Goldman Sachs chief David Solomon heard complaints from junior bankers about his 100-hour workweek – and he promises that he will try to give them a break on Saturdays.
In a voice memo on Sunday night, the tough executive told employees that he will “strengthen the application” of the Wall Street giant’s “Saturday rule” – meaning that employees are unable to work from 9:00 pm on Friday. 9 am on Sunday, except in certain circumstances in an attempt to ensure that they have at least one day off per week.
“In that case, it’s great that this group of analysts has sought out their management,” said Solomon, referring to a PowerPoint presentation that leaked out about Goldman’s strenuous working conditions, which was prepared by first-year bankers and spread on social media last week.
The elaborate slide show, which was shared with managers, includes testimonials from 20-hour work shifts that a worker called “inhuman”. Another said that the stress, sleep deprivation and treatment of Goldman’s senior bankers was “arguably worse” than his childhood in foster care.
“We want a workplace where people can share their concerns freely,” Solomon said in the voice memo late Sunday, according to a transcript obtained by The Post. “We want to encourage all of you to have the opportunity to speak to your management.”
Solomon also said that Goldman will hire more junior bankers, which it promised to do in January, and that it will transfer some bankers from less busy divisions to ease the workload in the busiest units. The bank is also refusing some deals and working to automate certain tasks, 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 the cruel culture of Wall Street and others calling first-year analysts a bunch of privileged whiners.
“What is not good for me is 110-120 hours over the course of a week! The math is simple, leaving 4 hours to eat, sleep, bathe in the bathroom and the overall transition time. This is beyond the level of ‘hard work’, it is inhumane / abuse ”, said an analyst.
“My body hurts physically all the time and I am mentally in a very dark place,” commented another.
The report included bar graphs showing analyst deterioration due to stress at work. Before reaching Goldman, analysts rated their mental and physical health on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the healthiest, 8.8 and 9, respectively. Since then, those numbers have dropped to 2.8 and 2.3, respectively, according to the bar graphs.
Half of the group that participated in the report said it would likely drop out in the summer, unless conditions improve.
“We have to help people find balance in an always connected world,” said Solomon 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 make it better. “
Although Solomon acknowledged a recent and heavier-than-normal workload in his Sunday note, he said that long hours have also been good for business and that longer nights are in the future.
“The good news is that volumes have increased because we have the opportunity to work with our customers on so many interesting things now,” said Solomon. “In the coming months, there will be times when we will feel more overwhelmed than others, but remember: if we all take one more step for our customer, even when we feel that we are reaching our limit, it can really make a difference in our performance. “