Flexible working: An employee revolution
Goldman Sachs has been in the news a lot recently. And it’s not been great.
Take a look at these three quotes:
“I do think for a business like ours, which is an innovative, collaborative, apprenticeship culture, this is not ideal for us. And it’s not a new normal. It’s an aberration that we’re going to correct as soon as possible” David Soloman, Goldman Sachs responding to a question on remote working, February 2021
“The sleep deprivation, the treatment by senior bankers, the mental and physical stress…I’ve been through foster care and this is arguably worse” Respondent to leaked Goldman Sachs employee survey, March 2021
“My body physically hurts all the time and mentally I’m in a really dark place,” Respondent to leaked Goldman Sachs employee survey, March 2021
This doesn’t sound like a particularly innovative or collaborative culture to me.
Far too many businesses just pay lip service to innovation. Innovation and collaborative cultures are about flexible thinking, removing barriers and being open to experimentation (which also means allowing mistakes).
The problem is that as we move out of COVID, these ‘let’s just write innovation on the website’ organisations are becoming increasingly easier to spot. We can see how they have responded to the move towards a new flexible, hybrid world; the ultimate moment for innovation. Has their response been a top-down, can’t wait to get back to business as usual, like-it-or-lump-it? Or are they empathetic, listening to their employees and redesigning systems? It’s not hard to see a link between Goldman Sachs calling flexible working an ‘aberration’ that needs ‘correcting’ and the wider cultural issues within the organisation.
Employees are soon going to have the pick of companies that offer them flexible working to suit their personal circumstances. As opposed to looking for a role within a 30-mile radius from home, they will be able to choose to work with companies all over the world. Who wants to commute 90 minutes each way and pay £1000s out of taxed income for the privilege? How many school football matches, weekends with friends or time with family have been sacrificed on the altar of presenteeism in the office? COVID has shown us that flexible working is possible technically and the challenge now is to work out how we can make it work culturally.
An employee revolution is coming. And if you’re looking to recruit and retain the most innovative and creative staff, you’re going to need to start thinking seriously about how you can adapt your company culture to work around them, not forcing them to fit into yours.
Companies like Goldman Sachs have always traded on their name to attract the best of the best. But at what cost? And will this continue to be the case? As Alexandra Michel, a former Goldman Sachs banker and now business school professor at Wharton, says, ‘Junior bankers are locked into a cycle of toxic competition and low intrinsic self-worth’. Their identities are tied up in being a competitive, winner takes all, top of their game, Goldman Sachs banker. It’s lethal. And certainly the complete antithesis of innovation.
That kind of oppressive, toxic culture is best enforced in a face to face environment, so I guess it’s no surprise that David Soloman wants them all back.
