Some Goldman Sachs employees say the grueling 100-hour work weeks have affected their health and insist these conditions have caused many to leave the David Solomon-led bank.
The complaints come from a disgruntled group of 13 analysts in their first year of employment within Goldman’s investment banking arm. After conducting an internal survey among themselves, they chose to prepare a detailed PowerPoint presentation that has been leaked and viralized on social networks. It includes testimonies of work shifts of 20 hours a day that an employee described as “inhumane”.
“What doesn’t seem right to me is 110-120 hours over the course of a week! The math is simple, that leaves 4 hours to eat, go to the bathroom and sleep. This is beyond the level of hard work, it’s inhumane /abuse,” complained one of the analysts. Another added that his body suffers from the intense hours of work and that mentally he was in “a very dark place.”
The report includes bar charts showing analysts’ deterioration from job stress. Before coming to Goldman, analysts rated his mental and physical health on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being the healthiest) at 8.8 and 9, respectively. Since then, those figures have plummeted to 2.8 and 2.3, according to the filing.
In conclusion, analysts suggest solutions such as limiting the workweek to 80 hours and avoiding last-minute changes to presentations for client meetings.
In response, Goldman is reportedly taking new steps including even giving up some contracts to help maintain a more manageable workload, Bloomberg quoted a bank official as saying.
Wall Street has long been the industry of choice for those who can tolerate long working hours, but these complaints of not having time to eat or shower are at odds with the kinder, more tolerable face that multiple industry entities have presented in recent years. in an attempt to attract and retain talent.
Goldman spokeswoman Nicole Sharp said the bank acknowledges that its employees are very busy because “business is strong and volumes are at historic levels.” “A year after the start of Covid, it is understandable that they are quite exhausted and so we are listening to their concerns and taking multiple steps to resolve them,” she added.