Jefferies Financial Group Inc. is grateful for toiling junior bankers — and the Wall Street firm is showing its appreciation with a selection of coveted fitness perks including a Peloton Interactive Inc. bike and Apple Inc. products.
“This is the very least we can do,” Chief Executive Officer Rich Handler said Thursday in an emailed statement. “Everyone at Jefferies is deeply appreciative of the hard work and sacrifice all of our analysts and associates have made since the start of Covid-19.” Efforts to reward junior staff have been in the works for weeks and are not in response to recent news, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
The employees can choose one gift, Handler and President Brian Friedman said in a memo to the firm’s 1,124 analysts and associates. They can pick from a Peloton bike with a one-year subscription; a Mirror home workout system with a one-year subscription; or a package featuring an Apple Watch SE, an iPad Air and AirPod Pros with AppleCare+.
Overworked analysts have been a hot topic of conversation on Wall Street, in part due to a stinging deckcirculating this week in which Goldman Sachs Group Inc. staff lament 100-hour weeks and declining physical and mental health.