Bankers told to stop moaning and think of the poor

LONDON (Capital Markets in Africa) – Young investment bankers on big salaries who complain about being overworked have come under fire from one of the City of London’s veteran financiers.

Xavier Rolet, the former boss of the London Stock Exchange who was previously a leading banker, has told graduates who do not enjoy their jobs “by any means do something else”.

He suggested that financial firms troubled by mutinous staff “should try hiring poor, hungry kids who managed to put themselves through college instead of entitled [graduates] — and you won’t have that problem”. Rolet’s comments to the Mail on Sunday and Financial News are likely to prove divisive in the Square Mile.

The travails of junior bankers were pushed into the spotlight in March when a group of first-year analysts at Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street giant, drew up a presentation for their bosses that showed they worked an average of 95 hours per week and slept only five hours a night.

The document, which was widely circulated online, included quotes from some analysts. One complained that “my body physically hurts all the time and mentally I’m in a really dark place” while another said: “I didn’t come into this job expecting a 9am-5pm’s, but I also didn’t expect consistent 9am-5am’s either.”

The analysts said they should work no more than 80 hours a week and never after 9pm on Fridays or on Saturdays without pre-approval.

Yet Rolet, 61, argued that junior bankers “are paid very well compared to other industries or sectors.

“Ask a young entrepreneur drawing no salary how they would like to make $100,000-plus [£72,000] straight out of college? Or a single working mum of three working herself to death to put her kids through school?”

Rolet, who said he was raised on a “sink estate” in Paris and made “no apologies for working hard to make it”, is the chairman of Shore Capital Markets, the British stockbroker and investment bank.

The Frenchman started at Goldman in New York before taking roles at the banks Credit Suisse and Dresdner Kleinwort and a top job at Lehman Brothers, the American giant that collapsed in the 2008 financial crisis. He took charge of the London Stock Exchange in 2009 and stepped down in acrimonious circumstances in 2017 after a boardroom row over his future.

He warned that Britain could find itself at a disadvantage if staff at City firms work shorter hours. “Chinese primary school students start at 7.30am and often finish past 10pm. Do we think we can compete if this mentality infects the sharp end of our financial services industry?” he said.

The issue of conditions for many young City workers has been magnified by the pandemic, when lockdowns forced many to do their jobs at home and away from housemates because of the confidential nature of deals.

Rolet said: “If you don’t love what you’re doing or think the hours don’t suit your lifestyle, by any means do something else.”