Goldman Sachs CEO says ‘people want to be in the office’
Goldman Sachs bankers “want to be in the office,” the Wall Street titan’s hard-driving boss claimed on Wednesday, shrugging off recently reported kvetching from the rank-and-file about having to show up to the office.
In an interview with CNBC Wednesday, the investment bank’s chief executive David Solomon insisted employees were driving the return to office despite reported complaints about the banks unusual demand for workers to show up five days a week.
“We’ve been flexible but our people want to be in the office” Solomon told Squawk Box.
Meanwhile, even as Goldman steps up demands that employees come into the office, Solomon struck a softer tone on the subject of vacation time.
Goldman recently unveiled a new vacation policy that mandates employees must take three weeks of vacation a year and allows senior executives unlimited vacation days.
“I’m not concerned how much vacation people at Goldman are taking.” He added, “It’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
That’s despite the fact that junior staffers only received an additional two extra days of vacation under the new plan.
The comments come as Goldman struggles to bring workers back. Solomon acknowledged earlier this month that only around half of Goldman employees were back compared with a pre-pandemic average of around 80%.
And a number of employees have sounded off — and even threatened to quit over the demand they come into the office five days a week.
Some junior Goldmanites claim that they are being “bullied” into showing up in person “5-0” — meaning five days working in the office, zero from home — and that the bullying is being orchestrated by top managers armed with spreadsheets.
“It’s f**ing bulls**t from top management saying they are people first,” one miffed Goldman underling said. “In our team meeting, manager showed us the excel where the MDs are tracking which department has not met in-office commitments,” the staffer added, referring to the high-level managing directors.
“David Solomon sucks,” another employee griped. “Nobody wants to be in 5-0 and plenty of companies are willing to allow hybrid/remote.”
Solomon demurred when asked about the bank’s role in the Twitter deal but acknowledged while he’s never Tweeted he follows journalists on Twitter to get news.