Goldman Sachs analysts say they work 95-hour weeks and endure “inhuman” treatment

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About a dozen first-year analysts say they work more than 95 hours a week on average, sleep just five hours a night and endure work abuse. Most of them claim that their mental health has deteriorated significantly since they started working in the investment bank.

“There was a point where I didn’t eat, shower, or do anything other than work from morning until after midnight,” one analyst says in the report.

The survey comes from a self-selected group of 13 first-year analysts who presented their findings to management in February, a bank spokesman said. The results of the analysts’ survey began circulating on social media this week and were previously reported by Bloomberg News.

The bank says it is listening to the concerns of its employees and working on solutions.

“We recognize that our people are very busy, because the business is strong and the volumes are at historic levels,” the bank said in a statement. “A year after Covid, it’s understandable that people are quite widespread, and that’s why we’re listening to their concerns and taking multiple steps to address them.”

Few people entering the world of Wall Street banking would expect a neat five to five. But survey analysts are essentially urging their employer to limit their weekly working time to 80.

“This is beyond the ‘worker’ level,” said one. “This is inhuman.”

One hundred percent of respondents said their hours had damaged their relationships with friends and family. About three-quarters of analysts said they felt they had been abused at work and had sought or considered seeking help for mental health issues.

“My body hurts physically all the time and mentally I’m in a very dark place,” one analyst wrote in the survey.

Virtually all analysts said they felt pressure for “unrealistic deadlines” and that they had been shunned or ignored at meetings. His report also offered solutions to management to help correct the situation.

“To do our best work and deliver to the company’s customers we need to be rested and free to juggle an insurmountable amount of conflicting workflow,” the group said.

While Wall Street banks, and Goldman in particular, are known for their high salaries and even higher bonuses, this is not always the case for first-year analysts, the bottom line of the food chain in the financial world.
A Goldman spokesman declined to comment on the compensation. A Business Insider report last year estimated that analysts at first-year investment banks Goldman and other leading firms can expect a base salary of about $ 91,000.

The survey’s complaints are at odds with the simpler picture Wall Street banks have tried to present in recent years. In the face of increased competition for the talent of Silicon Valley hooded jeans people, large banks have loosened their formal dress codes and expanded family leave policies.

Goldman has also tried to protect the weekend from underage bankers with a “Saturday rule” that forces analysts to leave the office Friday from 9 a.m. to 9 a.m. Sunday, except in rare circumstances. (This rule, according to survey analysts, is not always adhered to.)

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