22-year-old Moritz Erhardt, a German student and intern who was working unpaid for Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London, was found dead last week in his school residence, days after he reportedly worked 3 all-nighters at the company, BBC News reported.
"Our thoughts are with his family," a spokesman for the bank said, addin that the firm was "deeply shocked and saddened."
It is not made clear whether Erhardt's death has been linked to his working long hours at the bank, since he reportedly also suffered from epilepsy. The cause of his death would be released in four to five weeks, but London police contend that it has not been treated as suspicious.
Due to the high amount of hours Erhardt worked leading to his death, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which produces guidelines for professionals, said that a change of culture was needed in the financial services industry regarding working hours and conditions, especially for young people,who are not being paid as interns, BBC reported.
"A lot of young people are fairly desperate to get work and will go the extra mile and beyond. They need support and pastoral care," Katerina Rudinger, the head of skills and policy campaigns at the CIPD said.
A high volume of long working hours for interns and young people intensified since the global financial crisis news reports said, leading to unpaid interns to make a strong impression on their bosses, causing them to be "pushing themselves beyond their limits," Chris Roebuck, a visiting professor at Cass Business School in London said. "The key problem we have now is that highly competitive interns want to be seen to be the most successful. We know that working anything more than 70 hours a week is counterproductive."
Others have their theories as to what may have caused Erhardt's death, but many financial advisers suggest that corporate interns feel the most stress to leave a lasting impression, mostly since they are rarely being paid.
MoneyWatch provided a litany of reasons why young people devote so much time to internships. Most of the reasons appear psychological: "interns believe they are in a competition for a few coveted spots" and "they also believe that hours are correlated with loyalty and commitment."
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