Danny Moloshok/Reuters
- Directors at Goldman Sachs sent one-off fruit and snack hampers to overworked junior bankers, the Guardian reported.
- It follows a survey in which junior staff described "inhumane" 100-hour work weeks.
- Other banks have offered much larger gifts, including Peloton machines and Apple devices.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Bosses at Goldman Sachs have sent snack hampers to London bankers in response to a survey that revealed the "inhumane" working conditions junior staff faced at the bank in the US, according to a report by the Guardian on Tuesday.
Managing directors, not the company, were paying for the one-off fruit and snacks hampers, the report said, adding that Goldman Sachs hadn't directly offered any gifts or bonuses to junior bankers following the survey.
In the survey, leaked on March 18, 13 first-year analysts in the US described their declining mental and physical health, 100-hour work weeks, and a lack of sleep. UK staff told the Guardian they too faced burnout.
Some junior bankers told the Guardian they appreciated the gesture of the hampers. But staff at other banks have received much larger gifts.
Investment bankers at Credit Suisse are getting a one-time $20,000 bonus for dealing with an "unprecedented" workload during the pandemic, while Jefferies is offering 1,124 of its junior workers Apple products and workout equipment including Peloton bikes worth nearly £2,000 ($2,750), per the Guardian.
Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser banned internal video calls on Fridays and introduced a company-wide holiday on March 28 called "Citi Reset Day."
One Goldman Sachs employee told the Guardian that the bank should be doing more for the junior bankers who have to work gruelling hours.
"What we need is not a gesture from [managers], but from the firm," one London banker told the Guardian.
Insider reached out to Goldman Sachs for comment, but did not immediately receive a response. Goldman declined to comment on the snack boxes to the Guardian.
Four days after the survey came out, CEO David Solomon said that the bank would work harder to give junior bankers Saturdays off.
He added the long and busy work hours were down to working from home and a boom in business during the pandemic.
One unnamed analyst said in the survey that "there was a point where I was not eating, showering, or doing anything else other than working from morning until after midnight."