The Financial Times recently did an article (subscription required) about the very long work week of employees, particularly new recruits, in investment banks, corporate law offices and mergers and acquisition consultancies. The article confirmed what I already knew, that very often these employees work more than one hundred hours a week. Note that one hundred hours a week is over fourteen hours a day for seven days a week. It was discussed in the article that some companies were addressing such long hours with the aim to limit the work week to eighty hours. Even at this level that is still over eleven hours a day including weekends!
What I found particularly interesting is that someone in one of the firms described this as a “rite of passage”. I agree with the use of this term and find it particularly revealing, almost Freudian. A rite of passage is an event which divides someone’s life into a “before” and an “after”. Many of them involve performing something that is difficult because it requires training, is arduous or even grueling. The spectrum ranges from the benign like proms and graduations, the painful like scarification (cutting to create scars) rituals of some Papua New Guinea tribes and the outright dangerous like bungee jumping using vines by tribes in Vanuatu. The point of the rite of passage is that the performer is transformed to a higher state as a result. No one likes to admit that they perform rituals, but rituals have not disappeared in the modern world, they are just disguised in a new garb. All rites of passage are rituals whether the participant is dressed in a loincloth or a three-piece suit.
One question that arises is which category does the hundred-hour workweek ritual fall into? Is it the benign, the arduous or the dangerous? Another question is what is the higher state that the participant is transformed into?
However, the most important question on the issue is, what is the belief system underlying the rite of passage? You see, if one has a consistent belief system then the rite of passage is fulfilling no matter how hard, painful or even dangerous. However, if someone has an inconsistent belief system then the rite of passage is depressing, tedious and maybe even harmful.
Clearly the belief system underlying the hundred-hour work week is that life is about creating wealth for yourself and others, consequently having a huge earning potential (not caring that you have limited time to spend your earnings), and being seen as a master of your field. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this belief system. I do not happen to share it but, as I have covered in Immortal Truths, we are all wired differently. It takes all sorts of points of view to make a world and if you disagree with me that does not make you my enemy.
However, many young people in investment banks, law firms and M&A consultants are there by default. They are bright and hard working so they assume that they belong in these firms without stopping to consider that perhaps their belief system is inconsistent with the rite of passage that they must endure. I know from experience that in very many cases they do have inconsistent belief systems that will make their rite of passage not something fulfilling, but rather an act of torture. Seeing such situations over the years has pained me tremendously and is one of the reasons behind the book Immortal Truths which covers the little nuances that will lead to a much more fulfilling work-life.