Goldman Sachs CEO slaps down ‘aberration’ of remote work

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon on Wednesday rejected the “aberration” of remote work, which has become a popular alternative to in-person offices during the coronavirus pandemic.

“This is not ideal for us and it’s not a new normal,” Solomon, 59, said during a Credit Suisse Group AG conference, Bloomberg reported. “It’s an aberration that we are going to correct as quickly as possible.”

The chief executive has been vocal about moving quickly towards employees returning to in-person work, according to Bloomberg, including pushing for the federal government to make changes that would allow for more companies to return to work soon. 

“The vaccine distribution and the process of recovery has been a little bit slower in the first quarter than some of us had hoped,” Solomon said, later adding that a coronavirus relief bill, on which Congress is working, could produce a “very, very strong tailwind” for economic recovery.

Last year, Goldman Sachs had nearly 25 percent of its workforce back in offices in New York and London during parts of the pandemic. Almost half of its employees in Asia returned to outposts as well, Bloomberg reported.

“That’s obviously backed off in the late fall into the winter as you have the surges that we had,”
Solomon said. “That’s a temporary thing.”

He emphasized his hope that work will be able to resume normalcy soon.

“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,” Solomon said.