JP Morgan Chase Implements Digital Monitoring of Junior Bankers’ Work Hours
JP Morgan Chase has initiated a pilot program that compares the hours junior investment bankers report working with estimates generated by its IT systems.
The US-based bank announced it would begin providing junior bankers with reports contrasting computer-generated approximations of their weekly work hours against their self-reported timesheets. This initiative is part of a pilot scheme aimed at increasing awareness of workloads.
The company intends to expand this program more broadly across its investment banking division. The IT-generated estimates are derived from employees’ weekly digital activities, including video calls, desktop keystrokes, and scheduled meetings.
“Much like the weekly screen time summaries on a smartphone, this tool is about awareness, not enforcement,” JP Morgan said in a statement. “It’s designed to support transparency, wellbeing, and encourage open conversations about workload.”
Efforts to Improve Junior Staff Wellbeing
In 2024, JP Morgan appointed a senior banker responsible for overseeing the wellbeing of junior staff. Since then, the bank has reduced weekend work expectations for younger employees and capped their working week at 80 hours.
Technology to monitor employees has become increasingly common in financial services, especially following the rise in remote work triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, some employees have expressed concerns that such monitoring infringes on their privacy. The banking sector has been notably stricter than other industries in enforcing return-to-office policies post-pandemic.
Context of Workload and Industry Challenges
The investment banking sector has a longstanding reputation for demanding workloads and punishing hours, balanced by six-figure salaries even for entry-level positions.
Two years ago, Leo Lukenas III, a junior banker at Bank of America, reported working weeks exceeding 100 hours.
In 2013, Moritz Erhardt, a 21-year-old intern at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, was found deceased in the shower of his London apartment.
Two years later, Goldman Sachs instructed summer interns to ensure they left the office before midnight and refrained from returning before 7 a.m., aiming to improve work-life balance.
During the pandemic, a small group of newly hired investment banking analysts at Goldman Sachs revealed they were working 100-hour weeks and experiencing abuse from colleagues, which negatively impacted their mental and physical health.
“Management monitors junior banker staffing and activity levels and regularly adjusts the workloads of our teams,” Goldman Sachs stated.
