When you are an investment-banker how long are the hours you work?

Investment bankers work long hours. When I was a banker, I worked a few 60-hour days, many 30-hour days (which means I did not come home for 1.5 to 2 days). and commonly from 9AM - 1AM. This is quite usual in M&A. The hours are highest when one is an Analyst, and go down as one progresses up the ladder. Managing Directors are often gone by 6PM - but for them the day does not end at 6PM. They're flying places. Friday is a good day; ends early around 6PM unless there is a deal going on, and something needs to be done by Monday. But I often worked both days - Saturday and Sunday, coming in for several hours. In total a 80 hour week was not unusual. 100 hours in a week (there are only 140 hours) was only in extreme situations. I often wondered why it took so long to get stuff done. Looking back now after many years of having done it (and now being a venture capitalist), I realize a lot of the work was mundane, irrelevant, low-value-added. But banking has this culture of instanenous response to clients, turning documents around rapidly, and going above and beyond on simple requests. An Associate makes $200,000 to $500,000 a year for which they work 80 x 50 = 4,000 hours per year. That works out to about $50/hour to $125/hour. Not bad but its all about the hours. The hours do decline but you are wedded to your work, and it never really stops.