Can an analyst get 9 hours of sleep? Wall Street has closed a lawsuit over 24/7 work hours

Luxury New York investment boutique Centerview Partners has reached a settlement with a former employee who was fired after she demanded a full night's sleep. The story drew intense scrutiny from investment bankers across Wall Street, as the lawsuit could set a precedent and change the rules of the game for one of the most grueling professions in the financial sector, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The dispute ended shortly before the trial, which was set to begin in New York on February 23, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. The terms of the settlement agreement were not disclosed by the parties. Centerview's top managers were expected to testify during the hearing, including the firm's co-president Tony Kim, as well as Catherine Schieber, who sued her former employer. Investbutik officials said they still believe Schieber's claims are without merit, but are willing to close the dispute to focus on clients. Schieber's attorney noted that she is also "happy to turn the page."

The lawsuit was filed in 2021: Schieber claimed she was wrongfully terminated because of her need for regular sleep. The girl's position involved working until 1 a.m. on consecutive days. Shortly after her employment in 2020, Schieber requested a window to rest from midnight to 9 a.m. due to her unstable emotional state and anxiety. Two weeks after receiving this authorization, she was terminated. Schieber sought up to $20 million in damages for lost wages and emotional distress. Centerview insisted that availability at all hours of the day was a basic requirement for an analyst, and Schieber did not meet it.

Entry-level analyst positions at leading investment banks remain highly coveted by college graduates because they open the door to a career in finance and bring in earnings well into the six figures in the first few years, the WSJ notes. In return, however, the job requires grueling labor - sometimes more than 100 hours a week - on monotonous tasks such as designing presentations or filling out spreadsheets.

The jury trial against Centerview threatened to call into question the legality of such corporate practices, with Judge Edgardo Ramos emphasizing that there was a genuine dispute over whether the need to be on call 24/7 was really an "essential function" of the banking analyst position. The settlement agreement allowed the investment bankers to avoid having their corporate culture evaluated by the court.

The grueling work schedules at Wall Street firms have long been controversial, Bloomberg reminds us. In 2024, the deaths of two young employees at Bank of America sparked widespread discussions about overwork, though it's unclear whether irregular schedules actually had an impact on what happened. Since then, some of the largest banks have tried to regulate the workload of junior bankers. That same year, JPMorgan Chase limited work to 80 hours per week, and BofA launched internal monitoring of whether employees were meeting their weekly 100-hour limits.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor