Goldman Sachs says senior staff can take as much holiday as they want

A major investment bank is giving its most senior staff as much holiday as they want. Goldman Sachs said the change is "to support time off to rest and recharge"

The change began on May 1 and sees the bank following similar moves by tech giants such as Netlfix, Linkedin and Bumble. However, the firm said junior bankers will still only be able to take a fixed amount of holiday each year, the BBC has reported.

The Financial Times said that all employees of the bank will have to take at least three weeks off work from next year. One of those weeks must be a full week of consecutive days off.

Employees at all levels will be required to spend at least three weeks away from work annually from 2023, including at least one full week of consecutive days off.

A memo seen by the FT sent by the Wall Street bank last month, said: "As a firm, we are committed to providing our people with differentiated benefits and offerings to support wellbeing and resilience.

"As we continue to take care of our people at every stage of their careers and focus on the experience of our partners and managing directors, we are pleased to announce enhancements and changes to our global vacation programme designed to further support time off to rest and recharge."

Last year, first-year banking analysts at Goldman Sachs have said they had worked an average of 98 hours each week in 2021 as they called for a new cap on their arduous workload, according to an internal presentation.

In a set of slides seen by the PA news agency, the junior bankers warned last March they could quit their roles if the situation does not improve. The internal survey among 13 first-year analysts shows they worked a mean of 98 hours a week since January and slept five hours a night.

At the time, A Goldman Sachs spokesman said: “We recognise that our people are very busy, because business is strong and volumes are at historic levels. 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.”