German exchange student intern's death after doing successive shifts raised one major question against Bank of America Merrill Lynch: "Was he forced to overwork?"
The 21-year-old intern, who was reportedly one week shy of completing the bank's seven-week summer program, died after physically overstraining himself to work even without adequate rest and sleep.
"We are deeply shocked and saddened by the news of Moritz Erhardt's death," bank spokesperson John McIvor said on Tuesday. "He was popular amongst his peers and was a highly diligent intern at our company with a promising future. Our first thoughts are with his family, and we send our condolences to them at this difficult time," he added.
The Bank of America intern was found dead inside a London dormitory last week. He was attending WHU Otto Beisheim School of Management in Germany, and was aptly trying to finish his summer internship in the bank's investment banking division.
Authorities say that Erhardt is just one of the many students who strive to push themselves to the limit, so they can secure quality credential remarks, if not land a job at the company where they interned.
A London Metropolitan police officer said that the Bank of America intern's death was "unsuspicious" although no medical findings were given as of late.
One of the residents of the dormitory shared that he saw Erhardt working non-stop, and pulling all-nighters for the past couple of days prior to his demise. "He apparently pulled eight all-nighters in two weeks... maybe it was just too much for him in the end," he said.
"We all work long hours, but the guys working regularly until 3 a.m. or 4 a.m. are those in investment banking," another intern in the same program told the media. "People working in markets will have to be in at 6 a.m. but not stay as late, so what time you can leave the office depends on your division."
Meanwhile, several politicians and intern campaign groups expressed their stand on the issue, by condemning the alleged demanding workload top banks give their interns. They even dubbed the incident as "slavery in the city," and urged the management of these banks to take certain measures that would prevent overworking amongst their employees, staff, and interns all the same.
European Employment Commissioner Laszlo Andor tweeted, "Exploitation of youth is unacceptable," minutes after news about Bank of America intern's death broke out.
Additionally, Intern Aware Co-founder Ben Lyon expressed his thoughts on the incident by denouncing the long hours interns need to fill in for investment banks, and persuading HR professionals to check whether the workload the companies provide are at reasonable length. Intern Aware is just one of the campaign groups that move to ensure fair, paid internships to students and fresh graduates.
Nonetheless, former interns confessed that most interning students are not really caught in the same situation, adding that they are the ones who actually enforce such working culture on themselves for desperation of ensuring their future ahead.
"People push themselves because they want an offer with the bank and the chance of a great career and great money," a former major US bank intern said.
Professor Andre Spicer from Cass Business School in London said that if the interns are unlikely to stray from pulling all-nighters in their course of work, banks and other companies should impose certain limitations and measures to help them [the interns] cope with the pressure internship brings.
"If large firms hope to be sustainable and attractive to employees, they need to tackle the extreme hours culture," Spicer quipped.
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