Goldman Sachs CEO tells young bankers working 95 hours a week help is on the way

“This is something our management team and I take very seriously,” CEO David Solomon said in a voicemail message to staff on Sunday.

One of the analysts’ calls to management – in addition to limiting work weeks to 80 hours – was to better enforce the “Saturday rule”, which states that junior staff should not be expected in the office between 9 p.m. Friday and 9 am Sunday. They said junior staff are often asked to do “quick” work on Saturdays “and it’s incredibly difficult to push back.”

“We are strengthening the application of the Saturday rule,” Solomon said, adding that the bank would hire more junior staff in its investment banking division.

Solomon echoed the bank’s statement from last week which pointed to “historic” volumes adding to bankers’ workload.

“Customers are active and volumes for many of our businesses have reached historic highs,” he said. “Of course, the combination of the pandemic and all of these activities has put stress and pressure on everyone at Goldman Sachs.”

In the survey, 100% of respondents said their working hours had damaged their relationships with friends and family. About three-quarters of analysts said they felt they had experienced workplace abuse and had sought or considered seeking help with mental health issues.

Virtually all analysts said they felt the pressure of “unrealistic deadlines” and were avoided or ignored in meetings.

While long hours and unglamorous working conditions are not uncommon in the cutthroat world of finance – especially among freshman analysts – this report was extreme, even by Wall Street standards.

“I didn’t arrive at this post at 9 am to 5 pm,” wrote one analyst, “but I also did not expect regular hours from 9 am to 5 am.”