Goldman Sachs minors have been complaining about their grueling work routines from home for longer than was known, in fact, since the start of the pandemic.
Last spring, nearly a year before a group of first-year analysts created last month’s viral PowerPoint presentation, which called for working 80 hours a week instead of more than 100, a Goldman rookie cafe set up a similar fight, a few weeks after the start of the COVID-19 crisis.
While the February slide presentation cited the deterioration in the physical and mental health of first-year analysts when they encountered “inhumane” working conditions, last April’s recently leaked presentation focuses on the basics. : computers and food.
“I find myself looking for time to prepare food, which usually involves sandwiches at night or scrambled eggs, as I work all day,” one subordinate wrote. “Management should expand the dinner policy that outweighs the costs as it lessens the stress of worrying about food preparation while working to meet deadlines.”
Specifically, entry-level bankers said they lost the $ 25 stipend they got for food when they were forced to work after 8pm at Goldman’s elegant headquarters in lower Manhattan at 200 West St.
“All analysts reported that they had spent more than eight in the evening for five or more days of the seven-day week,” lamented the presentation on a number of points. “The average analyst also worked more than twelve at night for five days a week.”
While some employees demanded daily refunds of other meals, others pressed for a weekly stipulation to cover grocery deliveries or frozen food, citing a different set of concerns.
“The coronavirus can be transmitted through poor kitchen hygiene and I would not ask for it from restaurants even if it was covered,” the employee wrote.
Elsewhere, minors complained about not receiving compensation for the laptops, monitors and mice they had to buy to start doing their homework. According to the platform, which was first obtained by Business Insider (paywall), analysts on average spent $ 1,000 on technology equipment, an expense for which rival companies offered reimbursements to employees.
“One of the big challenges is the lack of a proper office environment (high quality monitor, keyboard, phone, reliable internet, etc.),” one analyst said. “To overcome this, I have invested in equipment to continue to deliver the same performance and quality as in the office.”
According to the filing, food and computer costs were a painful bite for first-year bankers ’finances, earning about $ 85,000 outside of college, not including their bonus, which raises their annual salary to 140,000. dollars a year.
“According to our analysis, the cost of the WFH team amounted to about 35 percent of the average analyst’s remaining cash after a non-discretionary expense that left him with $ 600 at the end of the month (excluding include travel, credit card / student loan repayment, etc.)) “, said the presentation.
The presentation led to further rises at Goldman, including Will Bousquette, chief operating officer of the bank’s global markets division, according to BI. Bousquette spoke directly with junior bankers and sources said the firm’s executives examined their complaints. However, nothing was done, according to the report.
A Goldman Sachs representative declined to comment on the contents of the fight or why the bank has not taken action.
“We are thrilled to have built a culture where employees regularly go to management and share their ideas and concerns,” said Goldman’s head of corporate communications, Nicole Sharp.
“We had in-depth discussions with company-wide teams about this and other measures as we moved to work from home last year,” Sharp added. “We continue to maintain an active dialogue with employees about what steps we can take to address specific concerns and requests during this complicated and unusual time.”
A media frenzy over the February slide show encouraged Goldman chief executive David Solomon to leave a voice note to employees on Sunday night, promising to “strengthen enforcement” of an anti-labor rule on Saturdays .
However, Solomon – who earlier this month received a report on his recent habit of taking the company’s private jet to the Bahamas on weekends – added that business has been growing lately and that “if we all do an extra mile per customer, even when we think we’ve reached our limit, it can really make a difference in our performance. ”