Interns

[Mich the Tester]

Is this getting out of hand?

Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern Moritz Erhardt found dead after working long hours | Mail Online

[russell]

Is this getting out of hand?

Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern Moritz Erhardt found dead after working long hours | Mail Online

If a few all nighters were enough to kill you then the human race would have died out years ago. Bankers are known for doing drugs, I suspect he overdosed.

[sasguru]

Sensationalist BS. Don't see what the problem is. Pay seems decent for an intern (I thought "interns" didn't get any money?) So what if he had to pull some all-nighters, we've all done that at uni.
And it was only for a limited time anyway.
What did he die off anyway? Probably had an undiagnosed condition.

[bobspud]

If a few all nighters were enough to kill you then the human race would have died out years ago. Bankers are known for doing drugs, I suspect he overdosed.

Bankers and contractors that are on shedloads in a high stress environment, yes I agree. BUT an intern working for free is not the same thing. I have seen the green guys come into a bank they don't see the pub they don't have time, they are there to impress so they get everyone else's crap to do plus their own work. He wouldn't be the first youngster to drop dead with an undetected heart complaint and I had a friend rushed to hospital a few years ago because we we on the 8th week in a row of 7 day work at 15 hours a day he just collapsed in a seizure in the street. So this poor sods demise is just sad...

Whenever I get on a tube in London it always strikes me as bad news to you see so many people nailing back coffee and energy drinks just to get into an office.

Perhaps we need a way to refocus the way we work in general.

[doodab]

Whenever I get on a tube in London it always strikes me as bad news to you see so many people nailing back coffee and energy drinks just to get into an office.

Perhaps we need a way to refocus the way we work in general.

WHS. Work life balance in the UK is screwed up for a lot of people. Society suffers, children suffer, everything suffers. We need to get our priorities right as a nation.

[sasguru]

Bankers and contractors that are on shedloads in a high stress environment, yes I agree. BUT an intern working for free is not the same thing. I have seen the green guys come into a bank they don't see the pub they don't have time, they are there to impress so they get everyone else's crap to do plus their own work. He wouldn't be the first youngster to drop dead with an undetected heart complaint and I had a friend rushed to hospital a few years ago because we we on the 8th week in a row of 7 day work at 15 hours a day he just collapsed in a seizure in the street. So this poor sods demise is just sad...

Whenever I get on a tube in London it always strikes me as bad news to you see so many people nailing back coffee and energy drinks just to get into an office.

Perhaps we need a way to refocus the way we work in general.

Sorry I don't agree. He had a choice - there are plenty of careers that don't need that sort of hours.
But people do it because some can retire in their 30s. Fair enough.
If, as I think is likely, he had an undiagnosed condition, that's a tragedy for him.
If it was due to stimulants, then sorry, but tough.

[BrilloPad]

He got paid! Lucky b*rstard.

I bet one of the other interns had him killed to increase their chances of getting a job.

[Mich the Tester]

Sorry I don't agree. He had a choice - there are plenty of careers that don't need that sort of hours.
But people do it because some can retire in their 30s. Fair enough.
If, as I think is likely, he had an undiagnosed condition, that's a tragedy for him.
If it was due to stimulants, then sorry, but tough.

He did have a choice and he was paid, but I know that at 21 a lot of highly ambitious people just don't have the guts to say 'it's enough'. Banking certainly isn't the only field of work where this happens; it happens in top level sport, where people end up seriously injured, sick or crippled due to overtraining or not being able to take the pressure. Happily, most sports associations in Britain have got to grips with that now and are actually producing better sportspeople than in the past. Sure, different game, but I just don't like seeing very young people being loaded with the responsibilities of much older more experienced people and then ending up like this.

[amcdonald]

Whenever I get on a tube in London it always strikes me as bad news to you see so many people nailing back coffee and energy drinks just to get into an office.

Perhaps we need a way to refocus the way we work in general.

That's because it's what we're perceived to do rather than what we do that is valued

Like before the web became mainstream, people used to carry round folders to make it look like they were busy, when really they were nipping out for a smoke

The same way our long hours culture is about being perceived to be working hard because we work long hours, rather than any real measure of productivity

[bobspud]

Sorry I don't agree. He had a choice - there are plenty of careers that don't need that sort of hours.
But people do it because some can retire in their 30s. Fair enough.
If, as I think is likely, he had an undiagnosed condition, that's a tragedy for him.
If it was due to stimulants, then sorry, but tough.

Actually Sas I think the silly hours mentality has over crept many other careers in the last decade. The tubes are full from 6.30 onward of a morning where I stay in London. They can't all be working in a bank... We have all done silly things in our working lives. God knows I should have died of alcohol poisoning several times over by now, (at least twice caused by staff at the Wail). The we don't do beer at lunch BS always struck me as puritanical. If you want me in the office at 8 and still there at 10.00pm then I am bloody well taking an hour to relax and unwind at lunch and if that involves a beer or glass of wine then thats none of anyones business. But actually maybe we should be in a position where the office takes a more proactive stance in our lives, seriously restricting hours instead of talking about work life balance and then setting goals to push life as far away from the permies as possible, keeping a check on our medical conditions and ensuring we live more outside the office to get more out of us when we are in it...