Goldman Sachs doubles down on full-time office-first work model

Since the post-pandemic period, Goldman Sachs has maintained an office-first stance that expects most corporate employees to work in-office full time. The firm’s emphasis on in-person collaboration has become a defining element of the employee experience, with five-day-a-week attendance treated as the cultural norm across many business units.

For employees that posture means closer scrutiny of presence, manager-level expectations for in-person attendance, and variable local accommodations tied to role and seniority. Teams and HR partners often implement the policy unevenly: front-office groups and senior staff may see more flexibility, while many corporate and support roles face stricter enforcement. Local office capacity and the opening of new campuses outside New York have created further variation in how the policy plays out on the ground.

Employers commonly operationalize return-to-office programs using three levers that are visible at banks like Goldman Sachs. First, firms define employee categories such as in-office, hybrid, and remote-exempt so managers and staff have clearer expectations. Second, in-office requirements are frequently folded into performance conversations or informal assessments of engagement and collaboration. Third, companies invest in local workplace amenities and satellite campuses, cafés, on-site services, and redesigned floor plans, to support attendance and make full-time presence more sustainable.

The practical impact on workers is concrete. Employees evaluating offers or considering moves between firms should factor commute time, local transit options, and whether a given role is tied to strict in-office hours. Team-level flexibility matters: two teams in the same city can have very different norms depending on leadership, client-facing demands, and headcount policies. For managers and HR partners, benchmarking local implementation against external RTO databases and industry trackers can help calibrate expectations and avoid uneven enforcement that creates morale problems or retention risk.

The office-first stance also shapes recruiting and retention. Candidates with long commutes or caregiving responsibilities may discount opportunities where five-day office attendance is required, while those seeking in-person networking and training may prefer firms that prioritize the workplace as the primary arena for collaboration. For incumbent employees, clearer communications from managers about how attendance affects career progression can reduce ambiguity.

What comes next is largely local: continued emphasis on in-person collaboration at the firm level, paired with varied execution across cities, teams, and seniority bands. When assessing Goldman roles or negotiating internal mobility, factor commute costs, ask about team-level norms, and use external RTO trackers to benchmark what similar teams are doing in your market.