Thread by @iamtoosh

Everyone’s baffled by #GOLDMANSACHS analysts working 100hr weeks. I started my career in the same job and can explain WHY anyone does it. Thread 🧵 below 👇🏾

MONEY AND STATUS. THE END.

Oh and also because they worship Christian Bale in American Psycho

You will hear stuff like: “accelerated learning” “exit opportunities” “chance to work with the smartest people on the planet” “I thrive in fast paced dynamic environments” “crash course in business” etc.

We all want money and status to a degree. MORE money and status, FASTER than anyone else, is the true motivation for 100hr weeks in banking.

You know the trade-offs before you start. You just haven’t felt what it’s like not to sleep for a year yet. That’s when the true price hits you and you put together a 13 page slide deck for HR.

Within 2yrs, I put on 15kg, started losing hair, what hair I had left started going grey, developed RSI so bad I lost feeling in 2 fingers for 3 months, my hand would spasm randomly and I would just drop what I’m holding.

Plus Many other ailments that are common for 62yr old, not a 22yr old. My physical and mental health were in pieces.

BUT, I DID LEARN. I learnt when my first bonus came in that a £5k watch didn’t make me happy. That I had no interest in playing status games. I didn’t care whether ferragamo or Gucci loafers were better (this was regular lunchtime chat).

I also DID experience the upsides. Accelerated learning. Understanding business and finance. Learning how to speak to and deal with important people. Resilience. Stamina. Work ethic. How far I could push my limits. Using excel and PowerPoint without a keyboard. Handling politics.

All of that makes me a better startup founder today. I got to know myself better and I gained hard skills which I’ve needed time and time again. They call the graduate programme “Bootcamp” for a reason.

It gave me the feeling that if I could do 100hr weeks, I could do anything. Maybe I could start my own business? Maybe I could actually be successful at it? I also now had a good grip on what I wanted my life to look like and not look like at 24yrs old

That level of clarity is rare for most people, let alone 20-somethings. I was lucky that @join_ef @matthewclifford @Alicebentinck saw something in me. I could take what I had learnt and apply it to something useful, impactful, that would make me and hopefully many others happier

@Hubble was born out of my experience of the impact of the working environment on our lives. Great environments breed better outcomes, happier and more productive staff. Bad environments breed resentment, workplace politics and PR disasters #goldmansachs.

Our mission is to improve the working lives of one million people by 2025, by ensuring that people have the right work environments to truly thrive. The physical workplace is one part of that, but culture is another - both are symbiotic.

The best talent in the world will eventually vote with its feet and join businesses that place employees’ happiness and productivity at the heart of what they do. Even in the last 10yrs, the shift from banking as the #1 career choice for MBAs, to tech, has already happened.

Money and status are both available here, without the hazing rituals and toxic masculinity of working on Wall Street.

Yes, there will be thousands of overachieving grads lining up to work at #goldmansachs, but the lines at #google have been getting longer every year.

The #futureofwork is personalised, productive and purposeful workplaces for people to truly thrive. The days of white collar sweat shops are numbered.