JPMorgan VP with sick parents resigns as sabbatical impossible
People in banking take sabbaticals. Just ask Georges Elhedery or Stuart Lea at HSBC, or Sanj Sivarajah the former head of JPMorgan's head of emerging markets special situations group, each of whom took time out for various reasons in recent years.
When Nikolaus Heidelberg, a vice president (VP) in equity sales at JPMorgan in Frankfurt tried to take a sabbatical, however, it seems to have been refused. This was despite some very difficult family circumstances.
In a post on social media, Heidelberg says he was compelled to leave his "dream employer" after 13 years because he wanted to care for his parents. Heidelberg says his mother has MS and his father has throat cancer and that "taking a sabbatical wasn't possible."
It's not clear why Heidelberg wasn't able to take time out to care for his parents while remaining an employee of JPMorgan. The bank declined to comment on the issue and Heidelberg didn't respond to our attempt to get in touch. Sivarajah, however, was able to take a six-month sabbatical from the bank to go on a motorbike trek in 2022. He'd previously generated $100m a year in P&L and upon returning left JPMorgan for hedge fund Verition.
Heidelberg joined JPMorgan from Hypovereinsbank in 2010 and started as an intern in London. He said his career at the bank had been a "blast", "was always more a hobby than a job," and that he was incredibly sad to go. "I always tried to go the extra mile for my clients, hopefully it was appreciated, we will meet again."
Have a confidential story, tip, or comment you’d like to share? Contact: +44 7537 182250 (SMS, Whatsapp or voicemail). Telegram: @SarahButcher. Click here to fill in our anonymous form, or email editortips@efinancialcareers.com. Signal also available
Bear with us if you leave a comment at the bottom of this article: all our comments are moderated by human beings. Sometimes these humans might be asleep, or away from their desks, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. Eventually it will – unless it’s offensive or libelous (in which case it won’t.)
