The Correlation of Poor Mental Health Between Workers in High Steak Finance Positions

 To show the correlation between workers in high stake finance positions and poor mental health I found different pieces of writing which provided their audience with factual and anecdotal evidence to bring attention and present importance on the matter. However, not all the authors of the writings had the same intention, in fact to understand the true purpose of the writings, rhetorical analysis had to be used. My purpose for creating this essay is to raise awareness about the truth behind working in one of the biggest money dealing industries, and whether the compensation which the workers in those positions receive could be considered reasonable enough for the awful consequences of having to deal with the American Dollar more than the average person who does not.

    One of the first articles that I would like to introduce would be  written by Christine Haughney a Senior Business Editor for NBC News with a long history in writing articles and Michela Moscufo who also has a record of writing business related articles for different news and media platforms, titled “Wall Street analysts battle weight loss, high blood pressure and mental health issues from long hours “it depicts how workers mostly junior and senior analysts at top tier Investment firms have been forced to rethink the opportunity cost of using their high-end salaries to compensate for the time which they do not spend on prioritizing their mental and physical wellbeing. The authors try to introduce us to the surreal brutality of working as a banker

                                                                                                                                               

in top Invesment firms by using statistical data and firsthand experiences from the bankers themselves. The authors state that “One year into the pandemic, junior bankers working for Wall Street firms — an elite and largely homogenous group plucked from the nation’s top universities and paid an average starting salary of $132,000 — say they have been so abused that many are rethinking the price of working in these coveted jobs”. In this evidence, it could be seen that the authors tried to stay up to date with their information by connecting it to the most recent and spoken topic of the year which is the pandemic. By doing so, they are using a rhetorical appeal called ethos to make themselves more convincingly credible in the eyes of the audience which are the American people. Throughout the entire article, both authors use evidence which associates and cites numerous top tier banking firms and as well as the bankers who work for them. For example, “On Thursday, Wall Street Oasis revealed the 10 specific banks the surveyed associates work for. Some of the worst offenders included Bank of America, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and UBS. Of the 24 Bank of America analysts who participated, 54 percent said they have sought or are considering seeking counseling. Workers there reported some of the biggest declines in physical and mental health. Thirteen analysts at Credit Suisse and 14 analysts from UBS also experienced some of the biggest declines in their mental and physical health over the past year. One first-year UBS analyst wrote, “Some VPs call you just to yell and hang up.” The 21 analysts from JPMorgan, too, reported some of the biggest declines in mental health compared to the other banks”. This evidence would also reveal that the authors tried to use another rhetorical device called logos to appeal to the audience’s logical reasoning. When closing off their article, the authors could be seen using a third rhetorical device which is pathos to show that even though after all this statical and anecdotal evidence, there has not been much of

                                                                                                                                                

a change in the cruel way that the bankers must endure their toxic work environment, and most of their time not only their health is what is at stake but also their personal Lifes. “There are days I don’t get to step outside, I don’t get to speak to loved ones,” he said. “Your only break is a few hours of sleep. Mentally, it’s very depressing.”(Haughney and Moscufo, 2021).This statement would affect the readers emotionally because it would make them imagine the pain that this person is feeling, as for lots of individuals who are reading this article mainly american citizens which have built their ideology based on John Locke’s fundamental natural rights, this amount of restriction on personal life would be foreign.

   One of the second pieces of writing which caught my attention in finding out more about the mental stability of high steak finance workers, was written on their very well-known social media platform which is used by thousands of finance workers to reveal the truth about the pros and cons of the finance world through their perspectives. The post made on “Wall Street Oasis” called “How much damage has banking done to your life?” ranked #4 on the “tops 50 posts of 2017” written by a certified user with 3+ year associate experience at a private equity who goes by a pseudonym “NuckFuts” has listed down all the cons of working at a financing company. “We all know banking isn’t easy, and I am usually all about encouraging young people to work hard in finance since the long-term benefits to your career can be incredible. But it’s good to be realistic about the job – many of us tend to act like heroic titans of finance who love the grind,

                                                                                                                                                

but this tends to be a coping mechanism driven by insecurity. I’m finally comfortable enough with myself to admit that I cried in the office bathroom a couple of times (we’re talking one or two tears here, not full-on sobbing, but still).

Here’s a short list of things banking did to me (a few details changed to protect my identity):

• Constant heart palpitations due to caffeine/energy drinks/stress
• Carpal tunnel / tendinitis
• Lost a lot of hair
• Put on 25 lbs or more (fat, not muscle)
• Stress lowered my immune response to the point that I got a serious infection that landed me in the hospital (it started out small but spread to my veins)
• Became borderline alcoholic (was having 4-5 drinks every day after work, sometimes before work although not that often)
• Stopped caring about consequences and personal relationships; lost my girlfriend and several friends
• Developed blood clots in my legs that required medical intervention
• Became depressed and chronically anxious”.

Looking at this information the author is trying to convince the reader that even though banking might be beneficial in the long term it could cause not only mental but physical permeant damages as well. The author is not being pushy, but we could say that their tone is more informative and assertive since they understand both sides of their banking position. The author

                                                                                                                                               

clearly shows that he wants young bankers or people who are currently in finance in general to consider his perspective on the matter before making a permanent choice for this lifestyle, and we could see that the finance people are the main audience since in the beginning of his writing he includes “We all know” taking into consideration that his audience have some sort of previous knowledge related to what he is about to discuss.

 My third article which was published on the finance section of the CNBC website by CNBC banking reporter Hugh Son called “Goldman’s Junior Bankers Complain of Crushing Workload Amid SPAC-Fueled Boom in Wall Street Deals” talked about the horrible conditions which finance workers at Goldman’s Sachs one of America’s top prestigious financial firms must go through while the industry is booming starting 2021. “The surge in activity has taken a serious toll on analysts’ mental and physical health since at least the start of the year, according to slides released to social media and authenticated by people with knowledge of the matter. “The sleep deprivation, the treatment by senior bankers, the mental and physical stress … I’ve been through foster care, and this is arguably worse,” one Goldman analyst said, according to the February survey of 13 employees.” (Son). Son also includes the date of the survey in his article where a significant percentage of decrease in 1^st year Analysts mental and physical health could be seen by at least more than half percent compared to before they started working there. The author’s tone seems factual as he tries to limit his own opinion on the matter and provides us with factual evidence so we can decide on our own. He does explain the evidence in a way where one could be convinced that he also finds this issue being terrible, but there is not enough emotional appeal for the audience to know for sure what his exact feelings towards the matter are.

                                                                                                                                              

  The last piece of writing which I have stumbled upon was “Evergreen Enhancement” published by Jared D.Harris an associate professor at the UVA Darden School of Business whose works have been recognized by massive publication platforms and Jenny Mead who is senior research at the same school. This case talks about the ethical decision between two workers one who uses a drug which enhances an individual’s performance rate called Adderall usually used to treat (ADHD) and the other one who is a hard-working person, and his work ethic does not depend on a substance. The scariest part of this writing would be how big of a correlation it is to what is going on in today’s financial industry. The fact that workers need to feel at their workplace that they must take a substance to accomplish their work’s needs already causes not only an ethical issue but a mental one.

    By reading the different pieces of writing which I have discussed in this essay, I can conclude that mental health has been and still is becoming an excessively big issue for the workers of the financial industry. The long hours, massive workloads and inhumane treatment by their superior workers is leading them down a terrible deep well of despair and depression. What is even more concerning is discovering that there has been an equally high decline in both mental and physical health, mostly in younger bankers at top tier firms. Even if the prestigious financial firms of America are trying to enforce policies that they think will compensate for their workers efforts, as proven by the recent articles and posts made by the individuals themselves, it seems like the situation is getting worse.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                Works Cited

Haughney, Christine, and Michela Moscufo. “Wall Street Analysts Battle Weight Loss, High Blood Pressure and Mental Health Issues from Long Hours.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 16 Apr. 2021, www.nbcnews.com/business/markets/wall-street-analysts-battle-weight-loss-high-blood-pressure-mental-n1264342.

NuckFuts. “How Much Damage Has Banking Done to Your Life?” Wall Street Oasis, 1 Jan. 2018, https://www.wallstreetoasis.com/forums/how-much-damage-has-banking-done-to-your-life?fbclid=IwAR2w-amUYp02ovjemilmYKKR4sBwXnuMa_oIhdiGPAKxsy3fV2k8_U9VJ94.

Son, Hugh. “Goldman’s Junior Bankers Complain of CRUSHING Workload amid Spac-Fueled Boom in Wall Street Deals.” CNBC, CNBC, 18 Mar. 2021, https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/18/goldman-sachs-junior-bankers-complain-of-crushing-work-load-amid-spac-fueled-boom-in-wall-street-deals.html.

Harris, J.D. and Mead, J. (2017), “Evergreen Enhancement”, Darden Business Publishing Cases. https://doi.org/10.1108/case.darden.2016.000113