【英语生活】投行工作：身心不能承受之重

Add investment banking to the list of things that could be dangerous to your health.

A University of Southern California researcher found insomnia, alcoholism, heart palpitations, eating disorders and an explosive temper in some of the roughly two dozen entry-level investment bankers she shadowed fresh out of business school.

Every individual she observed over a decade developed a stress-related physical or emotional ailment within several years on the job, she says in a study to be published this month.

Investment banking has long been a beacon for ambitious people who crave competition, big money, steak dinners and paid-for town-car service. The 100-hour workweek, these ironmen and ironwomen tell themselves, is just the opening ante in a high-stakes game.

But investment bankers, salespeople and traders are only human. Under the immense stress of their jobs, many suffer personal and emotional problems that escalate into full-blown crises, with some bankers developing conditions that linger long after they have left the industry.

Of course, no one is being drafted into high finance. Aspiring Wall Street stars sign up for the punishing hours with eyes open. What's more, the study's small size and the lack of a control group raise questions about how closely the findings apply to the broader population of roughly 267,000 would-be masters of the universe.

But Lindley DeGarmo, 58 years old, a former director at Salomon Brothers who left the finance industry in 1995 to become a pastor, recalls how managers often worked the younger hires to exhaustion. 'The culture was very much that these were dogs' bodies,' he says.

John Chrin, a former managing director at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. who left the firm in June 2009 to pursue an executive-in-residence position at Lehigh University, recalls seeing junior staff gain 30 or 40 pounds within a couple years on the job. When he worked at Merrill Lynch & Co., now a unit of Bank of America Corp., he recalls that one managing director ordered a chauffeur to turn on the air conditioning even though it was out of order, causing the car to burst into flames. The managing director then threatened to have the driver fired. Bank of America declined to comment.

'Maybe the job amplifies some of the tendencies that were already there,' he says.

The USC study began a decade ago at two Wall Street banks that granted access on the condition they remain anonymous.

Alexandra Michel, an assistant management professor at USC's Marshall School of Business, shadowed the bankers at the office─sitting next to them, following them to meetings, mirroring their hours and even pulling all-nighters─for more than 100 hours a week during the first year, about 80 hours a week during the second year, and then followed up with in-person interviews.

The study will be published in the next issue of the Administrative Science Quarterly, due out later this month.

During their first two years, the bankers worked on average 80 to 120 hours a week, but remained eager and energetic, she says. They typically arrived at 6 a.m. and left around midnight.

By the fourth year, however, many bankers were a mess, according to the study. Some were sleep-deprived, blaming their bodies for preventing them from finishing their work. Others developed allergies and substance addictions. Still others were diagnosed with long-term health conditions such as Crohn's disease, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis and thyroid disorders.

One mild-mannered banking associate spoke about exploding in rage at a cab driver after unsuccessfully attempting to open a locked door from the outside: 'I became so furious that I kept banging against the windows like crazy, swearing at the poor guy. And then I turned around and saw that a managing director was watching with his mouth open. I was so ashamed.'

Meanwhile, company 'perks' offered to employees, such as take-out meals and car service, had gradually blurred the lines between work and life.

One vice president described work as a never-ending nightmare, waking up every morning and wishing the day before 'was just a bad dream.' Another vice president said he was so worried others might notice his drinking problem that he would 'keep losing half of what they are saying.'

By the sixth year, the participants, now in their mid-30s, had split into two camps: the 60% who remained 'at war' with their bodies, and the remaining 40% who decided to prioritize their health, meaning they paid more attention to sleep, exercise and diet and set limits on how much they allowed work to consume them.

Roughly one-fifth of the bankers left the profession, she adds. For fear of being exposed, the banks prohibited her from detailing the exact size of the study group, attrition rate and precise start date.

Bankers are at higher risk for burnout and mental-health problems due to the volatility in their profession, says Alden Cass, a New York-based clinical psychologist who specializes in counseling Wall Street professionals. In a study of 26 stockbrokers he conducted a decade ago, Mr. Cass found nearly one-quarter had clinical levels of depression, more than three times the rate among the general population. That was when the economy was booming and compensation levels were high, he adds.

Recent turmoil on Wall Street has served to heighten stress levels. That makes the roughly 40 patients who stream into Mr. Cass's midtown office each week appear even more anxious and high-strung than before.

Most seek help after their personal relationships are affected by the job. Some are addicted to prescription drugs like Adderall or Ritalin. To cope, they resort to 'depersonalization,' a feeling of numbness toward the rest of the world. A few have been suicidal.

Many have neglected their health for so long that Mr. Cass gets them to go for physical check-ups.

'There's a reason you don't find an awful lot of old investment bankers,' says Mr. DeGarmo, the former Salomon Brothers director. 'It's a tough life.'

LESLIE KWOH

Scott Youtsey for The Wall Street Journal
哪些事情可能会危害你的身体健康？如今这个名单中恐怕得加上在投行工作这一项了。

美国南加州大学马歇尔商学院（University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business）管理学助理教授亚历山德拉•米歇尔（Alexandra Michel）对刚从商学院毕业后进入投行从事初级工作的大约20余人进行了跟踪观察。她发现，其中有一部分人存在失眠、酗酒、心悸、饮食失调以及脾气暴躁等健康问题。

米歇尔在即将于本月发表的研究中指出，在她于这十年研究期所观察的对象中，每个人都在工作数年内患上了与压力相关的身体或心理上的疾病。

对于那些雄心勃勃，渴望竞争、赚大钱、牛排大餐以及付费礼宾车接送服务的人而言，投行工作一向是他们前行的目标。这些“铁人”和“铁娘子”告诉自己，每周100小时的工作时间只是在高风险博弈中投下的“头注”。

然而，那些投行人士、销售人员和交易员毕竟也都是凡人。在承受巨大的工作压力时，许多人都遭到个人和心理问题的折磨。这些问题会恶化成为全面的健康危机，有些投行人在辞职多年之后依然难以摆脱以前患上的顽疾。

当然，没有谁是被强行拉去从事高端金融业工作的。面对劳心劳力的超长工作时间，满怀抱负的华尔街明星们可都是睁大双眼签下了合同的。而且话说回来，这项研究规模小，而且缺乏可以对照的控制组。对于投行业数目庞大、意欲成为世界主宰者的这大约267,000人来说，这项研究的发现对他们的适用程度有多高还存在疑问。

现年58岁、曾在所罗门兄弟公司（Salomon Brothers）担任董事的林德利•德加莫（Lindley DeGarmo）回忆说，经理们经常把年轻些的员工累得筋疲力尽。他说，“那种文化在很大程度上就像把这些人当狗使唤一样。”1995年，德加莫退出金融行业，成为了一名牧师。

摩根大通（J.P. Morgan Chase & Co.）前董事总经理约翰•克林（John Chrin）也回忆称，他曾目睹有初级员工在工作一两年内胖了三四十磅。他在2009年6月离开摩根大通在利哈伊大学（Lehigh University）谋得了一个驻校高管的职位。他还回忆道，当年在美林（Merrill Lynch & Co.，现已并入美国银行（Bank of America Corp.））工作时，一位董事总经理下令司机把发生故障的空调打开，结果导致汽车着火，这名董事总经理随后还威胁要将司机解雇。美国银行拒绝就此事置评。

克林说，“或许这个职业将你身上已经存在的某些不良倾向放大了。”

南加州大学的这项研究于10年前在华尔街两家投行开始展开，这两家投行准许研究人员入内，条件是不得公布它们的名称。

米歇尔进入了这两家投行的办公室跟踪观察，她会坐在这些投行人的身旁、跟着他们去开会、模仿他们长时间工作甚至是通宵熬夜。在第一年，米歇尔每周跟踪观察100多个小时，第二年的跟踪时间约为每周80小时，之后以面谈方式进行跟踪回访。

该项研究将刊登在下一期的《管理科学季刊》（Administrative Science Quarterly）上，预计将在本月晚些时候出版。

她说，在最初两年，这些投行人士每周平均工作80至120个小时，但仍然斗志昂扬、精力充沛。他们通常在早晨6点到办公室，在午夜左右才下班。

然而，据研究显示，到了第四年，许多人的健康状况开始恶化。有些人睡眠不足，怪罪身体妨碍了他们完成工作，其他一些人则患上了过敏症或者对某些物质上瘾，还有一些人被诊断患上了一些慢性病，例如克罗恩病、银屑病、风湿性关节炎以及甲状腺疾病等。

一位温文尔雅的投行项目经理谈到，他曾向一名出租车司机大发雷霆，原因是他没能从出租车外打开锁着的车门。他说，“我愤怒极了，像疯了一样不停地猛敲车窗，嘴里还咒骂着那个可怜的家伙。后来我转过身，发现一名董事总经理正张大着嘴看着这一切。我感到非常羞愧。”

与此同时，公司为员工提供的“福利”，例如外卖和用车服务，都逐渐模糊了工作与生活之间的界线。

一位副总裁称工作是一个永无止境的噩梦，每天早晨醒来，希望刚过去的一天“只是个噩梦”。另一名副总裁说，他非常担心别人可能会察觉他有酗酒问题，以至于“一直漏听别人一半的谈话内容”。

到了第六年，这些受试者的年纪也到了35岁左右，他们分为了两大阵营，第一阵营中60%的人依旧在与自己的身体“作战”，余下40%第二阵营的人决定以健康为先，这意味着他们会更加注重睡眠、锻炼和饮食，并限制工作对身体的损耗。

米歇尔补充道，大约有五分之一的人离开了投行业。为了避免暴露身份，这些银行禁止她详细说明研究小组的确切人数、员工流失率以及调查确切的开始日期。

纽约一名专为华尔街专业人士提供心理咨询服务的临床心理学家奥尔登•卡斯（Alden Cass）认为，由于职业波动性较大，投行人更易于身体衰竭，心理健康也更容易出现问题。他曾在10年前对26名股票经纪人进行过研究，他发现有四分之一的人的抑郁情绪到了需要接受治疗的程度，该比例是普通大众的三倍多。他补充道，这还只是经济繁荣奖金丰厚时期的情况。

最近，华尔街的动荡局面加剧了压力的程度，来到卡斯位于市中心的诊所就诊的约40位病人的焦虑和精神高度紧张的程度看起来一周更甚一周。

大多数人在个人感情受到工作影响后开始寻求帮助。有些人则对安非他明缓释制剂（Adderall）和利他林（Ritalin）之类的处方药上瘾，他们随之诉诸“人格解体”（某种对周遭的人和事物麻木不仁的心态）作为应对之策，此外还有一些人一直有自杀倾向。

许多人忽视健康问题的时间过长，卡斯不得不让他们去做体检。

所罗门兄弟前董事德加莫说，“我们看到的上了年纪的投行人士不是很多，这是事出有因的。那是一种残酷的生活。”

LESLIE KWOH

（本文版权归道琼斯公司所有，未经许可不得翻译或转载。）