After Labor Day, “our view is that all vaccinated cohorts will return,” Moynihan said. “We will be able to operate as normal and then we will start making arrangements for other partners as we move forward during the fall,” he added.
A Bank of America spokesperson told CNN Business, “We encourage employees to enter their vaccination status on the company portal and expect most of our employees to return after Labor Day.
Bank of America isn’t the only big bank focusing on getting its employees back in the office. This week, Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman said it was time for the bank’s New York employees to do the same. Back to work in person now that more people are getting vaccinated against Covid-19.
“If you can walk into a restaurant in New York City, you can walk into the office. And we want you in the office,” Gorman said. “On Labor Day, I’d be very disappointed if people didn’t come into the office and then we’d have a different kind of conversation.” The CEO added that workers cannot expect to be paid in New York City if they continue to work remotely.
And in May, Goldman Sachs asked its U.S. employees who had not yet returned to the office to be ready to do so before June 14, according to a memo obtained by CNN Business.
Legal experts say employers can require vaccinations, though federal protections may allow some exceptions.
Treat stress.
The decisions to return to work in person come after some Wall Street workers said they were fed up with the long hours and workload. Emerging markets and seismic shifts in the economy have created huge volumes of business and stress for investment banks during the pandemic, with self-care and mental health topping the lists. Many employee preferences.
In March, Citigroup announced “Zoomless Fridays” as a way to help burned-out bank employees deal with stress a year after the pandemic.
Also in March, Goldman Sachs analysts complained of working 95-hour weeks and enduring “inhumane” treatment. In response, the company’s CEO, David Solomon, said the bank would strengthen enforcement of its “week rule” and accelerate the hiring of junior bankers. Goldman’s “weekday routine” requires analysts to be out of the office from 9 a.m. Friday to 9 a.m. Sunday, except in exceptional circumstances.
— CNN’s Paul LaMonica contributed to this report.
