You think you have career stress? Think again!
You may have seen the news report: A Goldman Sachs manager, Greg Smith, resigned in a very public way. Before sending in his resignation letter, Smith wrote an Op-Ed piece for the New York Times, expressing his frustration with his employer. He criticized the self-serving value system and culture. He claimed that the company actually worked against their clients’ interests in some cases. It’s the opposite of career planning. It’s career stress.
Read the full story here in the New York Times.
Some Goldman clients responded positively to the article and to Smith’s career stress. Some clients said, “He’s right. We have to be careful when we deal with Goldman.”
But many people were critical of this manager. One of the most compelling criticisms came from the Bloomberg.com financial blog :
“We have some advice for Smith, as well as the thousands of college students who apply to work at Goldman Sachs each year: If you want to dedicate your life to serving humanity, do not go to work for Goldman Sachs. That’s not its function, and it never will be. Go to work for Goldman Sachs if you wish to work hard and get paid more than you deserve even so.”
He undoubtedly will have trouble getting another job on Wall Street; on the other hand, he’d been earning around $500,000 a year and hopefully he knew something about investing his own money wisely. He may not want another job. Maybe he will move to the country and downsize his life.
He’s not free and clear. Goldman could sue him, especially if he had signed agreements about making “disparaging comments” about the firm. However, if Goldman sued, they would create another public relations problem, as many people will side with Greg Smith. Let’s face it: many of us have had fantasies of doing the same thing!
Will Smith change the culture of Goldman Sachs this way? Or is he just committing career suicide very publicly?
What do YOU think? Reply below to leave a comment. If you don’t see a place to comment, just click on the headline.