The chief executive of Goldman Sachs says it’s “great” a group of young analysts raised concerns about working conditions at the investment firm. A group of 13 US employees mocked up a presentation in which they told of 95-hour working weeks and “inhumane” conditions amounting to abuse. Boss David Solomon said in a message: “It’s great that this group of analysts went to their management.” But he added that going an “extra mile” can make a big difference for the bank.
BBC
Goldman Sachs is the end all be all of for investing firms. Even my dumbass who didn’t graduate college knows that Goldman Sachs is the shit. So is having your dream job worth working 95 hours a week? I don’t know what people at Goldman Sachs do, but 95 hours feels like nothing if you love it. When I wasn’t a bum and worked at the post office, I would work close to 45 hours a week. Those 45 hours felt like 100 hours. Every second I was at the post office, I hated my life. Every morning I would wake up with a nervous belly. I had to be prescribed anxiety pills to save myself from driving off a bridge. The post office drained me from having fun. I felt like a robot as I drove the same streets every day, saw the same houses, and delivered the same boner pills to dirty old men. Then I got hurt again, and even though I’m in pain every second being able to write and be creative has been amazing. Technically writing this is work, but it doesn’t feel like it.
That doesn’t mean that 95 hours a week is okay, though. It hits a certain point where it doesn’t matter how much you love the job. Sometimes you want to lay on the couch and binge on your favorite show. Working 95 hours a week really only allows 10.5 hours of “free time” you add sleeping, eating dinner, and there really isn’t much time for anything else.
The 13 Goldman Sachs employees gave striking testimony, which began circulating on social media on Wednesday, detailing five hours sleep a night, harsh treatment by senior bankers and the effects on their physical and mental health. One said: “I’ve been through foster care and this is arguably worse.”
BBC
The line I’ve been through foster care and this arguably worse is just funny. I imagine the worst foster care where this person was required to do 8 hours of manual labor, and they rather go back to that. As somebody who has only done manual labor his entire life, it fucking sucks. I’ve gotten home from work suffering from heat exhaustion and have permeant damage to my pointer finger as I have gotten frostbite. I never understood people who said they were exhausted from desk jobs until one of my best friends got a desk job. He would explain his day, and dealing with that much mental exhaustion sounded just as bad as me walking through 3 feet of snow.
He added the firm was trying to manage its workload and reorganize some so it would be done automatically: “We’re also being more selective about business opportunities that we pursue, and we’re working to automate certain tasks in our business.”
BBC
Oh shit, this sounds like the firm is pretty much saying alright, keep complaining about how much work you have to do; you’ll all be replaced by computers soon enough. Once again, I have no idea what people at Goldman Sachs do, but I feel like computers might take over the trading space with more algorithm-based trading.
I know how it is to hate your job, so I’ll never be one to shit on people who say that their job is ridiculous. The only thing I’m wondering is, are these jobs 100% salary, or do they get overtime? Cause working 45 hours a week of overtime sounds like these people are swimming in cash. It gets to a point, though, that it doesn’t matter how much money you’re making. If you hate your life, money doesn’t really matter.
