P.S. Is your job killing you?

Every once in a while something comes along to shake us out of our anaesthesia, but this is just temporary, and we quickly revert to our cataleptic state.

In truth, the events in the financial markets over the last 15 months have had a numbing effect on the people who work there. Tens of thousands of job losses, the bankruptcy of a major securities firm, the almost systemic collapse of the banking system, a $65bn Ponzi scheme that wiped out thousands, and the suicides of market professionals who slit their wrists, shot themselves in the woods, or jumped to their deaths from an apartment building or a restaurant roof terrace, have left us all stunned. Everything that can go wrong, appears to have gone wrong. It's quite shocking, in fact, that nothing is shocking anymore.

Careers and lives have been lost, friendships and reputations have been ruined, marriages and relationships have been shattered. And yet those who work in the financial markets continue to compete aggressively and subject themselves to the huge pressures that led to the excesses that caused our troubles in the first place.

The exceptional events of the last 15 months have not, in truth, brought us closer together as a community - they have, in fact, driven us further apart. We are still focused on the culture of 'me' - 'my' job, 'my' base salary, 'my' career progression and 'my' bonus. And we are more competitive than ever - fighting harder for that elusive deal, striving harder for that overdue promotion, and pushing ourselves harder to achieve the things at work which we believe makes us a success. So, despite regulators and governments passing measures to encourage individuals to operate in a longer-term way for the general benefit of all stakeholders, there is no evidence to suggest that behaviours will change. We remain, at heart, self-absorbed, self-centered and egotistical.

And what is it about our industry that turns us into such monsters, and creates an environment where a 24-year-old man, with the world literally at his feet, takes his own life just because he fears that he might lose his job over a silly prank at work ? What is it about the financial markets that robs us of our identity and self-worth ? Why does our profession force us to lose our perspective, and lose sight of the things that are really important - like friends, laughter, health and family ?

What is sad about the financial crisis is not that bankers have lost their jobs and their self-esteem, it's that we have been unmasked as pathetic human beings who operate under the wrong value system, and have been chasing a self-destructive dream. We need to learn, and quickly, that you can be commercial and caring, that there's nothing wrong with being honest and coming in second, and that there's more to life than achieving at work. And we have to understand, before it is too late, that true success is not defined by what we do when we leave the sanctity of the place we call 'home'.

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