May 2, 2025

How Many Hours a Week Do You Work?

There was an interesting article in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal concerning the average hours worked, by an associate, at the Baird & Co. Bank, 110 hours per week.

An associate or investment analyst at a bank, or financial investment organization, is the one who does all of the “grunt” work. He or she is a few years out of college, and generally has impeccable academic credentials, but short on “real life” experience.

In two private companies that I have worked for, I have had experience with this type of individual. We were considering taking the company public, and had met with a number of investment banks. These investment banks had prepared presentations to try to convince us that we should retain them. These presentations were generally prepared by their associates. We selected one of the banks to advise us, and they sent their associates in to do a detailed analysis of our finances. It was obvious that these individuals were smart and well educated, but they were lacking “real world” experience.

I remember the story concerning “Burger King.” Apparently, when the company was purchased by Grand Metropolitan, a UK company, in 1989, the investment team, advising Grand metropolitan, had prepared a future cash flow analysis. The young associate who prepared the cash flow didn’t like the “roller coaster” effect of the cash analysis, and decided to smooth the cash forecast. A few months after the acquisition, Grand Metropolitan found that they had a negative cash requirement, in Burger King’s operation, of over $200 million.

I wasn’t familiar with Baird, so I did some research and found that they are a very successful mid-west investment bank. They were founded in 1919, and today they have over 4,500 employees, handle and oversee over $350 billion in client assets. Their world headquarters is located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and they operate multi-offices throughout the United States as well as Europe.

They are an employee owned company, with five business units: private wealth management, asset management, investment banking & equity markets, fixed income capital & private equity. Since 2004, they have been considered one of the Fortune companies best 100, to work for.

I assume that those associates, working on average, 110 hours per week, are in the investment banking operation. It is possible that they could be in other departments as well.

I remember when I was working in the aircraft industry, we would have to put in 60 or 70 hours a week, while we were completing a contract proposal, but we had a deadline that we had to make. However, those hours weren’t on a continuing basis, because we had learned that the more hours that one works , their efficiency decreases rapidly. It is not sustainable.

There have been numerous articles over the years concerning the hours worked by young associate bankers, in commercial banks, as well as investment banks. When will the managers of these organizations learn that you cannot continually impose those working hours on their employees? When will the employees realize that working these long hours does not mean that you will get more done?

Stanford University has done a number of studies correlating hours worked with productivity. They found that if one worked more than 50 hours a week that the person’s productivity, per hour, decreases significantly. They also found that if one works 55 hours or more, productivity drops exponentially. They also found that if you work 70 hours or more, your productivity is no greater, than if you had worked 55 hours.

The individual must take some blame for allowing this to continually happen. They get caught up in ego driven results, and compete for who gets the most recognition and praise. One researcher states that you should recognize the three part method of acceptance, accountability and detachment.

In 2019, there was a study, published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, that found a profound negative effect on ones health by working long hours. Long working hours affected, adversely, ones mental health and health behavior.

The study found a direct correlation between long working hours, and cardiovascular diseases, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, depression & anxiety, work stress, fatigue, and occupational injuries.

One needs to determine “what is their optimal work hours?” That is the number of hours that one should work, to maximize productivity, without all of the negative side effects mentioned previously. One must find that balance between working and life. This is just as important, for the organization, as it is for the employee.

Organizations must also understand that there has to be a balance between work and life. The inefficiently of consistently working more than 50 to 55 hours per week has a direct impact on the employees productivity and efficiency.

Where is the management of Baird? When will companies wake up and realize that change is necessary?

It is time to “wake up and smell” the roses!

Jess Sweely

Madison, VA.