Banking Executive Called A ‘Valued Leader’ After Army Veteran Passes Away After Working 100-Hour Weeks Under His Leadership
This is your reminder to leave your desk when the workday is done.
DragonImages | Canva Pro Bank of America leadership has remained steadfast in its praise of a key executive the company recently stripped of all oversight duties following the sudden death of one of his key employees, a 35-year-old former Green Beret, after a year of working 100-hour weeks.
The move is just the latest chapter in a truly dystopian story resulting from what many say are impossible demands placed on workers by the finance industry, as well as a disturbing history of worker abuses on the part of both the company and its executives.
Bank of America says executive Gary Howe 'has our full support' despite demoting him in the wake of the death of Veteran Leo Lukenas III.
Howe was formerly the leader of BofA's Financial Institutions Group, where he oversaw the company's FinTech investment banking team. However, he has recently been stripped of that position, a move that came after some 50 employees on his 150-member team were assigned to other teams within the company.
The changes to Howe's job have sparked speculation that he'll soon leave the company entirely. They come amid the uproar over Lukenas' death in May after a year of the astonishing 100-hour-per-week workloads he endured under Howe's leadership.
The incident has led to Bank of America and other Wall Street institutions announcing changes to how they manage junior-level bankers, many of whom have complained of similar working conditions. Nevertheless, Bank of America insists Howe is a valued member of its team. Speaking to The New York Post, BofA's Head of Global Corporate and Investment Banking Matthew Koder said Howe "has our full support as leader of our Global Financial Institutions Investment Banking group."
It's a strange approach — demoting him but insisting he's a key leader, and insiders say it is part of a long-held pattern at BofA of pushing employees out rather than disciplining them. Those who spoke to the media also speculate it is part of a strategy to dodge legal liability from lawsuits likely to arise from the truly appalling circumstances surrounding Lukenas' death.
Lukenas, a former Green Beret, repeatedly told family he could not handle his 100-hour weeks and had considered leaving Bank of America because of them.
Lukenas III's background as an Army Green Beret is an important part of his story. The most elite force in the U.S. Army, Green Berets undergo years of grueling training to become experts in counterterrorism and guerilla warfare.
In short, if someone in Lukenas' elite physical condition could not endure the rigors of Bank of America's workloads for junior bankers like him, something is profoundly wrong. To be clear, Lukenas died of acute coronary artery thrombus, a type of blood clot, and no New York authority has pointed to his workload at Bank of America as a cause of his death.
But stress and being sedentary, as one would be working 14-hour days, are among the many contributing factors to deadly blood clots. More to the point, his family believes his workload directly led to his passing. They say Lukenas repeatedly complained about the untenable workload he'd been given by Howe, for whom he worked for a year on a merger deal that was completed just days before his death.
In an interview with Reuters, Douglas Walters, a recruiter at the firm Gray Fox, also said that Lukenas had reached out to him with help leaving Bank of America for another job just before his death. He said Lukenas had applied to a position that paid significantly less than BofA, telling Walters that he'd gladly "'trade hours of sleep'" and time with his family for a pay cut.
Walters said that Lukenas had not mentioned health problems at any point.
In the wake of his death, Lukenas' twin brother Les began a donation campaign to support his wife and children, saying in a LinkedIn post that his brother's "greatest dream was to provide for his family" and that he was "driven by a desire for new challenges… to pursue new opportunities" for his wife and children.
The bank executive allegedly has a reputation in the finance industry for overworking junior employees, according to former colleagues.
Howe's long career in finance has been peppered with complaints about the way he managed junior employees, according to a former colleague who spoke with The New York Post. "People complained about his attitude, respect for others, and the hours he made people work,” the UBS employee said, adding that people also "complained about working 100-hour weeks" like Lukenas'.
A damning Wall Street Journal exposé in August revealed that Bank of America has instituted a new hours-logging system following Lukenas' death, in part because it had become routine for managers to tell junior associates to lie about their workloads if their hours totaled more than 80.
That 80-hour limit was implemented years ago following the death of a 21-year-old junior employee after working for 72 hours straight. And while employees who spoke to the Journal did not say that Howe specifically told them to lie, it was his duty to monitor and approve everyone's hours.
Insiders also said that the bizarre way BofA has chosen to handle Howe's scandal is par for the course. CEO and Chair Brian Moynihan is known for not firing people and then using demotions and pay decreases to send a message to employees he wants out. People also speculated that BofA's handling is likely part of a strategy to avoid legal liability amid lawsuits they expect to be brought pertaining to Lukenas' death.
Lukenas' story comes amid a spate of deaths in the corporate world, including 26-year-old Indian accountant Anna Sebastian Perayil, whose family similarly attributed her death to her untenable workload at Ernst & Young's India division.
Another finance professional, 60-year-old Denise Prudhomme, was found dead at her desk at an Arizona Wells Fargo office, where she'd been slumped over for four days before being discovered.
Amid all the speculation over these cases, what is certain is that something is profoundly wrong with capitalist work culture, and Lukenas' case, in particular, holds up a mirror to the ways firms abuse employees and shield top-level executives from accountability for far too long.
Here's hoping his death wakes someone up before more people have to senselessly die because of America's profoundly sick work culture.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice, and human interest topics.