'Work From Home' Policy Continues For Wall Street Firms

Wall Street banks and investment firms are backing off from their push to get staff back to the office, with Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Carlyle Group, Blackstone, and MetLife among the latest to adjust plans as the Omicron variant spreads, Noor Zainab Hussain, Matt Scuffham and Chibuike Oguh reported for Reuters.

Photo Insert: Companies such as Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs, to name a few, are all taking precautions in light of the spread of the Omicron variant.

The institutions are rethinking their plans to return to business-as-usual amid a spike in COVID-19 cases in New York and other financial hubs and growing concerns over the fast-spreading Omicron.

Citigroup told staff at its New York metro area offices on Wednesday they should work from home if they are able to, a person familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Vaccinated staff had been allowed to return to some Citigroup offices in recent months.

US insurer MetLife Inc. on Thursday told its nearly 14,000 US staff it had postponed plans for them to return to the office to March from Jan. 10 previously, a spokeswoman for the company said.

Morgan Stanley is expecting staff who are not required to be in the office to take advantage of that flexibility and work from home and spend more time with their families, but it is not sending staff home and doesn't have a work-from-home policy, a source familiar with the situation said on Thursday.

Blackstone employees were welcome to work from home through the rest of the month given the increasing spread of COVID-19 in the US, a spokesperson said.

Goldman Sachs, which has not sent staff home, had hosted holiday parties over the last few weeks but on Thursday said it was canceling remaining gatherings due to worries over COVID-19, according to a source familiar with the bank's plans.

Investment firms followed suit. Carlyle is encouraging its US employees to work from home for the remainder of the year and plans to return to a hybrid work model in the new year, a source familiar with the situation said. It is also not planning a firm-wide holiday party, the source said.

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