Telecommuting, 'zooming' and depression: philosopher Byung-Chul Han says we exploit ourselves more than ever
Consultants, investment banks and large law firms have become the most visible link in a way of understanding work based on long working hours that extend into the weekend, lack of respect for digital disconnection and a constant turnover of personal.
Several studies, as well as the dozen employees, former employees and sources consulted, widely document the model of these companies, generating stress beyond what is healthy that threatens to drive away young talents, less and less willing to go through traditional filters to reach flashy positions if it entails giving up his personal life for several years.
Although there are times when the workload decreases and this can vary according to the size of the client, there is enough data to speak of an exhausting lifestyle.
A survey carried out in 2019 by the Mental Health Institute of the Lawyers to which 672 lawyers responded reveals that 71% of the lawyers of large firms have working hours of between 40 and 60 hours per week on average.
And 10.5% exceed that threshold, which means exceeding 12 hours a day if they work five days a week.
98.8% of the participants identified stress as a high or very high risk to their health.
Paid exploitation
Auditors from the
big four
(PwC, KPMG, EY and Deloitte) describe to this newspaper peaks of 80 hours - almost 12 hours a day, seven days a week - in the so-called
busy season
of
the months of January and February, when the annual accounts of large companies are closed and must be reviewed against the clock before the presentation of results.
At investment banks, complaints like that of first-year analysts at Goldman Sachs, calling for 80 hours instead of 95 hours, uncover an even more strenuous corporate culture and have brought the debate over work balance to the fore. and personal life, which was already the subject of discussion due to teleworking and the abuse of meetings through applications such as Zoom.
The scenes that illustrate the effects of this unbridled rhythm are varied.
A former employee of a large Spanish law firm relates that after a month working with little rest to prepare the answer to a lawsuit, stress had hidden a contracture in her neck.
Once the job was done, he was unable to balance and passed out, requiring a week off and several weeks of rehabilitation.
He was then 26 years old.
"When I returned from sick leave, one of my bosses told me not to worry, that was because I was not used to the pace of work and that it would pass," explains the lawyer, who prefers to remain anonymous, and that today It is part of the organization chart of a large public entity.
Javier Franco, junior auditor of PwC between 2016 and 2019, where he worked on the accounts of Banco Santander and Telefónica, both among the most demanding, recalls how a more senior employee, exhausted, began to cry at five in the morning before the indifference of the rest of the team leaders.
Meanwhile, he tried unsuccessfully to convince her to take a taxi instead of his vehicle to return home at the risk of an accident due to fatigue.
The four towers of the financial zone of Madrid, last week Santi Burgos
Franco believes that some practices of these firms are directly illegal.
"They skip the limit of overtime included in the agreement, they do not respect the rest provided by law, nor do they respect digital disconnection: they write emails and WhatsApp messages to your personal number on holidays."
In the months of January and February of 2017 and 2018, he worked every day, including weekends, until late at night.
"At Telefónica they would turn off the lights and we would go to the PwC tower, which is open 24 hours a day," he recalls.
His salary ranged between 24,000 and 27,000 euros per year, an amount that he considers does not compensate if it is divided between the hours worked.
After writing to the labor inspectorate, contacting various media outlets, and repeatedly complaining to managers about schedule violations - which earned him the nickname
the trade unionist
- he decided to leave.
Another young former auditor for one of the big four consultancies, who does not want to make his name public for fear of retaliation, confirms that excessive pressure, untimely work hours and excessively tight deadlines are a recurring topic of conversation among colleagues.
“Bosses take it for granted that you have to work weekends.
Many people cry in frustration.
A person can endure stress peaks, but not constant stress, "he says.
One of the problems that he detected throughout his five years in the sector was the bad planning of the hours.
Those scheduled for a project are often insufficient, which forces you to dedicate extra time while combining them with new responsibilities.
This is what they call the
backpack effect
.
“I told the partners that to give me time I would have to stop sleeping.
They told me to fix it myself ”.
After a tense exchange of impressions, he ended up agreeing to his departure.
Employee rotation is the order of the day.
Franco explains that of the 20 people who originally made up the last team he was part of, the one that kept the Telefónica account, there came a time when there were only three left.
And among those who replaced them there were new exits.
“That is why they make massive hiring.
It makes me laugh that they brag about how many people they employ.
They leave because they are not cared for, ”he says.
Asked by this newspaper about their labor practices, the four large consulting firms have refused to answer.
If conditions are seemingly so bad, why hold on and leave sooner?
Among those who have gone through audits, large law firms and investment banks, there is consensus that the salary is better than the average for those just out of university, the desire to open doors in the job market is great and learning is intense.
Not only do they work surrounded by great professionals, they also receive training courses financed by the company, even abroad.
There are other motivations.
They are in contact with important clients or collaborate on cases they would not otherwise have access to.
They win lawsuits, receive bonuses and close million dollar deals that are celebrated with meals and parties in style.
“It generates a lot of adrenaline and it can be very rewarding at specific moments, something that not many people experience in their jobs,” says a lawyer with experience in the sector.
In addition, they estimate - most of the time with reason - that if you are able to hold out for a few years, then you will have a free pass to highly paid jobs.
That is why many of them, even aware of the beating it entailed, would follow that itinerary again.
They have ended up reaping the fruits.
Despite the heavy personal toll, there are also those who do not see their work solely as a stepping stone to other goals and try to race to the top of the pyramid.
A lawyer who has been in a large law firm for more than a decade and has eight people in her charge recalls that in the beginning she went on to chain three uninterrupted months working from eight in the morning to eleven at night to prepare a case.
Since then he has witnessed timid steps to improve conciliation, such as reducing the working day on Fridays to leave at three in the afternoon.
The changes, however, face factors inherent to their work, against which the firms can do little, such as clients who arrive with emergencies to which they must respond with agility, with little margin.
Responsiveness is taken for granted.
And there personal life occupies a very secondary role.
In the worst of the pandemic, the supposed flexibility of teleworking sometimes degenerated into an open bar to order and order.
"Since you couldn't leave home, they assumed that you had 24-hour availability," explains the trial lawyer, who among other matters has dealt with relevant banking issues, class actions and arbitrations abroad.
Dependence on electronic devices is permanent.
Even on vacation there are days when you have to hook up again.
"The requirement is in line with what you learn and with the salary," he says.
“There are people who sacrifice hours of sleep.
You have to juggle your life and it's an emotional roller coaster.
Sometimes I think that it does not compensate me, other times I feel fulfilled.
I am not a mother, but I see people with children doubt more ”.
With no unions to turn to, anonymous mailboxes and annual evaluations serve the company to try to capture the mood of their own, but without a counter-power to challenge them, they have a free hand to perpetuate that model.
The jurist knows cases of scholarship holders who have left the ship shortly after starting the internship, denying that life chained to the chair, in search of a competition that guarantees them a less busy schedule under the protective mantle of the public.
The companies try to stop this rout with incentives.
The newly hired in the office of this lawyer earn between 26,000 and 32,000 euros.
And if you hold on long enough, those amounts go up a lot.
Also the responsibilities, which include painful resignations, such as that summer Sunday when he could not go to his nephew's birthday.
And scares.
She witnessed an ambulance being called because a member of the group's heart was racing.
"I believe that things are going to change and that I can be part of that shift towards conciliation," he argues.
Another survey, this one carried out in 2018 by
Iberian Lawyers
magazine
among 66 lawyers, found that eight out of ten respondents knew a colleague who suffered or had suffered from mental health problems throughout their career, some as serious as depression or effects as serious as suicide.
79% blamed this on work overload.
"Either we change or we will lose the most valid"
Paula Fernández-Ochoa, president of the Mental Health Institute of Lawyers, regrets that the profession continues to bet on too long hours.
"The consequences are stress, anxiety, addictions, sick leave due to depression and absenteeism, which reduces productivity," he says.
Fernández-Ochoa believes that large law firms are going to have to correct that policy.
“I teach at the university and a few years ago everyone was dying to get into the big offices [Garrigues, Cuatrecasas and Uría y Menéndez].
Now I find it difficult to find young people who want to go to them because of the lifestyle that awaits them ”.
Competition from tech, funds, and other big companies, offering more free time and high salaries, makes it even tougher.
"Either we change or we will lose the most valid, who have other alternatives," agrees the senior lawyer from one of the largest law firms in the country.
Marlen Estévez, partner at the Roca Junyent law firm and president of Women in a Legal World, is the mother of two children, ages five and seven.
He recognizes that his work takes up many hours, so many that he prefers not to give a number.
"I do not want to be a reference in terms of hours because it is a bit out of the ordinary and I do not pretend that everyone does them."
Estévez believes that it is a matter of knowing how to organize himself: in his case, he prefers to take a break in his day to put his children to bed and then continue at night.
Coordination with the couple and the help of grandparents and caregivers becomes essential to maintain that rhythm in a profession that is said to be passionate.
His remedies against stress are sports, eating well, certain readings or turning to a personal advisor.
“You are under a lot of stress and pressure.
You have to give yourself your little prizes ”, he recommends.
Ángel Cano, CEO of BBVA between 2009 and 2015, knows what it is to live almost permanently absorbed by work.
Advise stressed employees to find a safety valve.
His was and is running.
In a way that may seem excessive to some.
On a work trip, he arrived at his hotel in Tokyo at two in the morning and the first thing he did was get on the treadmill to do a few kilometers.
Cano sees two reasons to explain the marathon days in these sectors: the search for more profitability and the enormous competitiveness.
That leads firms to bid at knockdown prices to win highly coveted projects, forcing them to reduce the number of employees involved.
Cano perceives an underground battle between the old school, in favor of presentism and long hours, and the new batch, which leans towards work for objectives and a more autonomous organization of time.
“The young people of today may have the same ambition as those of before, but they are not willing to rise at any price.
Before, the one who put in the most hours was the one who climbed the most.
People today believe that you can get there in another way.
I see it in my children ”, he maintains.
The chief economist of the investment bank Arcano, Ignacio de la Torre, sees difficult a change of habits in his sector.
Those who work in stock market operations and other assets are not exposed to endless hours because the markets close, but those involved in corporate movements such as mergers or acquisitions live dedicated body and soul to their work.
Fixing it, he argues, is not as simple as hiring more employees.
De la Torre argues that it is very difficult to adjust supply to demand: several operations are launched in parallel, but some fail, and all that work is only rewarded when they are successful, so he plans some uncertainty about the income they will receive .
Whether there are many simultaneous negotiations or just a few, the pressure does not diminish, because to survive you have to prepare presentations to find new business and continue billing.
“Deliveroo can hire more
riders
, but in investment banking it is more difficult.
They are profiles that you have to integrate into your own culture and the rewards are very high, ”he explains.
"I don't feel sorry for Goldman Sachs"
The fame of demand for this type of work is such that in
Industry
, the new HBO series that deals with the life of a group of young people who compete to be hired by an investment bank in London, one of the applicants commits suicide in the first chapter.
As happened with the death of Moritz Erhardt, the intern from the London office of Bank of America who appeared lifeless in the shower after suffering an epileptic seizure after working 72 hours in a row, the complaint of the young people of Goldman Sachs has been refilled. pages about the extent to which schedules like this should be allowed, even if your bank accounts keep adding zeros.
Moritz Erhardt (center), the Bank of America fellow who passed away after a grueling day's work.
A Spaniard who worked in 2007, at the age of 24, in the investment banking division of Citigroup in the British capital, the European financial mecca, confirms that the schedules are not made for everyone, but insists that the great Wall Street do not fool anyone.
During the selection process they repeat over and over again that they need them ultra-motivated and ready for an unusual effort.
“I don't feel sorry for Goldman Sachs analysts who complain about working 95 hours a week.
It is true that you work like a beast, but they are people with very good profiles, who have other offers and receive salaries at the top of the job market, ”he reasons.
Liberty Seguros will allow its 2,000 employees in Europe to telework permanently
In his case, despite being recently graduated, he participated in renowned operations, where billions were moved, such as the purchase of London's Heathrow airport by Ferrovial.
"You are in the thick of it," he emphasizes.
His salary was far in excess of normal for someone who had just left the classroom: £ 50,000 fixed a year and £ 20,000 more in variable.
Clutching huge glasses of Starbucks coffee, the days passed in front of the screens, linking weeks of going to bed at six in the morning and getting up at ten, only four hours of sleep, in which he lost weight.
Finally, despite being offered a contract after the summer holidays, he chose to change jobs, something very common.
"Every two weeks you received an email from people saying goodbye," he recalls.
Others resist out of ambition.
“There are those who last a few years to do a curriculum and some money.
With three years of work experience they can give the entrance of a flat, something unthinkable in other jobs.
As you promote your salary, it escalates, so it is a vicious cycle that is hard to get out of, "he admits.
Image of the City, London's financial district, in January 2018.TOBY MELVILLE / Reuters
Despite the resignations, he does not regret having undergone such an experience.
Nor would it bother him if one of his three children followed that path.
Of course, explaining before what they will find.
“A person with 23 or 24 years has to be willing to sacrifice.
And to be a slavery it is very well paid ”, he concludes.
The stream of history, however, seems to run in the opposite direction.
The debate over the four-day work week is on the table.
And concern for the well-being of employees seems to be gaining ground little by little in worlds such as finance.
Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser announced a ban on internal video calls on Fridays ten days ago, and encouraged her employees to set boundaries between work and personal life.
The most skeptical recall similar good intentions after Erhardt's death eight years ago.
They take it for granted that nothing will change.