A junior banker at Robert W. Baird suffered a failed pancreas after working 100-plus hour work weeks on the firm’s industrials team.
Shortly after winding up in the emergency room a second time, the banker, who had previously raised concerns about the workload to HR, was fired for low productivity, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The story is part of a pattern at Baird, a large, privately held investment bank, according to the Journal‘s report.
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Multiple young employees formerly on the company’s industrials team detailed a grueling work environment where 110-hour weeks and all-nighters were the expectation.
One former employee recalled being chastised by a manager after they left their desk for 25 minutes to eat dinner. They were told it was unacceptable to leave for more than five minutes.
The Journal reported that more than a dozen junior employees have left Baird’s industrials team since the beginning of 2024.
The situation spilled into the public eye earlier this month, when an anonymous post on a Wall Street forum describing the team’s “sweatshop” work atmosphere went viral.
The post’s author, who said they were a young banker who had just left Baird, claimed that junior employees at the firm were ”treated as scum.”
The person alleged that team members were expected to be on call until 4 a.m., with managers assigning tasks as late as 3:30 a.m. that would never see the “light of day.”
“The group heads could not care less about you as a human being and see everyone as replaceable,” the person wrote. “They’ll burn you, replace you and trash you on the way out.”
The accounts come as Wall Street faces criticism for its extreme expectations after three young bankers working long hours have died in the last year.
After the viral post, senior staff at Baird organized a town hall event where they encouraged younger employees to speak up about the working conditions. This made some people feel better, the Journal reported.
The ex-employees told the paper that they worried they would be perceived as weak if they complained about the long hours.
Current employees who spoke to the Journal said that the working conditions didn’t bother them and that they were not different from other Wall Street firms.
Baird did not reply to the Journal or the Daily Beast’s requests for comment.
One of the mid-level managers cited on the forum as a force behind the 20-hour work days, Aaron Haney, was fired, the Journal also reported. Some analysts told the paper that he was well-liked and worked as hard as the junior bankers.
Baird’s website touts the fact that it has featured on Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For for the last 22 consecutive years. In 2025, it ranked No. 13.
