Working from home? It’s an aberration, says boss of Goldman Sachs

Home working is ‘an aberration’ and staff will flood back to the office after the pandemic, the boss of Goldman Sachs has predicted.

David Solomon said the US investment bank had operated with ‘ less than 10 per cent of our people’ in the office for most of 2020.

But he rejected the notion that this would become the ‘new normal’, even as other major banks slash their office space and make the shift to flexible working more permanent.

mr Solomon’s comments came as a study suggested the UK had reached ‘peak pyjama’ – a reference to workers’ clothing choices during lockdown.

Data from jobs site Indeed showed that 60 per cent of vacancies posted on the site this year describe home working as ‘temporary’ rather than permanent, up from 28 per cent in November.

mr Solomon, 59, who also performs as a dance music DJ under the name DJ D-Sol, told an online conference: ‘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.’

Jes Staley, the boss of Barclays, also warned last month that home working was ‘not sustainable’ as he said collaborative culture was taking a hit and workers felt like they were ‘fraying’.

But mr Solomon’s dismissal of home working comes in sharp contrast to some of the UK’s largest banks.

HSBC said this week that it would axe 40 per cent of its office space over the coming years, as more of its staff chose to work from home at least once every week.

metro Bank has already ditched is central London office at old Bailey, and said it would make use of spare space in its branches to locate staff who did want to come into the office a few days a week.

And Lloyds Bank said it would reduce its office space by 20 per cent, noting an internal survey which found that a vast majority of staff didn’t want to go back to permanent office work. Some employees have welcomed the chance to work from home, spending more time with their families and cutting down on lengthy and expensive commutes.

But others – especially young people in cramped house- shares, or those who live alone – have found the experience to be lonely and demotivating.

The potential shift to long-term remote working will be a concern for struggling town centres and business districts, where concerns such as hairdressers and restaurants rely on office workers. Pawel Adrjan, head of european research at Indeed, said: ‘of all the new trends that have emerged as a result of the pandemic and lockdowns, the sudden and seemingly irresistible rise of remote working has raised the most questions because of what it means for city centres and businesses that rely on office workers’ footfall and spending.

‘It is still too early to tell whether widespread home-working will outlive the pandemic, but the rise in job vacancies that qualify their need for remote-working as “temporary” hints that many employers are keen to welcome their workers back to the office in the future, at least for part of the working week.’