JP Morgan's Junior Bankers Will Soon Get A Guaranteed Weekend Off Each Month

REUTERS/ Larry DowningGet some rest, Jamie.

Two things used to justify why Wall Street's junior bankers slogged for such ridiculous hours: 1) Insanely high salaries and bonuses and 2) the overlords dropping work on their desks on Friday at 6 p.m.

But then about two months ago, Goldman Sachs announced a spate of reforms to ease back on junior staffers. Saturdays are now off, Goldman mandated.

Now it seems J.P. Morgan is following Goldman's lead. Both Dealbreaker's Bess Levin and New York Magazine's Kevin Roose report that the bank will give young bankers one "protected weekend" per month. Sleep in, don't burnout.

In part, it's just better "managing the managers," but the change has a lot to do with Wall Street's increasing youth attrition to places like tech companies where, at least if the hours aren't better, you can wear shorts.

Roose also reports that "the bank will be hiring more junior staffers next year in order to bring down the average workload from a gazillion hours a week (approximate figure) to something more closely resembling a normal job."

Now that Goldman and JPM have eased up, the rest of the Street will presumably follow.