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> Of course, there is another very real, very important reason lots of work gets done in investment banks during weekends. It is the obvious, best time to consu

> Of course, there is another very real, very important reason lots of work gets done in investment banks during weekends. It is the obvious, best time to consummate mergers and acquisitions, when public markets are closed and the last minute scrambling on deals can’t kick up disruptive rumors or market movements. Smart people will always gravitate to something like this to justify all the abuse. It was inevitable, reading this, I figured it was coming up in the first sentence. Bankers are perpetually late on shit. The industry can barely manage to transfer money expediently. Listen to yourself. The abuse - which by the way is totally orthogonal to whether or not you work through the evening - is absolutely not about the workflow or timing or whatever, because I can’t think of a white collar professional more dogshit at doing things on schedule than an investment banker. I’m confident 40 years ago the abuse was worse. And the money was worse too! They’re just not correlated. That’s the misconception, there’s no brilliant insight into how the abuse translates into more dollars. The real transformation in the industry is that the computers are better at making the real money than the human beings are, and like in many white collar professions, there are givers and takers of all that computer-generated surplus. Fortunately, when you work for a money printer, like at a giant tech company, some of whom have trading desks with AUM bigger than many hedge funds, you can relax a little.

Rule35 6y ago
> Smart people will always gravitate to something like this to justify all the abuse. It was inevitable, reading this, I figured it was coming up in the first sentence. No. The justifications come in around making employees also work a 9-5 shift. If they just hired night-quants it would be fine. It's simply a fact that some work needs to be done by the next morning like stocking shelves. Or 24/7 like tech support.
- kazen44 6y ago
  but is investment banking really necessary work in that regard? in the end, it is just white collar office work at the end of the day.
  - Rule35 6y ago
    Nobody questions Baristas starting early to get the coffee shop ready for the day's workers, but you cleverly ask why have work ready for the workers at all. Yes, actually investment banking is kinda critical because every day that paper languishes a bunch of capital is going underutilized and people are idle and unpaid. In order to not waste the life work of so many, yeah the paper pushers should get in gear. But also, it's rude and silly to ask this. Because I could just as cleverly ask if what you enjoy is critical and we both know that it, when viewed reductively, is not.
antonvs 6y ago
> Bankers are perpetually late on shit. The industry can barely manage to transfer money expediently. It doesn't make much sense to criticize investment banks for the behavior of commercial banks. Probably the main thing that connects the two is pursuit of profit. And transferring your money slowly is profitable for commercial banks.

Rule35 6y ago

> Smart people will always gravitate to something like this to justify all the abuse. It was inevitable, reading this, I figured it was coming up in the first sentence. No. The justifications come in around making employees also work a 9-5 shift. If they just hired night-quants it would be fine. It's simply a fact that some work needs to be done by the next morning like stocking shelves. Or 24/7 like tech support.

kazen44 6y ago
but is investment banking really necessary work in that regard? in the end, it is just white collar office work at the end of the day.
- Rule35 6y ago
  Nobody questions Baristas starting early to get the coffee shop ready for the day's workers, but you cleverly ask why have work ready for the workers at all. Yes, actually investment banking is kinda critical because every day that paper languishes a bunch of capital is going underutilized and people are idle and unpaid. In order to not waste the life work of so many, yeah the paper pushers should get in gear. But also, it's rude and silly to ask this. Because I could just as cleverly ask if what you enjoy is critical and we both know that it, when viewed reductively, is not.

antonvs 6y ago

> Bankers are perpetually late on shit. The industry can barely manage to transfer money expediently. It doesn't make much sense to criticize investment banks for the behavior of commercial banks. Probably the main thing that connects the two is pursuit of profit. And transferring your money slowly is profitable for commercial banks.