People in banking tend to be 'overachievers' and 'over givers' and that this stems from insecurity and the need to make oneself indispensable by 'depleting' oneself. The external validation from work fills a void in ourselves, says Lehto. 'People will come to me and say they're thinking of leaving the industry, but often I will work with them and we will get to a place where they are able to put up boundaries that prevent them working too much.'Įrecting those boundaries requires a shift in mindset. 'There's a tendency in banking to over-give and overextend yourself,' says Puttergill. Neither men nor women in banking want to get to this stage, and both Puttergill and Lehto are clear on the best avoidance tactics: boundaries defining yourself as more than the job. 'It's interwoven with depression and is almost as if your bod says 'Stop!' The symptoms are physical.' 'People in burnout can end up in bed for months,' she says.

True burnout isn't a passing urge to watch Netflix instead of working, but a period of collapse akin to Lehto's experience. The concept of 'burnout' is real but is bandied around too freely, says Puttergill. But this simply stores up problems down the road. There's a tendency for women in their 30s and 40s to 'hide' in their demanding jobs to compensate for deficiencies in their life outside work, says Puttergill. Lucy Puttergill, a former JPMorgan VP who now coaches a lot of female bankers, says many of her female clients over-identify with their jobs, particularly if they're single. He reads books, he listens to podcasts that have nothing to do with his job.' It's a strategy pursued by other men in the industry - Goldman Sachs partner, Brian Robinson, has described how even though he works 12-hour days he always makes time for exercise and for nature and focuses on 'birds and trees' on a walk home.Īnecdotally, this is something that some senior women in finance struggle with.

'He doesn't identify with what he does and isn't entirely consumed by his career.' What does this mean in practice? 'He has interests outside of work. 'My husband works in the City and he works very long hours, but he's very boundaried about it,' says Lehto. Lehto says he is much more disciplined about keeping work in its box than she ever was. Her husband, however, is still working in finance and is thriving. Much of that time was spent lying in bed.įast-forward over a decade, and Lehto has extricated herself from banking and has a new career as an executive coach. She had two young children at the time and after burning out and collapsing in a gym, she told the Times it took her a year to recover. Lehto, who has a PhD from the University of Cambridge, spent a couple of years as a director of fixed income sales at a European bank in London before the financial crisis. When coach Mandy Lehto worked in banking, it did not end well.

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