Starting Salary of $200,000 but
Must Endure 120-Hour Workweeks
Taking Drugs for Long Hours Seen as Easy Solution
In the notoriously harsh working environment of Wall Street, where long working hours are common, bankers are increasingly relying on stimulant drugs or high-caffeine energy drinks?almost akin to narcotics?to pursue performance. It has become not uncommon for individuals to be frequently prescribed medications used to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), only to reach a point where their daily lives are disrupted, forcing them to quit their jobs for treatment.
The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) recently reported that many bankers on Wall Street use drugs such as Adderall, Vyvanse, and amphetamines as tools to endure the tedious and long working hours amid intense competition. These drugs are mostly used as ADHD treatments.
WSJ conveyed the atmosphere by stating, "A survey of more than 50 current and former investment bankers who worked at over 10 banks revealed that the use of stimulants to endure long working hours is openly discussed and noticeable." It added that this tendency to seek such drugs is particularly prominent among junior employees, such as analysts, who must endure long hours and intense competition on Wall Street.
Even junior bankers on Wall Street receive high salaries, with starting pay reaching $200,000 (approximately 290 million KRW). To earn this, they must endure brutal working hours of up to 120 hours per week amid fierce competition. Junior employees especially complain of mental and physical suffering due to long working hours. In May, Rio Rucenas, a 30-something employee at Bank of America, died after working over 100 hours per week for several weeks while closing a $2 billion deal, suffering a coronary artery thrombosis.
Jona Frey, who previously worked at Wells Fargo in San Francisco, told WSJ that when a colleague took Adderall in a common area, no one found it strange. He himself began using telemedicine service Teladoc in 2020 to get prescriptions for stimulants on a friend's recommendation. Initially, he took the medication once every morning on weekdays, then gradually added afternoon doses, and eventually increased to taking it seven days a week as he started working weekends. He confessed that after living a life addicted to the drugs, he quit his job in 2022 and stopped taking the medication, which took over a month to return to normal.
Trevor Lunsford, who works at Ascent Capital in Washington, D.C., revealed that he has been taking Adderall for the past seven years. He said that during some weeks he had to work 20 to 22 hours a day, and without the medication, it was difficult to maintain focus and make important decisions. He described the drug as "a core and essential part of my life."
Mark Morando, in his 30s and running a company on Wall Street, said he started taking the drugs when he was an intern at Credit Suisse’s Wall Street branch. Between 2016 and 2019, he visited hospitals in person and spent over $5,000 on medication costs alone. Due to tolerance, he had to switch medications at times. Observing medical staff at a nearby Wall Street medical facility continuously increasing his prescriptions, he realized the problem himself and eventually stopped taking the drugs, he told WSJ.
Bankers on Wall Street relying on stimulants to get through the day is not a recent phenomenon. In the 1990s, cocaine?a type of narcotic?was used on Wall Street. The movie The Wolf of Wall Street, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, frequently shows scenes where the protagonist and his friends place white powder on tables and snort it. WSJ reported, "Although Adderall and Vyvanse are often used as ADHD treatments, due to their potential for abuse, they are classified alongside cocaine and opioids."
Samuel Glazer, a New York psychiatrist who treats Wall Street bankers as patients, expressed concern that "(the effects of) long-term use of these drugs have not been sufficiently studied," warning that this could become a gateway to seeking more dangerous drugs. He added, "Many patients try to take stimulants as if they were multivitamins," and noted that the enormous financial rewards on Wall Street may drive bankers to take drugs to improve their performance.
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