A pedestrian is coming in front of 200 West Street, which is the headquarters of Goldman Sachs Group Inc. housed in New York, past.
Scott Eells | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Junior investment bankers at Goldman Sachs are suffering from a 100-hour burnout and are demanding bosses during a boom in transactions fueled by the SPAC, according to an internal survey conducted by a group of first-year analysts.
The increase in activity has seriously claimed analysts’ mental and physical health since at least the beginning of the year, according to slides posted on social media and observed by people with knowledge of the matter.
“The sleep deprivation, the treatment of senior bankers, the mental and physical stress … I went through foster care and it’s probably worse,” one Goldman analyst said according to a 13-employee survey in February.
“My body is physically sore all the time and mentally I am in a very dark place,” another analyst said.
The slideshow, filled with color-coded cards and formatted in the official style of an investment banking services haunting book, was created after a group of disgruntled analysts teamed up in several teams to investigate their colleagues, according to the people. First-year analysts are usually recent university graduates and occupy the lowest level in Wall Street’s hierarchy; above are associates, followed by vice presidents and managing directors.
The effect of Goldman on physical and mental health.
Source: Litquidiity | Instagram
The Wall Street model is to employ thousands of entry-level workers each year, often top university graduates, to create a pipeline for talent and a staff dedicated to the more mundane aspects of investment banking. Junior bankers trade a grueling workload higher than the average U.S. salary and a chance to eventually earn a million-dollar remuneration package as managing director.
Working conditions on Wall Street became a major topic in 2013 after a Bank of America intern in London died after a dormant sleepless night. The industry then began adopting sheltered weekends, where junior employees could not work on a Saturday or Sunday without the approval of the manager.
Despite the changes, the industry’s hard-core culture remains. The respondents to the Goldman survey call conditions ‘inhuman’ and say that they spend 110 hours a week sleeping only four hours a day and self-care.
While the survey was from a small number of Goldman employees, the bank took their concerns seriously, people said. Goldman executives met with employees last month and told them they are increasing the hiring of junior bankers to address the workload, they said. The bank also transferred employees to strengthen busier teams and worked to automate aspects of their work.
The 13 employees were not penalized for compiling the survey, a portion of which was posted to the Litquidity Instagram account this week.
“We realize that our people are very busy because the business is strong and the volumes are at a historical level,” said Nicole Sharp, a Goldman spokeswoman. “A year after COVID, people are understandably pretty thin, so we listen to their concerns and take several steps to address them.”
On the heels of a record year for Wall Street burns the IPO market, driven by insatiable demand for new companies. The demand is met by SPACs, or blank check firms that previously announced companies, and SPAC mergers of $ 164 billion so far this year have already exceeded the 2020 total, according to Dealogic.
The backlog of transactions reached a record level in the first quarter, Goldman CFO Stephen Scherr said at a conference last week. Goldman is the world’s leading merger advisor, expanding JPMorgan Chase in the total number of transactions and the number of transactions.