14 DAY TRIAL // After last Thursday a student doing an internship with the Bank of America has collapsed and died following 3 days of work, news has now emerged that he was suffering from epilepsy.
Daily Mail reported that 21-year-old German student Moritz Erhardt was working at a Bank of America office in London.
He was found dead in the shower in his East London by friends checking up on him.
He was about to complete a seven-week internship with the Merrill Lynch Investment Bank Division at the Bank of America.
He had allegedly pulled eight all-nighters throughout the past two weeks. His death apparently came after three consecutive sleepless nights.
Medical examiners believe that he might have had an epileptic seizure, but the results of the autopsy are not out as of yet.
"Sometimes these long hours may be justified by necessity, but as many of those who have worked in the industry will attest, the combination of remuneration packages weighted heavily towards performance-related bonuses and a highly competitive atmosphere make it hard to break the culture of long hours even when further work is of little benefit," comments George Herbert for Policy Mic.
Bank of America officials put out a press release expressing their condolences for the family of the intern.
"We are deeply shocked and saddened by the news of Moritz Erhardt's death. [...] He was popular amongst his peers and was a highly diligent intern at our company with a promising future. Our first thoughts are with his family and we send our condolences to them at this difficult time," they said.
According to a statement by Bank of America head of international communications, John McIvor, the student elected to stay at work for the number of hours that he did.
"I'm not going to comment on what hours people choose to spend in the office voluntarily. [...] But if you think about it logically, what we're trying to do is something that happens across all the big firms. We're looking to get to know them better," McIvor tells CNBC.