Quality and Innovation

A recent report from Reuters about the death of a 35-year old investment banker who worked in Bank of America’s high-demand FIG team has reinvigorated debate around what it means to be a toxic work environment. While articles are quick to note that the official cause of death was an acute coronary artery thrombus (formally noted as “natural causes” by the Medical Examiners) – and anything beyond that is speculation – it’s also well established that the acute physical effects of ongoing physical and emotional stress includes coronary outcomes like this. Plus, researchers note, it’s just not common to see chronic workplace stress formally linked to manner of death.

This isn’t the first FIG-related death. In 2013, a 21-year old junior banker died from a massive epileptic seizure that some say was directly triggered by intense 120-hour work weeks. The official statements, however, are careful to specify that a definitive causal link can’t be made – that epilepsy can, and sometimes does, lead to death regardless.

In many cases, tragedy this extreme does not strike. Some people decide that the physical and mental challenge is worth the risk – and eventual reward – or perhaps fear the consequences of falling apart.

“Banks are so prepared to work people into the ground. People’s mental and physical health are consistently ignored in order to get the ‘deal done’ and it doesn’t seem that HR or line managers really care about people’s wellbeing. Everything is urgent and needs to be responded to ASAP. But if everything is urgent, nothing is.

I blame the managing directors. They’re making unrealistic promises to clients, and junior bankers like my husband are tasked with making those promises come true.”

— a banker’s wife responding to news of this week’s death in https://www.efinancialcareers.com/news/my-husband-works-120-hour-weeks-in-banking-and-i-m-concerned-for-his-health

High-demand work environments are accepted, praised, even held up as a standard in some Ivy League programs. Peer pressure props up expectations whether they are reasonable or not. People use their toughness as a way to amplify power differentials, proving that they are more resilient than their peers. Anyone whose body or mind shows signs of wear and tear can be held up as an example by their coworkers:

• “Person X just can’t take the pace here.”
• “Person X doesn’t want to work.”
• “If Person X can’t perform here, there are hundreds of other people that would do anything for that job.”
• “I guess Person X just isn’t dedicated to the mission.”
• “Person X just didn’t have what it takes to be successful here.”

One fellow banker interviewed about the recent BofA death went even farther:

“I’m no stranger to very long weeks on live deals,” says one associate, describing himself as “appalled and disgusted” at the unconfirmed suggestions that someone in the industry died as a result of excessive working hours. — https://www.efinancialcareers.com/news/associate-died-banking-fig

But in the case of this past week’s death, there’s no question about his toughness: he recently spent several years as a U.S. Green Beret. Comments like this reflect an uncomfortable truth: environments that are toxic to one person may be perfectly acceptable to another. For example, it wouldn’t make sense to forge a career as a veterinarian or vet tech if you were allergic to cats and dogs. While some workplaces can make accommodations, there’s only so much that can be done.

Over the past two years, I’ve been doing research that is now the foundation of the Team-X.AI platform, figuring out how machine learning can help teams perform better by cultivating more inclusive work environments. Through this research, we know that there are six dimensions of inclusivity, all focused around access to the resources people need to do their jobs. Regardless of whether you feel belonging or not, if you can’t get your job done, there’s an inclusion problem somewhere – and TeamX can root it out.

At the organizational level, leaders need to ensure that the workforce has access to the physical resources they need to do their jobs. Usually we think of laptops, systems access, or security badges. But the job can’t take away physical resources – the physical, cognitive, and emotional energy you need to be a high performer at work – to be an inclusive environment. While most full-time exempt jobs do require people to go above and beyond the federally required 40 hours a week, requiring (or even subtly pressuring) anyone to put in double that or more is noninclusive.

Why is this important? Because inclusion impacts physical, emotional, and cognitive health… allowing people to perform better and reducing the incidence of health and safety issues.

Inclusion is not just a feel-good nice-to-have, but a strategy for sustainably achieving higher levels of performance. That’s one of the reasons I’m proud to be the architect of Team-X.AI‘s intelligent agents.