Alex Tai/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images
- A HSBC IT manager has written about how having a heart attack has made him re-assess his work.
- He said he would spend more time with family and less on Zoom – and urged others to follow suit.
- Staff at other banks including Goldman Sachs have recently spoken out about burnout.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
An IT program manager at banking giant HSBC has said he'll stop spending so many hours on Zoom after having a heart attack while working.
In a LinkedIn post that went viral, Jonathan Frostick, 45, described realizing that he was having a heart attack and thinking it wasn't "convenient" because he had a meeting the next day.
Sharing his "near death" experience led to an outpouring of responses from other workers, amid a wave of pandemic-fueled burnouts reported in the financial-services sector.
While in hospital recovering, Frostick said he made a series of decisions to establish a better work-life balance and spend more time with his family.
These include "not spending all day on Zoom anymore" and making every day at work count for something.
He also said that he was "really not going to be putting up with any s*** at work ever again - life literally is too short."
In comments on the post, Frostick said that he had a "very good manager" and he took responsibility for not getting his work-life balance right.
He told Bloomberg that he sometimes worked 12-hour days, and had even started working weekends.
HSBC told Insider that it wished Frostick a "full and speedy recovery," and said it had re-doubled its health and wellbeing support during the pandemic.
Two days before his heart attack, Frostick posted on LinkedIn that he had taken a week off work so he could spend time with his family, sleep, and "disconnect from work."
"I've learned this week I need to rest more, it's invaluable to my cognitive processes," he posted.
In comments on his viral post written after his heart attack on April 11, he wrote: "Toxic environments aren't worth your health."
Frostick's post had more than 220,000 reactions. Many said that it prompted them to reflect on their own working habits, and some also said that they had had similar experiences with heart-attacks or stress-induced illness.
Frostick's comments come amid concern about "burnout" culture during the pandemic, especially in the financial-services industry.
In a survey released in March, Goldman Sachs junior staffers detailed what they called "inhumane" working conditions, including 98-hour working weeks, sleep deprivation, and declining mental and physical health.