Over the weekend, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon partied hard at the silent disco at the Napa Valley music festival.
Solomon, who is one of Wall Street’s hardest CEOs at one of the most demanding corporations, also moonlights as a DJ, giving festival goers a glimpse into his personal life.
Goldman Sachs, which is known for its long-hours culture, pushed for employees to work five days a week after just half of the bank’s 10,000 employees returned to the New York headquarters after the Omicron surge on Feb. 1.
Solomon branded working from home ‘an aberration’ and demanded employees return to the office. But at weekends he displays a markedly different persona.
In a stark contrast from his day job, the CEO was spinning at the BottleRock music festival’s silent disco in Napa Valley on Sunday where people wore headphones so only they could hear the music.
This is the second year in a row that Solomon has spun at BottleRock. He also performed in 2021. The CEO is set to perform at Lollapalooza in Chicago this summer.
Goldman is widely-regarded as the most demanding investment bank to work for, but its staff are also among the highest-paid in a famously well-remunerated industry.
Last year junior staff begged to work just 80 hours a week amid complaints ‘inhumane’ expectations were leading to mental health issues.
In March, more than 10 staff in their first year at the company reported working around 98 hours each week, according to posts on eFinancial Careers.
Following the backlash, Goldman Sachs told senior staff to take as many holidays as they want under plans to tackle complaints over its long-hours culture.
Partners and managing directors were informed there will be no cap on the number of paid leave days they can take as part of a new vacation policy.
Critics say the move is a ruse, and that the culture of the bank is so ingrained that few staff will take up the offer, and instead work as hard as ever.
It hopes the plan will improve staff ‘wellbeing and resilience’, providing time off to ‘rest and recharge’.
The ‘flexible vacation’ scheme came into effect from May 1 to allow senior staff ‘to take time off… without a fixed vacation day entitlement’, a memo seen by The Daily Telegraph said.
t added that every employee will also be expected to take a minimum of 15 days leave per year from next January, with at least one week of consecutive time off. Junior staff will get an extra two days off each year.
Goldman, the first major financial institution to bring in the policy, is notorious for its long-hours culture.
Solomon said that the company is taking complaints from junior staff about workload and hours ‘very seriously’.
Unlimited holiday policies have become popular with some firms, including Glassdoor, LinkedIn and Netflix, as a way to stop burnout among staff.
Goldman is one of a handful of financial institutions to get staff back in the office five days a week – Solomon described working from home a ‘temporary aberration’.
He said that being in the office is ‘critical’ to company operations
On February 1, only half of the company’s 10,000 employees showed up to the New York City headquarters when offices reopened. Workers were reportedly been given more than two weeks notice to prepare for the return.
Solomon has repeatedly argued that remote work ‘is not ideal for us, and it’s not a new normal.’
He has maintained his distaste for remote work throughout the pandemic, arguing that one of Goldman Sachs’ strengths is its network of staff collaborating together to serve clients.
He believes that working from home inhibits relationship building and growth.
‘The secret sauce to our organization is, we attract thousands of really extraordinary young people who come to Goldman Sachs to learn to work, to create a network of other extraordinary people, and work very hard to serve our clients,’ he told CNBC in March.
‘Part of the secret sauce is that they come together and collaborate and work with people that are much more experienced than they are.’
Although he acknowledged that some businesses have made remote successful, he doesn’t believe that is the best operating model for his company.
‘I do think for a business like ours which is an innovative, collaborative apprenticeship culture, this is not ideal for us and it’s not a new normal,’ he said.
Goldman Sachs reported its best years ever over the past two years, with the company recording a profit of $21.6billion in 2021.
Solomon has DJd at parties in the Bahamas and Hamptons – where he owns homes – and at a Sports Illustrated Super Bowl party in February at Century Park in Los Angeles, attended by Jeff Bezos.
‘He shows up with a backpack, in a T-shirt, jeans, sneakers,’ said Michael Heller, co-founder of Talent Resources Sports, which co-hosted the party alongside Sports Illustrated’s parent company.
‘After dark, he’s a different person, so free-spirited.’
In December, Solomon told a podcast that said his hobby ‘helps him relax’.
‘I have this analytical side of my mind that helps me in my professional career,’ Solomon told The Sound of Success with Nic Harcourt.
‘But I haven’t had a lot of opportunities to stimulate the creative side artistic of my brain, and it makes me feel good.’
Solomon – a divorced father of two adult daughters – is also a fitness fanatic and adrenaline junkie.
He cycles. He spins. He runs. He skis. He golfs. He kite-surfs. (He earned his wings at a kite-surfing boot camp on the North Carolina coast.) He scuba-dives. He hikes. He’s in the gym every morning at six with his trainer,’ reported a Vanity Fair profile.
‘He’s been known to walk down the uninterrupted sidewalk on the east side of Central Park West on the weekends, wearing his headset, taking one conference call after another.’
Solomon told the magazine: ‘When I get interested in something, I try to do it at a very, very high level.
‘I like accomplishing things.’
Solomon grew up north of New York City, in Westchester – his father owned a small printing business, and his mother sold hearing aids.
Solomon married Mary in 1989, when they were both 27 years old.
They divorced in 2018.
The couple had lived since 2002 in The San Remo on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, but the four-bedroom, 5.5-bath apartment with nearly 65 feet of Central Park frontage was sold for $24 million in 2016.