Goldman Sachs bosses reportedly sent snack boxes to junior staff after a survey revealed brutal 100-hour weeks. Rival banks sent their staff bonuses or Peloton bikes.

Advertisement
Goldman Sachs bosses reportedly sent snack boxes to junior staff after a survey revealed brutal 100-hour weeks. Rival banks sent their staff bonuses or Peloton bikes.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon.Danny Moloshok/Reuters
  • Goldman Sachs directors sent fruit and snack boxes to overworked junior bankers, The Guardian said.
  • That followed a survey in which junior staffers described "inhumane" 100-hour workweeks.
  • Other banks have offered much larger gifts, including Peloton bikes and Apple devices.
Advertisement

Bosses at Goldman Sachs sent snack boxes to London bankers in response to a survey in which junior staffers described "inhumane" working conditions at the bank in the US, The Guardian reported on Tuesday.

Managing directors, not the company, were paying for the one-off fruit and snacks boxes, the report said, adding that Goldman Sachs hadn't directly offered any gifts or bonuses to junior bankers following the survey.

In the survey, leaked on March 18, 13 first-year analysts in the US described declining mental and physical health, 100-hour workweeks, and a lack of sleep. UK staff members told The Guardian that they too faced burnout.

Some junior bankers told The Guardian that they appreciated the gesture of the snack boxes. But staffers at other banks have received much larger gifts.

Investment bankers at Credit Suisse are getting a one-time $20,000 bonus for dealing with an "unprecedented" workload during the pandemic, while Jefferies is offering 1,124 junior workers Apple products and workout equipment including Peloton bikes worth nearly £2,000, or about $2,750.

Advertisement

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser banned internal video calls on Fridays and introduced a companywide holiday on March 28 called "Citi Reset Day."

Read more: Confessions of Wall Street's burned-out junior bankers: 5 current and former analysts from firms like Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse explain their daily schedules

One Goldman Sachs employee told The Guardian that the bank should be doing more for the junior bankers who have to work grueling hours.

"What we need is not a gesture from [managers], but from the firm," a London banker told The Guardian.

Goldman Sachs did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment. Goldman declined to comment on the snack boxes to The Guardian.

Advertisement

Four days after the survey came out, CEO David Solomon said the bank would work harder to give junior bankers Saturdays off. He attributed the long and busy hours to working from home and a boom in business during the pandemic.

One unnamed analyst said in the survey, "There was a point where I was not eating, showering or doing anything else other than working from morning until after midnight."

{{}}