‘One guy brandished a whip’ – bankers on Industry’s rampant sex, drugs and bullying culture
If money is the root of all evil, does that make Pierpoint the centre of hell? Employees at the fictional bank in the hit TV drama Industry certainly walk, talk and powerdress like the devil himself. But do the cutthroat antics of Industry’s beautiful twentysomethings reflect reality? Does the gen-Z meets The Wolf of Wall Street vision tarnish the good name of multinational investment banks? Is workplace sex as rife as the show suggests? Or is the excess simply excessive?
We asked young finance workers from top firms – including Rothschild and JP Morgan, the ones Pierpoint modelled itself on. They all consulted their contracts, chose their pseudonyms and they all confirmed one thing: in the City, a quilted gilet still reigns supreme.
I had a prestigious summer internship at a place similar to Pierpoint – but only lasted one summer. The partner I interned for echoed so many of Eric’s behaviours in the show – except his language was more colourful (calling us “dumb fucking cunts who had slid too fast out of mummy and smacked our heads”) when we messed up. One night – it was 2.30am – he dressed down a graduate, screaming in her face: “Are you stupid? Are you a fucking stupid cunt?” I had never seen anything like it in a workplace, or on TV, and I haven’t since.
Another partner carried a riding crop like the baseball bat Eric brandishes in the show. He mostly whipped the desk to intimidate interns as a joke, but had this habit of brandishing it when talking to young female staff that gave me the ick. He and another male partner referred to one boy with square glasses as Jimmy Savile and to a girl with a deep voice as Caitlyn Jenner (or just Bruce). They were dicks.
Industry successfully captures the high-tension environment of
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