Investment giants Goldman Sachs are to give senior staff ‘unlimited holiday’, but less experienced staff are set to miss out.
The decision will see the cap removed from paid holiday entitlements as part of the bank’s “flexible vacation” policy. The change was announced via a global memo, which also said staff would have to take at least 3 weeks off a year, with one of those comprised of one week of consecutive days.
Junior staff will still be offered a fixed amount of holiday.
A statement released by Goldman Sachs described the bank’s commitment 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,’ it went on to say, ‘we are pleased to announce enhancements and changes to our global vacation programme designed to further support time off to rest and recharge.’
At the time of writing unlimited leave is only restricted to a few major companies and tech brands, such as Linkedin.
The Workers Union Says…
The news that Goldman Sachs are to introduce unlimited leave for senior staff feels like a positive step forward. Other companies can look to the decision as an example of what can be done to recruit and retain talent in the post-pandemic world. For the truth is that in the battle for staff, old models of pay and perks will be found wanting. Workers need a better balance between their working lives and their personal lives, and those companies with the foresight to give it to them will be the ones to profit.
Some will argue that he who pays the piper calls the tune. But that only serves to heap the epidemic of mental health issues, stress and burnout at the door of working people, absolving execs of their duty of care towards their staff. That cannot be right and neither should it be tolerated.
Of course the devil is in the detail. Considered as part of a wider discussion, unlimited leave must be available to all staff once they have passed their probation period. Given that the country requires skilled and motivated workers to meet the challenges of the 21st century, it would be folly for company chiefs to lock and bolt the door with the next generation on the other side.
