NEW YORK (REUTERS) – As Goldman Sachs cashes in on a boom in market activity, a group of first-year analysts have warned senior management that they are overworked and will quit within six months unless conditions improve, according to an internal survey circulated online.<\/p>\n
While Wall Street is notorious for its tough culture, the survey provides a rare insight into just how grueling working conditions can be.<\/p>\n
In it, the junior bankers said that they worked an average of 95 hours a week, slept five hours a night, frequently faced “unrealistic deadlines,” and that their relationships with friends and family were feeling the strain as a result.<\/p>\n
The survey, which began circulating on social media on Wednesday (March 17), was conducted by a group of 13 first-year investment banking analysts among themselves.<\/p>\n
They presented their findings to Goldman Sachs’ management in February, and the bank has since taken steps to address employee burnout, the bank said.<\/p>\n
“We recognize that our people are very busy, because business is strong and volumes are at historic levels,” Goldman spokeswoman Nicole Sharpe said in a statement on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“A year into Covid, people are understandably quite stretched, and that’s why we are listening to their concerns and taking multiple steps to address them.”<\/p>\n
The bank said it had as of January expedited hiring for new entry-level staff because it is conscious employee resources are stretched thin. But it takes time for new staff to be vetted, hired and to begin working, the bank added.<\/p>\n
Buoyed by strong equity and debt underwriting, Goldman’s investment banking business generated a record high $9.42 billion in 2020.<\/p>\n
Goldman and other Wall Street banks have played a central role in a recent frenzy of special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, deals. These shell companies raise funds through an initial public offering with a view to later buying assets.<\/p>\n
Such “blank-cheque” IPOs have already surpassed this year the US$83.4 billion (S$112 billion) the sector raised in all of 2020, according to Chicago-based SPAC Research, which compiles data on such deals.<\/p>\n
Wall Street has been criticized in the past for a hothouse culture that can dangerously overwork ambitious young staff.<\/p>\n
In 2013, an intern at Bank of America’s Merrill Lynch’s investment bank died after he allegedly worked for 72 hours without sleep.<\/p>\n
A majority of the Goldman analysts in the survey said they felt they have been victims “of workplace abuse.”<\/p>\n
“There was a point where I was not eating, showering or doing anything else other than working from morning until after midnight,” wrote one respondent.<\/p>\n
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