Wall Streeters Reassess Their Careers -- and Lives

People who earn their daily bread in the financial sector aren't getting much sleep these days. A study released this week by the Center for Work Life Policy reports that more than 80 percent of female star performers are considering leaving their Wall Street careers, compared to 40 percent of men.

Sylvia Ann Hewlett, founding president of the Center, writes on Harvard Business Publishing about the human carnage.

"The voices in this study are powerful," she reports. "A male investment banker (who has lost 80% of his net worth in the last year) tells of bad dreams and grinding his teeth so badly he recently cracked two molars. A woman trader talks about being 'almost glad' of a recent diagnosis of breast cancer. In her words 'it's only stage one and it sure puts the crazy stress around losing my job into perspective.'"