Morgan.
The focus on Wall Street's work conditions, particularly among
lower-level employees, intensified following the death of a Bank of
America Corp. intern in 2012. A medical examination found
exhaustion as a possible cause in the intern's death, helping
trigger a spate of new rules by major banks to pull back on
hours.
Bank of America in 2014 began encouraging junior staffers to
take at least four weekend days off a month while Morgan Stanley
and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have created committees dedicated to
work-life issues for its youngest workers.
About two years ago J.P. Morgan added a "protected weekend"
where employees can flag if they need the full weekend off for a
variety of reasons, such as a wedding or college reunion.
J.P. Morgan's "Pencils Down" initiative doesn't apply to
situations when deals are being actively put together, which often
happens on weekends.
A spokeswoman said that "a vast majority" of employees aren't
expected to be working on the weekends.
The hope is that it reduces time on the weekends younger
employees spend on presentations or markets information that aren't
as time sensitive, reflecting changes over the last decade in the
way work gets done on Wall Street, Mr. Hernandez said.
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, Mr. Hernandez said.
The overall changes apply to more than 2,000 people in J.P.
Morgan's investment bank out of the firm's total 234,598
employees.
Parts of the investment bank were top performers within the firm
last year, with advisory revenue jumping 43% in the fourth quarter
compared with a year earlier, riding the 2015 deal boom.
Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com and Daniel Huang
at dan.huang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 21, 2016 09:45 ET (14:45 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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