Goldman Sachs Caps Interns to 17 Hours a Day After Death at Bank of America

http://www.alternet.org/economy/goldman-sachs-limits-interns-shift-17-hours-after-death-bank-america-corp-intern?sc=fb

By Joanna Rothkopf / Salon
June 22, 2015

Goldman Sachs has officially announced that it will cap interns’ days at 17 hours, meaning interns are encouraged to go home by midnight and not arrive before 7 a.m. At the beginning of June, Goldman Sachs took on around 2,900 summer interns.

The announcement comes shortly after Bank of America Merrill Lynch intern Moritz Erhardt, 21, was found dead in his shower after working for 72 hours straight. According to an autopsy, Erhardt died from epileptic seizures that could have been triggered by all-nighters.

Still, after Erhardt’s death, some banks have been making an effort to scale back on the absurd rigor of their internship programs. The bank also recently restricted junior bankers from working on Saturdays.

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Goldman Sachs’ chief executive Lloyd Blankfein recently told interns that they shouldn’t devote all their time to the company.

“You have to be interesting, you have to have interests away from the narrow thing of what you do,” Blankfein said. “You have to be somebody who somebody else wants to talk to.”

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