Overwork and Exploitation: Sleep Deprivation in Investment Banking

No tyranny has been powerful enough to deprive the people of sleep. Nevertheless, a series of surveys in recent years have found that sleep deprivation is increasing globally. This article tries to explain this trend as an effect of the virtualization of labor time or, to simplify, the transformation of labor time into a potential value that cannot be exhaustively actualized. The logic of this transformation can be recognized in the concept of human capital, and its microphysics: in mechanisms such as deadlines, project presentations, client meetings, and temporary labor contracts. The article argues that the virtualization of labor time detaches exploitation from oppression, reshapes it into repression or depression, blocks the defense mechanisms provided by social and civil rights, and makes us vulnerable to violence from within.