Why Some Wall Street Bankers Are Upset About The Coffee In Their Office

If you're an office worker, it's highly possible that you transitioned to full-time remote work at some point over the past few years of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Pew Research, about 59% of U.S. workers whose jobs could be performed remotely were working from home all or most of the time as of February of this year, a slight decline from October 2020, when a full 71% of workers reported that they were primarily telecommuting.

But as more and more states strike some or all of their COVID restrictions (via AARP), greater numbers of U.S. workers are heading back to the office. According to CNBC, an increasing number of companies have instituted return-to-work mandates over the past few weeks and months, requiring that employees return to in-person work or risk losing their jobs. Such is the case for Goldman Sachs bankers, some of whom headed back to the office for the first time in years last Tuesday after the long weekend, following a policy change from the investment banking giant. And according to The New York Post, more than a few of them were upset not only about going back to work but also about the type of coffee cart they found upon arriving.

As the pandemic has waned and an increasing number of remote workers have returned to the office, companies have added a number of perks they hope will entice their employees back to their desks, such as fully stocked kombucha bars, an increased focus on worker-friendly technology, and enhanced vacation policies (via ABC7 News). The investment banking firm Goldman Sachs, in downtown Manhattan, is one of those companies, which during the pandemic, brought in a coffee cart offering free cold brew and all kinds of creamers, according to The New York Post. But when bankers returned to work last week, some were less than pleased to discover that the pandemic perk was MIA.

The outlet reported yesterday that the company appears to believe that the risk of getting fired for not returning to the office is enough incentive for its employees — but those workers reported feeling a bit miffed. "RIP to another pandemic perk for junior bankers," one employee told the Post. "I'm sure the partners still don't have to pay for their coffee."

And that's not the only perk Goldman Sachs employees have lost in recent months: In the spring, the firm ended free daily car rides to and from the office for the majority of daytime workers and also yanked employees' breakfast and lunch allowances. For Wall Street workers, it appears that there really is no such thing as a free lunch — or coffee.