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Goldman Sachs analysts expressed concerns over the bank’s lack of reimbursement for tech equipment and meal expenses, which they began racking up in the spring of 2020 as a result of the shift to remote work, according to a new leaked presentation viewed by Insider.
The presentation illustrates the strains that those analysts were feeling as a result of working from home, including a line-by-line budget that depicted the heightened out-of-pocket expenses that they had incurred in paying for meals and new work laptops.
Those costs, analysts argued, might have otherwise been covered by Goldman Sachs had they been in the office. For instance, the firm has a policy of issuing junior talent $25 stipends for meals they order if they are working at the office past 8 P.M. That policy did not carry over following the shift to remote work.
The seven-page document is a mixture of analysis, survey responses, and anonymous first-person perspective that was created in late March 2020 and circulated extensively throughout the bank the following month. Multiple sources, including current and former employees of the investment bank, told Insider that a group of 15 first- and second-year analysts within the investment bank’s industrials coverage unit were behind the slide deck.
The presentation was eventually viewed by senior investment bank executives, among whom it sparked a dialogue about how to respond, several sources said. However, no concrete steps were taken at the time to implement measures to accommodate the analysts’ requests, nor have such measures been taken since, sources said.
Sources spoke to Insider under the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely. Insider verified the sources’ identities.
A separate February 2021 survey among 13 first-year Goldman analysts came to light earlier this month that highlighted long hours and analyst concerns about work-life balance.
Both presentations highlight the growing discontent among junior bankers across Wall Street. While long hours for young bankers have long been seen as a rite of passage, working from home has presented new challenges.
Goldman’s lack of WFH reimbursement was compared to competitors’ plans
In the April 2020 presentation, the junior bankers, all of whom are based in the US, noted that they had spent hundreds of dollars buying equipment and paying for food to accommodate the switch to working from home.
The analysts said that they had spent a median of $300 on out-of-pocket equipment costs, such as monitors, mice, and laptops, with the initial shift to WFH.
As many as a third of analysts surveyed said that they did not own a laptop for the purpose of doing remote work before the pandemic. And some 90% indicated that such a device would be essential for their ability to get work done from home.
The median amount of money spent by those analysts who had bought a personal laptop specifically to do company-related work was $1,000, the presentation indicated.
One former analyst interviewed by Insider recalled that when a colleague at Goldman had asked an investment-banking vice president for help with shouldering the technology costs, that VP questioned the analyst …read more
Source:: Business Insider
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