Becoming an investment banker might be great for your wallet but it's terrible for your health, a comprehensive new study makes clear. Think addictions, insomnia, heart trouble, eating disorders, depression, and rage. A University of Southern California researcher trailed two dozen investment bakers through their first decade on the job and discovered that every single one became afflicted with a physical or emotional malady linked to stress, reports the Wall Street Journal.
"There's a reason you don't find an awful lot of old investment bankers," says a former director of a top bank. "It's a tough life." The USC study started two decades ago at two anonymous major investment banks. The subjects were energetic and motivated in their first two years, toiling through 100-hour workweeks. But by the fourth year, many of them had descended into alcohol abuse, chronic sleep deprivation, and even suffered long-term ailments including psoriasis and Crohn's disease. (More investment bankers stories.)