[Workplace Survival] JPMorgan Chase launches digital tool to verify working hours, with a weekly limit of 80 hours to alleviate burnout among junior employees

Media outlets, citing people familiar with the matter, say that JPMorgan Chase will use digital activity records—such as call logs, keyboard input, or meeting records—to total employees’ weekly working hours and compare them with the hours self-reported by employees, in order to ease the problem of junior employees working excessively and to ensure their physical and mental well-being. JPMorgan Chase will set an upper limit on employees’ weekly working hours of 80 hours, based on employees’ self-reported hours.

JPMorgan Chase says that, similar to weekly screen time tracking on smart phones, the tool is intended to raise employee awareness and improve transparency, and is not meant to be enforced.

Media reports say that the Wall Street banks are known for their heavy workloads. In order to meet the needs of clients that pay millions of dollars in fees, some junior practitioners may underreport their working hours to evade the time limits, avoid being reassigned, or ensure they can participate in new projects.

Bank of America introduced a tool in 2024 to monitor the workload of interns and junior bankers, and to send alerts when weekly working hours exceed 80 hours. The system tracks employees’ working hours on a weekly basis, with the goal of allocating workloads reasonably based on employees’ abilities.

The high working hours of Wall Street investment banks have drawn attention because, in January 2024, a Bank of America junior banker died from a blood clot. At the time, junior staff at the investment bank were working as many as 100 hours per week, and since then they have been restricted to no more than 80 hours per week.

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