金融行业沦为自杀高发行业？

    仔细查看疾病控制与预防中心的数据后，我们并没有发现那个让人担心的现象，即某种金融工作的自杀风险较高。该中心按人口普查的方式计算死亡率，这种方法可能相当笼统。在该中心的统计类别中，和华尔街属于同一性质的是“金融和商业服务销售代表”——它包含了各种各样的银行业工作——从投资顾问、经纪人到交易员，再到投行人员。这个类别的自杀可能性比整个就业者群体高39%（某些白领职业的自杀风险甚至更高：律师的自杀几率比平均值高54%，医生则高97%。）

    观察人士认为，在金融行业中，精神压力最大的往往是投行人员。卡斯指出：“据我所知，在所有金融领域中，对情感耐受力的要求最为极端的非投资银行莫属。”卡斯还和人共同撰写了一本书，名叫《牛市思维：华尔街生存和成功指南》

    米歇尔还观察到，随着时间推移，投行人员会出现一种综合症。她发现，观察对象在华尔街银行平均工作四年后开始出现失眠、焦虑和抑郁等情况。米歇尔说：“我能看到他们刚开始还能心情愉悦地和朋友打电话，然后这种现象就会越来越少见。他们完全陷在了办公室里，陷在了工作里。有些人觉得自己被困住了。”

    摩根大通表示，这两名自杀的员工本质上不属于投行部门。他们在领英（LinkedIn）上的个人简介显示，加布里埃尔•马吉是摩根大通伦敦方面固定收益证券部门负责技术事务的副总裁，李俊杰（音译）则是为投行业务提供支持的票据部门副经理。

    但就整个华尔街来说，这个高风险领域的工作压力比以前更大。卡斯说，2008年的经济危机以及随后的衰退让问题变得更加严重，特别是出现了一些新的因素之后，比如奖金缩水，经常裁员以及监管更加严格。虽然这些因素给很多职业都带来了冲击，但卡斯指出：“投行工作已经成了一个筛选过程，也就是说，要看谁能坚持住，谁坚持不了。”

    卡斯已经注意到严密监督给自己的客户带来的压力。他说，从最高层传递下来的焦虑情绪充斥在公司文化当中，银行业员工都处于“草木皆兵的状态”，总是担心自己能否保住饭碗，更有甚者，总是担心自己遭到刑事指控。

    疾病控制与预防中心要到2015年才能公布2008年起各类职业自杀数据的分析结果。但这个中心最近发布报告称，1999-2010年间，在年龄足以达到职业生涯顶峰或者稳居高级管理职位的美国人当中，自杀事件的增长幅度令人担心。这个群体的年龄介于35-64岁，在上述时间段内他们的自杀人数增加了28%，白人（上升了40%）和50岁以上（增幅超过48%）人群的增速更快。

    卡斯警告，虽然指责具体的某一家公司或金融行业本身并不公平。但他认为，避免失误的压力日益增长，正在对银行业人员产生不利影响。卡斯说：“显然，它有益于我们在金融安全方面的长期整体健康。”而在短期内，卡斯的客户们还会继续来见他。（财富中文网）

    译者：Charlie

    A close examination of the CDC data does reveal a worrisome connection between certain types of financial jobs and an elevated risk of suicide. The CDC organizes its mortality numbers by census categories, which can be pretty broad. The Wall Street-oriented classification is "sales representatives for financial and business services"—a category that includes a variety of banking positions, ranging from investment advisers to brokers to traders to investment bankers. People in that group are 39% more likely to kill themselves than the workforce as a whole. (Members of some other white-collar professions are at even greater risk: Lawyers are 54% more likely than average to commit suicide, and physicians are 97% more likely.)

    Within finance, observers say that investment bankers are often under the most acute mental stress. "Out of all the sections of finance, no position do I know of that's more extreme in terms of the emotional endurance one has to have than investment banking," says Cass, the psychologist who is also the co-author of Bullish Thinking: The Advisor's Guide to Surviving and Thriving on Wall Street.

    It's a syndrome Michel has also observed while shadowing investment bankers over the years. After her subjects had worked at a bank for four years on average, she began observing signs of sleeplessness, anxiety, and depression: "I could see how people came in chatting happily on the phone with friends, how that became less and less," she says. "People became completely absorbed in the office, in work. Some are feeling trapped."

    J.P. Morgan says the two employees who committed suicide weren't investment bankers, per se. According to their LinkedIn (LNKD) profiles, Gabriel Magee was a vice president overseeing technology for fixed-income securities in the London office, and Dennis Li was an associate in the billing department supporting the investment bank.

    But the high-stakes world of Wall Street has become a more stressful work environment across the board. The 2008 economic crisis and subsequent recession have exacerbated the problem, says Cass, especially now that the new reality of smaller bonus checks, regular layoffs, and heightened regulation has sunk in. While those factors have impacted many professions, Cass says, "In investment banking, it becomes a weed-out process—who can take it and who can't?"

    Cass has noticed the scrutiny weighing on his clients. The anxiety has trickled down from bosses and pervaded the culture, he says, with bankers kept in a "fear position," worrying constantly about keeping their jobs—or worse, facing criminal charges.

    A CDC analysis of suicides by occupation for 2008 and beyond won't be ready until 2015. But the government agency recently reported an alarming increase in suicides between 1999 and 2010 among Americans old enough to be at the peak of their careers or well-established in the C-suite. Suicides among 35- to 64-year-olds rose 28%, with even larger increases among white people (40%) and those over 50 (more than 48%).

    While it's not fair, warns Cass, to point blame at any one firm or the industry itself, he sees the increased pressure to avoid mistakes as taking its toll on bankers. "Obviously it's good for the collective health of our financial security in the long run," he says. For the near term, his clients are keeping their appointments.