Goldman Sachs Junior Analysts Suffer 'Abuse', Pushed To Work 98 Hours A Week

Junior analysts at Goldman Sachs said they are suffering from “abuse” after being pushed to work over 98 hours per week on average, a new internal survey found.

At least a dozen first-year investment analysts at Goldman Sachs say they've been keeping those marathon hours and sleeping less than five hours a night. Some said that this all-work, no-sleep schedule has caused their mental and physical health to deteriorate in recent months.

On a scale of 1 to 10, survey respondents said their mental health was at 2.8 and their physical well-being was at 2.1 after they began working at Goldman Sachs.

"My body physically hurts all the time and mentally I’m in a really dark place," one analyst said in the internal survey.

At least 77% of the respondents also complained of an abusive work environment and demanding bosses during a SPAC-fueled boom in deals.

“What is not ok to me is 110-120 hours over the course of a week! The math is simple, that leaves 4 hours a day for eating, sleeping, showering, bathroom and general transition time. This is beyond the level of ‘hard-working’, this is inhumane/abuse,” another analyst said.

The 24-question report surveyed 13 first-year analysts who presented their findings to management in February, according to Bloomberg. While the report only surveyed that small group of Goldman Sachs employees, the multinational investment bank took their concerns seriously.

People familiar with the matter said Goldman executives met with the employees in February to discuss ways to automate aspects of their jobs. The bank also revealed to them plans of hiring more junior bankers to lessen the workload.

"We recognize that our people are very busy because business is strong and volumes are at historic levels," Nicole Sharp, a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs, said in a statement. "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.”

Junior bankers working at Goldman earn an average of $123,500 a year, data from Wall Street Oasis showed. Elite Wall Street banks believe that younger employees would be willing to take on longer working hours for a chance to someday pull down millions in upper management roles.