Yes — Goldman Sachs tested the waters in sunny Florida while the virus raged last year. But now it’s time to come home.
As the second wave of coronavirus slammed New York City in December, Goldman was reportedly focusing on expanding its asset management business — a key growth engine for the Wall Street behemoth — by relocating many of its workers to the Sunshine State.
But insiders say Goldman Sachs Asset Management polled employees on the cost-saving idea — with managers informally sounding out the rank-and-file, and the company even sending out an email survey — and the bank was met with a notable scarcity of snowbirds.
As of Monday, Goldman, headed by CEO David Solomon, was looking to hire close to 40 people to continue building out New York’s asset management offices while GSAM was only looking to fill approximately 10 roles in the entire state of Florida.
“We worked at the beach, the burbs, and the boondocks … and we’re ready to come back to NYC,” said Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo, who was happy to translate the poll’s results although he said he couldn’t confirm them. “You’re seeing both a push by employees to reconnect with colleagues and customers and a pull by Wall Street employers to reconvene and rebuild culture.”
A source close to GSAM notes that the Florida idea was the “brainchild” of Eric Lane, longtime co-head of the division who is leaving for Tiger Global next month. Lane had been leading the charge looking at real estate, according to the source, adding that the tepid employee response coupled with Lane’s exit is stalling if not ending a possible exodus.
A spokesperson for Lane declined to comment.
“As announced at our investor day in January 2020, we are executing on the strategy of locating more jobs in high value locations throughout the US, but we have no specific plans to announce at this time,” Goldman said in a statement.