If You’re Not Spreading A Deadly Pathogen Around The Globe, You’re Just Not Cut Out For Investment Banking

We are told that banking culture needs to change. That something must be done about workplace toxicity, relentless driving to meet unrealistic targets, wild risk-taking and brutal hours. That if nothing is, banks not only risk ever-increasing fines and ever-tightening regulatory leashes, but also losing the best and the brightest to less miserable lines of work.

And, Jim Gorman standing astride history yelling “stop” notwithstanding, it is indeed changing. It’s just doing so very, very slowly.

At a time when many are still working from home, Wall Street dealmakers are not only back at their offices, they are traveling a lot again, to woo clients and to negotiate mergers and sales…. "Even during the pandemic, if your clients were in Texas, if you didn't go down and see them, they knew you were a wimp," says Jonathan Knee, a senior adviser at the investment firm Evercore. "And they didn't want wimps working for them."

We’re sure that was exactly the word they used, too. Anyway, in further developments not likely to make Gorman & co. happy, but which may encourage a few changes of major in business school:

PwC announced today it will allow all U.S. employees who can telework the ability to work virtually from anywhere in the continental U.S. moving forward.

The new policy will impact nearly 40,000 employees who work in client services, including consultants, auditors and tax professionals. The company says it is the first professional services firm to offer workers a permanent work-from-anywhere option.

Only 'wimps' phone it in: Why Wall Street bankers are hitting the road again [NPR]
PwC announces nearly 40,000 U.S. employees can work remote from anywhere in the country [CNBC]