Wall Street CEO Peter Orszag downplays worries about junior bankers’ long hours: ‘Interesting work’

A top Wall Street chief executive has dismissed concerns about younger bankers suffering from burnout, claiming junior staff should be able to tolerate long hours of “interesting” work.

Lazard CEO Peter Orszag appeared to downplay suggestions that newer arrivals to the finance industry are being overworked — despite JP Morgan’s capping its work week for junior team members at 80 hours.

The comments from the Wall Street titan come after a young Bank of America executive, who was being subjected to a gruesome 100-hour work week, died earlier this year.

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“There are many professions where you can’t get around the effort part of it,” the former Obama administration official told Bloomberg TV, claiming the financial services giant creates a “sense of excitement” for its newer hires.

Orszag, a Democrat party kingmaker and donor, said fresh-faced financiers enjoy the buzz of “working on important things” such as money-spinning M&A deals.

“There are many, many people who would rather work whatever number of hours per week on interesting important things, rather than fewer hours on things that are not that interesting,” he told interviewer David Rubenstein, the founder of the Carlyle private equity firm and the owner of the Baltimore Orioles.

“That’s what we are looking for. That’s the trade-off,” he added, warning potential recruits that a high-flying Wall Street career was not “make-work” — a term for meaningless jobs created just to keep someone busy.

The 55-year-old, who served as Barack Obama’s budget czar between 2009 and 2010, pointed to the firm’s flexible two days-per-week teleworking policy as proof it offers proper work-life balance.

“Even if you are working hard you need to have some degree of agency and ability to, if something else is important in your life, to take time off,” he said in the interview that was broadcast earlier on Monday.

His comments might raise eyebrows at a time when the working culture on Wall Street is being heavily scrutinized after Leo Lukenas, a New York-based Bank of America banker, died in May from a blood clot.

The former soldier passed away at just 35; he was logging more than 100 hours a week and was reportedly seeking to exit the firm because of the punishing schedule.

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There is no evidence that Mr Lukenas died as a result of his day job. Bank of America has since brought in a new time-keeping system where bankers must log their schedule on a daily, rather than weekly, basis.

The moves come after The Journal published a wide-ranging exposé detailing how Bank of America managers told direct reports to lie about their extensive hours even when they exceeded an 80-hour limit put in place more than a decade ago following the death of an overworked intern.

Grueling hours have long been a feature on Wall Street, with its promise of eye-watering pay packets that are unrivaled elsewhere.

Employees, writing anonymously on the Wall Street Oasis website, also complain of “incredibly long hours” at Lazard.

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“Very little communication on any time off or protected weekends,” wrote one US-based investment banker. “Expect to work every weekend (if you join the firm).”

One junior analyst complained of lots of “busy work” at the firm and that they were being asked to slog over “many weekends.”

Overheard on Wall Street, another social media platform popular with bankers, spoke to young Wall Street staffers in May who said their intense workload was taking a toll on their well-being.

One banker at Lazard who quit last year told the website that she worked through her long shift despite experiencing cardiac arrest symptoms because she feared reprisals from her higher-ups.

As many as 200 junior bankers said they slept only four hours every night because they worked excessive hours, the survey found.

The employees who were asked to share about the state of their physical and mental health gave an average response ranging from 2 to 3 out of 10, the findings showed.

This outlet asked Lazard how many hours Mr Orszag logs each week, and whether he had any plans to introduce a cap in the same way that JP Morgan has done.

A spokeswoman for the financial services giant did not respond to The Post’s request for comment.