Hungover City traders on Friday with bacon sandwich among WFH victims

Thursday is the most popular day of the week for party nights in the city. After the market closes at 4:30 p.m., traders across London can be seen flocking their offices to hangouts like Madison near St. Paul’s, Smollensky’s in Canary Wharf or the Sea Horse on Queen Victoria Street. That makes going to the office on Friday morning – many have to be at their desks by 7:00 a.m. or earlier – a sometimes brutal affair.

Over the years, pale, sweaty vendors sneaking into the office after 7:50 a.m. on a Friday have been forced to buy breakfast for their team as a punishment for being late.

“If you couldn’t get through the open market, you had to have breakfast. And if you didn’t get in by 9am, you had to bring everyone to lunch, ”said a city agent of the ritual. With many now working from home on a Friday, that tradition has vanished. Now he said: “It’s quieter on Fridays”.

“These young people don’t know the etiquette of the market,” said a trader for a US investment bank in London, referring to how working from home has changed this breakfast ritual.

In theory, city life is normalizing. Goldman Sachs scrapped the free food it offered to its regular crew of office workers during the pandemic to encourage employees to buy sandwiches from local outlets, while HSBC disbanded its Serious Incident Group in the UK, a team that said designed to respond to the crisis, it has reopened more than 70 meetings to its staff in Canary Wharf.

Banks in London have shifted from incentives for employees to return. According to traders and distributors, the snacks are being left out for memos that require a return to a more regular office schedule.

Banks have also abandoned temperature controls for office workers in favor of Covid tests up to three times a week. Social distancing has been phased out at a number of companies as banks have reached full capacity, but masks are still required in most of the city’s facilities despite the UK government lifting legal requirements for wearing a mask indoors.

A widespread return to the office has been a relief for many bankers who were forced to make back-to-back Zoom calls during a deal boom last year, as well as traders who have almost completely returned to normal.

But many are struggling with the new rituals of going back to the office – HSBC has put in “refresher weeks” to help returning UK employees make the switch – and while hybrid working remains an option for most, Mondays and Fridays mean vacations at Canary Wharf Floors, so bankers and traders.

“[The office] is quite active on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, a lot less active on Monday and Friday, ”said Alasdair Haynes, CEO of Aquis Exchange. “So there is a clear connection between Monday and Friday, and I noticed that because I’m almost full-time in the office again.”

“We are still in the early stages, but some City workers are reluctant to return to full-time positions,” added Adrian Crawford, partner in the labor practice of Kingsley Napley Lawyers. “Some banks require employees to get a double vaccination before returning to the office. People are often double vaccinated but don’t report it so they can work from home. “

Risks remain. Some dealmakers told FN that attempts to summon teams in the office on a regular basis since early September have already been disrupted by new cases of Covid-19.

“Three employees of our team were infected with Covid within a few weeks of opening the office,” said a managing director of a US bank. “It’s still very cautious getting back to the office – lateral flow tests on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays – but people are apprehensive about getting on the Jubilee line to the wharf as masks are rarer and trains are more jam-packed. “

“I’m on a business trip and had three Covid-19 tests in the last 24 hours,” said the head of M&A at a US bank. “Most people are vaccinated and the risk of entry is much lower, but there are still cases in the office. We have to live with that all winter. “

At Goldman Sachs, around 55-60% of the 6,000 employees at its UK headquarters in Plumtree Court come to the office, and the number is rising, while Citigroup has about half of Canary Wharf’s workforce every day. At JPMorgan, the workforce in London is between 40 and 45%, while HSBC has grown to around 40% of the workforce in its Canada Square office.

As the number of employees coming into the office has increased, many bankers are struggling with the transition to hybrid working.

“I pay £ 60 a day to get to the office from the country and spend half of my time on Zoom calls with clients or colleagues who prefer to stay at home,” said a senior dealmaker for a UK bank.

“The change has resulted in my time being at home, in the office, and when traveling to meetings, while other customers expect me to be online and approachable at all times,” said another senior dealmaker. “It’s not sustainable as long as we have one foot in both worlds – a lot of people complain.”

Meanwhile, pandemic-inspired moves from London have turned the working lives of some senior dealmakers who are forced to return to the office upside down. A banker who moved to Dorset from Surrey last year said he had to apologize for an early exit from customers’ drinks so as not to come home early in the morning.

Another senior M&A banker, who lives two and a half hours outside of London, spends his work week in an apartment in Canary Wharf while the family stays in rural Buckinghamshire and travels home on weekends.

“It was a bit lonely and a big change,” said the banker. “But at least I can escape the dog barking in the background or my teenagers who accidentally make TikTok videos of me on Zoom calls.”

To contact the author of this story with feedback or news, email Paul Clarke