An ex-Goldman Sachs exec reportedly said a cut-throat culture led to long hours and burnout. Goldman said if the employee felt pressure, ‘it was self-generated.’

• An ex-Goldman Sachs exec says a “culture of bullying” made employees cry, the Daily Telegraph reports, citing a lawsuit.
• The former executive reportedly made the allegations in a complaint in London.
• In a statement to Insider, Goldman Sachs called the allegations “completely without merit.” 

An ex-Goldman Sachs executive said the work culture in the London office was so bad that people would cry at meetings, the Daily Telegraph reported, citing a legal complaint.

The former executive, Ian Dodd, said Goldman’s “culture of bullying” led him to have a mental breakdown, the Telegraph reported, citing his court filing. He said the ultra-long hours he worked affected his mental health.

The complaint was filed in the High Court of Justice in London by Dodd, who had been global head of recruiting at Goldman Sachs, according to Goldman’s own filing in the case. He had joined the bank at the end of 2018 and left in 2021, the Telegraph reported.

Dodd said the work culture at the elite investment bank was so cut-throat that employees would even hear aggressive comments like, “Take that as your first punch in the face,” he alleged in the complaint, the Telegraph reported.

Goldman rejected Dodd’s allegation about employees crying at meetings in its own legal filing in response to the complaint. “As in many workplaces, there were occasions when colleagues were upset, for a variety of reasons (sometimes unconnected with work and sometimes connected with work), but it is denied that such instances were frequent or usual,” the bank said in its filing, which it shared with Insider.

Goldman also said that the company did not impose “unreasonable or inappropriate demands” on Dodd, and said that it did not give him “targets, delivery objectives, or deadlines.”

“If he felt pressure, it was self-generated; it was not imposed on him,” the bank said in its filing. “If he did work excessive hours, this was not because it was required or expected of him.” The bank’s filing also said that it provided him with “adequate support” and “wellness resources,” including mental health support. 

In a statement to Insider, Goldman said: “We believe these claims are completely without merit.”

A LinkedIn account that appeared to belong to Dodd did not immediately respond to Insider’s message seeking comment ahead of publication.

The high-pressure workplace culture at Goldman Sachs and investment banking in general has been the subject of press coverage and litigation.

In 2021, an informal survey that was reportedly sent to Goldman Sachs management from 13 junior bankers describing “inhumane” working conditions at the firm went viral on social media. “A year into COVID, people are understandably quite stretched, and that’s why we are listening to their concerns and taking multiple steps to address them,” a Goldman spokesperson told Insider in a statement at the time.

Last year in the US, Goldman Sachs reportedly settled allegations by a former partner who had alleged a culture of discrimination against women at the firm. The bank paid the former partner $12 million to settle the claims, Bloomberg reported at the time, noting that the bank’s general counsel said at the time that “Bloomberg’s reporting contains factual errors, and we dispute this story.”