is it possible that wall street banks are embracing their empathetic and caring side and starting to care about the mental health and wellbeing of their workers wall street is known as a tough aggressive and brutal environment to work in there is intense competition the hours are long and filled with pressure from clients and bosses but there is a chance to make a lot of money bankers recognize that they are engaging in a tradeoff—put up with all of the hard stuff and you can one day walk away rich the pandemic has opened our eyes to mental health issues covid19 cases and casualties have caused many people to reflect upon their lives and careers confronted with the frailty and shortness of life it was natural for folks to consider other alternatives asking yourself if this is all there is and whether you can keep doing this job for the next 10 or 20 years became a hot topic of conversation it seems that this feeling is seeping into the culture of wall street in what looks like the beginning of a new trend goldman sachs the epitome of wall street swagger embraced its warm and cuddly side david solomon the hardcharging ceo after reflection and counsel offered his young bankers the opportunity to take off on saturdays in an attempt to lower goldman’s demanding 100hour workweek if that’s not enough to show its human side goldman made a uturn in its call for bankers brokers traders and other professionals to immediately return to the office the bank conducted a survey of its nearly 40000 employees held highlevel internal meetings with its top executives and sought out advice from outside consultants on how to placate its staff the top brass wanted to gain a sense of what jobs can be done at home and which roles require being in the office the discussions centered around employee mental health challenges the safety of returning to an office while still in a pandemic the isolation of working from home operating remotely without direct supervision and the ability to spend more time with family and less time commuting and traveling now its citigroup’s turn the newly appointed ceo of the bank jane fraser informed her 210000 employees that she is banning internal video calls on fridays the move is part of a larger program to set boundaries and help her people have a healthier worklife balance fraser also called for a new companywide “holiday” called citi reset day its considered a day of decompressing as the yearlong pandemic has taken a toll on the psyche of workers in a memo fraser said ″the blurring of lines between home and work and the relentlessness of the pandemic workday have taken a toll on our wellbeing” the chief executive continued “it’s simply not sustainable since a return to any kind of new normal is still a few months away for many of us we need to reset some of our working practices” fraser added “we are a global company that operates across time zones but when our work regularly spills over into nights very early mornings and weekends it can prevent us from recharging fully and that isn’t good for you nor ultimately for citi” citi along with other major banks are figuring out how to manage the anticipated reopening of the economy and businesses most jobs at citi will be designated as “hybrid” with at least three days spent in the office after people are vaccinated fraser said in an interview with the wall street journal “i certainly imagine everyone back in the office i do think from a cultural point of view—apprenticeship the sense of belonging—you are better together” there will also be certain roles that require being in a physical location such as bank branches and data centers citi will also offer some remoteonly options fraser said about her plan “we want our people to feel an attachment to our firm a sense of pride about serving our clients and a duty to protect the financial system that only happens when we are together—and as we have all experienced loneliness is not a great feeling”