Xavier Rolet is wrong to defend 100-hour working weeks – but what he says about single mothers is even worse

The best of Voices delivered to your inbox every week - from controversial columns to expert analysis Sign up for our free weekly Voices newsletter for expert opinion and columns Sign up to our free weekly Voices newsletter SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy There isn’t a lot of sympathy out there for the junior bankers complaining of 100-hour weeks, inhuman working conditions and bullying bosses. If you don’t love what you’re doing or think the hours don’t suit your lifestyle, by all means do something else.” But his line directed at junior bankers that I want to focus on is this: “How many single working mothers trying to put several kids through school do you think work less than 130 hours a week?” It’s probably true that there are single mothers doing those hours; single mothers who will never reach the sort of earnings bracket junior bankers attain in their first year on the job. It’s disappointing that people like Rolet and his peers use them as a throwaway line to hit their juniors with, rather than recognising that this is a huge societal problem – much less considering what could be done to improve the situation. The banks that treat them like disposable cogs are complicit in the creation of a system that forces some single mothers into taking two or three service jobs they can’t escape simply by changing tack and moving into private equity, or testing the waters in big tech.