Also via Bloomberg:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26260913
Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'
41–50 of 88 posts
Re: Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'
#42Whilst all this work from home is nice and lovely and whatever, for me I still struggle to overlook this cynical fact: I had a space dedicated to work in that my employer paid for. Now I must make a part of my house that space and foot the bill.
I don’t understand - don’t people already have home offices for at least doing their bills and things?
What year is it?
Re: Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'
#43I'm of two minds. I don't think most office work can be done from home all the time, but I think a lot of it can be done efficiently from home. On the other hand I also value the social aspect as well as the easy onboarding in-person. For GS, if their competitors are offering better working conditions, their top employees may switch over, leaving them with the ones who don't have a choice. Maybe he would better under…
My understanding is that a large part of the finance/banking culture is to be able to show off how much money you are making, and be able to flaunt that - so being in the office/socializing outside is a large part of the job as it were, and being at home wouldn't allow for that. (I could be be way off the mark here)
Most employees of the bank are far from being able to affect money inflows in the bank, so you are specifically talking about traders/private client bankers here, which are few % at most in any bank
Re: Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt that WFH options are a significant factor for the best employees. There are so many other incentives/rewards/perks that imo should rank above this. Eg. Remuneration, opportunities, connection to colleagues (particularly those involved in promotional decisions). > if your competitor is offering it you might want to do it as well. That factor only seems relevant in isolation. Financial remuneration is surely th…
Well, if I can 'pay' the employee a lot more just by letting live somewhere cheaper where he'll happy ( say, somewhere with a house, garden, and peace and quiet, an unaffordable luxury to most in large European cities such as London/Paris ), then wfh and compensation suddenly become linked. Furthermore, by allowing full WFH, you also expand your recruitment pool to people outside your immediate geographical area. Tha…
Sure, it’s all linked. I think a big factor overlooked here is the interest in hiring locally... I suspect the people paying wages are somewhat invested in the local economy - especially the property market. I wouldn’t expect a major shift before those investors have adjusted their portfolio accordingly ... I.e. no time soon. Just a suspicion, what would I know.
Re: Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Baffles me that anyone would want to live like this. The sooner this bizarre culture dies out, the better.
It won’t die out. People like money. Analyst IBD roles represent not only some of the best compensated roles out of Uni, but puts on a path to a long well-compensated career either at GS or another bank. Or an exit opportunity. And the young folks that go into these roles probably busted their butts at Uni after busting their butts at high school. They are ready for it. And once you get in the culture you get normali…
Tech pays so much more though, and you don’t have to kill yourself either for it? (genuinely can’t imagine doing 80-100 hour work weeks)
IBD is a dead meme at this point in my opinion. Like how being a lawyer used to be the most lucrative career path.
Re: Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'
#46I'm of two minds. I don't think most office work can be done from home all the time, but I think a lot of it can be done efficiently from home. On the other hand I also value the social aspect as well as the easy onboarding in-person. For GS, if their competitors are offering better working conditions, their top employees may switch over, leaving them with the ones who don't have a choice. Maybe he would better under…
I don't work in Investment Banking but I've heard a ton of anecdotal reports that in IB at places like GS the "Work from home" has made their already long hours even worse.
Even before Covid they worked 80-100+ hour weeks 7 days a week. Now that everyone is home all the time the expectations are that you're never "off" as before you'd at least get to go home for 4-6 hours and get some sleep.
I don't know how much of that is self driven vs top down but IB is one of the few jobs where it seems like a lot of people are looking forward to going back to the office from what I've seen.
Re: Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt that WFH options are a significant factor for the best employees. There are so many other incentives/rewards/perks that imo should rank above this. Eg. Remuneration, opportunities, connection to colleagues (particularly those involved in promotional decisions). > if your competitor is offering it you might want to do it as well. That factor only seems relevant in isolation. Financial remuneration is surely th…
WFH is remuneration - being able to move to a cheaper area can offer an effective 2x or 3x pay increase.
Valid, but see my reply to the other comment about local hiring
Re: Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'
#48Whilst all this work from home is nice and lovely and whatever, for me I still struggle to overlook this cynical fact: I had a space dedicated to work in that my employer paid for. Now I must make a part of my house that space and foot the bill.
I don’t understand - don’t people already have home offices for at least doing their bills and things?
It's probably a better indicator for class divide these days than the classic 'bookshelf'.
But.. bills? As in receiving letters to find out how much I'm supposed to pay and then somehow manually paying them? No, I'm young enough that I've never had to operate like that, but I can barely remember my parents doing so either, certainly not in the last 20 years. Your profile indicates also UK - don't you just pay by DD?
(edit: hang on a second.. my sarcasm detector might be starting to experience a slight tingle.. were you joking?)
Re: Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
My understanding is that a large part of the finance/banking culture is to be able to show off how much money you are making, and be able to flaunt that - so being in the office/socializing outside is a large part of the job as it were, and being at home wouldn't allow for that. (I could be be way off the mark here)
Most employees of the bank are far from being able to affect money inflows in the bank, so you are specifically talking about traders/private client bankers here, which are few % at most in any bank
That is true, I guess in my head I had assumed that somewhere like GS was just full of traders/ private banking, and not really a lot else - but thinking about it, that doesn't really make sense
Re: Goldman Sachs: Bank boss rejects work from home as the 'new normal'
#50Whilst all this work from home is nice and lovely and whatever, for me I still struggle to overlook this cynical fact: I had a space dedicated to work in that my employer paid for. Now I must make a part of my house that space and foot the bill.
I don’t understand - don’t people already have home offices for at least doing their bills and things?
> doing their bills and things
Like bills do require a full office in 2021. I pay all my bills by pressing a button on my smartphone. And that's because I like to review them, I could pay them automatically if I really want to.