MILAN – Wall Street tries (without too much conviction) to convert to slow-finance to protect its employees from the stress of smart-working stress, from expansive working hours and from the daily overdose of teleconferences. One year after the arrival of Covid, the “psychiatric” balance sheet of the home work revolution is in the dark. Goldman Sachs analysts have turned against the top management of the investment bank for the “abuse” of a commitment that forced them to sleep five hours a night. Citigroup – to prevent similar problems – has decided to go ahead. By setting rigid boundaries to prevent work from home from overwhelming the private lives of its employees. The diktats of Jane Fraser, written in black and white in a memo sent to all workers on Monday, are clear: calls from Zoom and all videoconferences on Friday are prohibited. A sort of digital casual Friday. Closer monitoring of collective calls to avoid abuse and to minimize those outside working hours. And the institution of a holiday – May 28 – in which the “Reset day” will be celebrated. Twenty-four hours in which Citigroup workers will dedicate themselves to digital Detox, thinking only of themselves and recharging their batteries.
The moves of the big New Yorkers – Goldman Sachs recommended the strict application of the Saturday rule, i.e. the obligation not to call juniors between 9 pm on Friday and 9 am on Sunday – definitively clarify a fact: smart working – to the test of facts – it risks being much more tiring (and dangerous for personal balance) than traditional work. Stanford University has certified with an in-depth study the damage caused by “acute Zoomitis” or the pathology linked to the overdose of videoconferencing. Detailing its causes and dangers. The European Parliament, faced with a 30% increase in the hours worked by the study at home in the era-Covid, felt compelled to vote with a Bulgarian majority for the right of citizens to disconnect.
The Citigroup memo, in its clarity and given the source, is a sort of manifesto of the rights of the smart-worker: “The continuous telephone calls between home and work and the harshness of remote engagement in the era of a pandemic have ended up penalizing our well-being and our balance, ”writes Fraser, perhaps not surprisingly the most powerful ad woman on Wall Street. “This – he added – is an unsustainable situation for people and therefore for the bank. And since the end of the pandemic is not around the corner, we must necessarily intervene with some adjustments. It is an advantage for individuals but also for the bank ”.
Fraser also illustrated to employees how he intends to adapt work organization once the health crisis is over: presence in the office – the memo specifies – will be predominant, especially for the youngest. There will be several hybrid positions with people staying three hours a day in the workplace and two connecting from home. For some functions “but these will be rare cases”, the remote work will continue.
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