Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon has heard complaints from junior bankers about their 100-hour workweeks, promising he will try to give them Saturdays off.
In a voice memo on Sunday night, the CEO told employees he will “strengthen enforcement” of the Wall Street giant’s “Saturday rule”, which means that employees cannot work from 9 p. From Friday until 9 a.m. M. From Sunday, except in certain circumstances. in an attempt to ensure that they have at least one day off each week.
“In this case, it’s great that this group of analysts came to their management,” Solomon said, referring to a leaked PowerPoint presentation on Goldman’s grueling working conditions that was prepared by first-year bankers and spread to social media last week.
The elaborate slide show, which was shared with managers, includes testimonials from 20-hour work shifts that one worker called “inhuman.” Another said the stress, lack of sleep and treatment from Goldman’s top bankers was “possibly worse” than his childhood in foster care.
“We want a workplace where people can freely share their concerns,” Solomon said in Sunday’s voice memo, according to a transcript obtained by The Post. “We want to encourage you to take the opportunity to speak with your management.”
Solomon also said that Goldman will hire more junior bankers, which it promised to do in January, and that it will reassign some bankers from less busy divisions to ease the workload on busier units. The bank is also turning down some business and is working to automate certain jobs, he said.
Goldman Sachs confirmed the memo, but declined to comment further.
Solomon’s comments come days after the now-infamous PowerPoint slide show went viral, with some critics saying it exposed Wall Street’s ruthless culture and others calling first-year analysts a group of privileged whiners.
“What’s not right for me is 110-120 hours over the course of a week! The math is simple, that leaves 4 hours for eating, sleeping, showering in the bathroom, and general transition time. This is beyond the level of ‘hard work’, it is inhuman / abuse, ”complained one analyst.
“My body hurts physically all the time and mentally I’m in a really dark place,” said another Kvet.
The report included bar charts showing analysts’ decline from job stress. Before coming to Goldman, analysts rated his physical and mental health on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the healthiest, 8.8 and 9, respectively. Since then, those numbers have plummeted to 2.8 and 2.3, respectively, according to the bar charts.
Half of the group that participated in the report said they would likely quit by the summer unless conditions improved.
“We have to help people find balance in an always-connected world,” Solomon said in the memo. “In this world of remote work, it seems that we have to be connected 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We are here to provide support and guidance. This is not easy and we are working hard to improve it. “
Although Solomon acknowledged a recent, heavier than usual workload in his Sunday note, he said the long hours have also been good for business and there are more long nights to come.
“The good news is that volumes have increased because we have the opportunity to work with our clients on so many exciting things right now,” said Solomon. “In the months to come, there will be times when we will feel more stretched than others, but remember: if we all go the extra mile for our client, even when we feel like we’re reaching our limit, it can really make a difference in our performance.”