Goldman Sachs to offer senior staff unlimited holiday

Senior staff at Goldman will be allowed to take as much holiday as they want.

There will be no cap on paid leave under the bank's new flexible vacation plans.

Junior bankers will only get a fixed amount of holiday.

The bank has been accused of overworking younger staff in the past.

In a memo sent to staff globally, the bank said workers would be required to spend at least three weeks on leave annually from next year, with at least one week of consecutive days off.

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.

The policy of unlimited leave is gaining in popularity.

The perk is offered by all of the above companies. Junior workers in Malaga have been offered eight hour days with no weekend work for half of the starting salary for the same roles in London and New York.

According to the inclusion and resourcing adviser for the CIPD, unlimited leave may help to attract and retain talent.

She said the policy needs care and could be open to abuse.

Some people could take less leave which could lead to stress and burn out.

It is also important for it to be fair. If it is only open to certain employees, that could lead to the rest of the workforce feeling resentful.

Last year, people who had recently joined Goldman said they would quit unless their working conditions improved.

An internal survey shows that 13 employees average 95 hours of work a week and only five hours of sleep a night.

In the survey, all of the respondents said the job had negatively affected their relationships with friends and family, while almost all of them said they had been victims of workplace abuse.

Working conditions were described as "inhumane" and "abusive" in a survey.

The bank was listening to their concerns and taking multiple steps to address them, according to a spokeswoman for the bank.

The Saturday Exception policy, which means that employees cannot work from 9 pm on Friday to 9am on Sunday except in certain circumstances, has been reinforced by the bank.