In an internal survey, a team of junior bankers identified “inhumane” working conditions, mental health issues, and insufficient sleep. Goldman Sachs’ CEO said the company would fix the issues.
In a voice message sent to employees on Sunday, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said, “This is something that our leadership team and I take very seriously.”
Solomon said the investment bank would work to uphold its “Saturday law,” which states that junior bankers should not be allowed to work from 9 p.m. Friday to 9 a.m. Sunday. It would also speed up recruiting and delegate staff to the firm’s busiest divisions to relieve junior bankers of their responsibilities.
A group of 13 first-year institutional investors at Goldman Sachs mentioned being so overstressed in an informal poll posted to the internet that they had little time to shower, eat, or sleep.
Since January, the analysts have worked an average of 98 hours a week and slept an average of five hours a night, according to them. All of the respondents said their work hours had harmed their relationships, and they gave their personal lives a 1 out of 10 satisfaction rating.
“Sleep deprivation, senior bankers’ care, mental and physical stress… I’ve been in foster care before, and this is by far the worst experience I’ve ever had, “said an analyst.
All 13 respondents said they had been subjected to arbitrary deadlines on a regular basis, and 83 percent said they had been subjected to excessive surveillance or micromanagement on a regular basis. Because of work-related pressures, 75% of respondents said they had pursued or considered pursuing mental-health therapy. The analysts recommended many options to management at the end of the report, including capping working weeks at 80 hours and granting junior bankers Saturdays off unless they were served notice. On Saturdays, first-year analysts are often assigned “fast” work, and they claim it’s “highly difficult” to refuse.
Solomon linked the high stress levels to the pandemic’s market boom. Working remotely, he said, made it harder to strike a work life balance.
“Clients are engaged, and volumes in many of our companies have reached new levels. Of course, the pandemic and all of this operation put everyone at Goldman Sachs under a lot of stress “Solomon remarked. ”We understand that today’s workers face a new set of challenges. In this age of remote work, it seems as though we must be linked at all times,” added Solomon.
Despite the fact that Wall Street is known for long hours and heavy workloads, which are usually compensated by large salaries, the junior analysts said they were unlikely to remain with the bank unless working conditions improved.
“Being unemployed is less terrifying to me than what my body could suffer, if I continue on this route,” one analyst explained.
