Family Form on Wall Street

A significant change in family form in recent decades is a significant increase in the divorce rate, which has had major implications for family form and each of the members in the family. Husbands and wives, by entering into marriage, expect to be with each other for the rest of their lives. This includes sharing important and necessary life experiences, like aging. However, a higher rate of divorce has increasingly caused adults to age without a spouse or significant other. Losing that emotional support, sense of comfort, and physical assistance can make adjusting to the aging process much more difficult for older adults. This especially holds true for individuals who work on Wall Street.

High amounts of stress and lack of free time outside of work cause rates of divorce and breakup from relationships to be very high for employees on Wall Street. Maintaining a relationship – whether it be a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship, marriage, or otherwise – is extremely difficult when there is no time to spend together. High levels of stress from work are often carried home from work, and small differences between a couple can escalate to major fights. Even more difficulties arise when the employee is required to travel often, which creates even less time for couples to be together.

Perhaps the more important issue that can arise from working on Wall Street is becoming entirely engrossed in the job. The work-life balance becomes completely lost as individuals focus on nothing in life but work, making money, and moving up the corporate ladder. Unfortunately, some of the most successful rainmakers, hedge fund managers, and other major figures in the financial world have done exactly that, which has set a poor example for up-and-coming young talent. Arguably, this is the tradeoff analysts and younger employees must make, but nonetheless, a significant impact and change on family form will result. Take Bruce Wasserstein (who was discussed in a previous post) and other rainmakers and big time brokers on Wall Street; the vast majority have had multiple spouses and children with multiple spouses.

As a small piece of anecdotal evidence, a first-year analyst in the world of investment banking recently broke up with his girlfriend of three years. The analyst and his significant other met in college and by senior year had made plans to get married. However, the stress and lack of time for each other created by the analyst’s job in New York on Wall Street made the relationship almost impossible. He became very involved in his work and was unwilling to change his career plans for his girlfriend. Unfortunately this case is not uncommon for analysts and associates at investment banks, and divorce is even more common in the higher ranks.

Multiple spouses, children with multiple wives, or even having no significant other throughout the aging process can make the aging process more challenging. Having many wives and widespread children, coupled with spending very little time with them, can cause the Wall Street worker to have little support from family members as their caregiving and support needs increase with age. A strong sense of alone and unreliability of familial support is not uncommon. Students or employees in other sectors outside of finance interested in pursuing a career on Wall Street should be aware of the family form implications and be prepared to make these sacrifices.