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Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs will lift all COVID protocols that have kept some workers away as it pushes all employees to return to the office five days a week after Labor Day, The Post has learned.
In a memo sent Tuesday obtained by The Post, Goldman Sachs told workers it will no longer require vaccines, COVID testing or masks — a signal it won’t accept excuses for employees who claimed COVID as a reason for working from home.
“There is significantly less risk of severe illness,” the memo stated. “In line with [the CDC’s] updated protocols, if you have not been coming in to the office, please speak with your manager to ensure that you understand and adhere to your division’s current return to office expectations.”
The official memo comes just days before the bank expects all employees to return to its offices five days a week, sources add.
“This is another way of Goldman Sachs saying, ‘School’s in session and we want you in person’ after Labor Day,” Wells Fargo bank analyst Mike Mayo told The Post. “Goldman is the ultimate customer-facing firm and it’s tough to face customers remotely.”
Goldman is one of the first major corporations to send a companywide email essentially declaring the risk of catching COVID should not be used as an excuse to work from home.
“We continue to make steady progress bringing our people together in the office, which is core to Goldman Sachs apprenticeship culture and client-centric business,” a spokeswoman for Goldman Sachs told The Post on Tuesday.
The memo states Goldman will roll back its massive testing program and plans to end offering test kits companywide by the end of the year. The bank will reimburse COVID tests covered by insurance and will continue contact tracing and notify employees who have come into contact with an infected person.
But in line with CDC guidance, that person will not be required to quarantine.
Employees at the firm’s New York City headquarters at 200 West Street will still be required to abide by the city mandate, which requires workers to either be vaccinated or have received a health or religious exemption to enter a building.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon wants his firm to be the leader when it comes to returning to the office full-time, a person close to the bank told The Post.
“They have brought people back to the office and are miles ahead of peers,” the source said, referencing Goldman’s competitors uptown, including Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, which have allowed hybrid schedules.
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This isn’t the first time Solomon has made headlines for emphasizing the importance of working from the office.
Last year at Credit Suisse’s annual virtual financial services forum, Solomon said work from home was “an aberration that we are going to correct as quickly as possible” and “not a new normal” for employees at the white-shoe firm. Source: NYT
