Matt Levine’s Money Stuff: Bankers’ Hours Are Still Pretty Bad

Hours

I guess the old standard for investment banking analyst hours was “it’s about 100 hours a week, unless you need to work more,” and the new standard is “it’s 80 hours a week, unless you need to work more”:

JPMorgan Chase & Co. will limit junior banker hours to 80 per week in most cases, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. Exceptions may include extra work to complete live deals, the person said.

Doesn’t that still sound bad? Like an 80-hour week is pretty long, and when you phrase it like that — “80 hours per ...