“It’s not a new normal. It’s an aberration that we’re going to correct as soon as possible”
Working from home has been a way of life for most of us these past 12 months.
For the vast majority of us, it’s been a good thing. It cuts out the commute, helps our productivity and – just in case we needed it – lets us spend even more time with the people we live with.
Some of the benefits of working from home – particularly the increase in workers’ productivity – have prompted some business owners to consider allowing for more of it as the country gradually eases its way out of restrictions in the months ahead.
Not everyone, however, is a fan of the idea of working from home becoming a more permanent legacy of pandemic life.
Amongst them is Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon, who has rejected suggestions that remote working is the “new normal”.
Whereas he said the investment bank had operated with “less than 10%” of their workforce in the office throughout 2020, Solomon told a conference on Wednesday that working from home did not suit the work culture of Goldman Sachs.
“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,” he said.
Solomon added he was particularly concerned about an incoming “class” of around 3,000 new recruits, who wouldn’t be able to access the “direct mentorship” they would normally receive in a workplace environment.
“I am very focused on the fact that I don’t want another class of young people arriving at Goldman Sachs in the summer remotely,” he said.
“I don’t think as we get out of the pandemic the overall operating mode of the way a business like ours operates will be vastly different,” he added.
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