Jamie earned thousands and thousands as a Goldman Sachs banker. However as she publishes a whistleblowing memoir, she admits to feeling responsible at conserving silent so lengthy
Jamie Fiore Higgins frowns as she displays on her 18-year profession at Goldman Sachs, one of many world’s foremost monetary companies.
She might have risen to turn into one in every of its most senior ladies bankers, incomes $1.2 million with bonuses of as much as $1 million, however wanting again on her time there, she feels largely guilt.
The bottom level, she says, wasn’t the bodily assault the place a male colleague pinned her towards a wall and put his hand round her throat, or male colleagues displaying her porn on their telephones whereas she was at her desk. It wasn’t even the truth that they ‘mooed’ when she went to pump breast milk for her child daughter.
Jamie Fiore Higgins (pictured) displays on her 18-year profession at Goldman Sachs, after claiming she was bodily assaulted on the firm
The nadir was when she shared a drink at a convention with a former colleague and mentor. ‘I’d at all times considered him as one of many nicer guys,’ she says.
‘I used to be married with three youngsters; he was married with youngsters. We had been sitting there, reminiscing, when out of the blue he put his hand on my knee.’ Jamie says he then nodded in the direction of his crotch and stated, ‘Let’s go!’, indicating that he needed her to carry out oral intercourse.
‘That actually damage,’ she says. ‘He was nearly like my dad or massive brother. I believed, “Oh my God, even you.”’
Jamie did her greatest to stay calm as she declined however, drunk, the person simply laughed it off.
Her emotions of guilt come from not reporting the incident — ‘On the time I didn’t see the purpose’ — or certainly any of the sexism or sexual harassment she noticed on the Wall Road big.
Jamie arrived anticipating Goldman’s recruitment mantra: Minds. Large. Open. What she discovered was a kill-or-be-kill world, dominated by misogyny and sexism — an environment of hyper-masculinity fuelled by cash and energy (Inventory picture: Senior businessman puting his arm on his coworker’s knee)
This explicit incident wasn’t even the straw that broke the camel’s again — it will be one other three years earlier than Jamie selected to go away.
‘What did it take for me to outlive there for therefore lengthy?’ she asks. ‘Sucking it up and shutting up.’
Basically, she feels Goldman Sachs purchased her silence with these dizzyingly excessive salaries and bonuses.
Not any extra. Jamie, who this month was named one of many Monetary Instances’ most influential ladies of the 12 months, has written a tell-all guide, Bully Market: My Story Of Cash And Misogyny At Goldman Sachs. ‘It’s not simply concerning the unhealthy issues that occurred to me, it’s concerning the unhealthy issues I perpetuated,’ she admits.
Jamie stated it was not simply concerning the unhealthy issues that occurred to her at Goldman Sachs (pictured), however the issues she perpetuated
We meet at a studio in London, the place Jamie is being photographed. She is slight, neat, with darkish shiny hair, and she or he is heat, curious. She says: ‘I actually needed to shine a light-weight on what cash, energy, status can do to somebody.’ Even a lady like her. Jamie is an unlikely whistleblower: a self-confessed Goody Two-Sneakers; a rule follower.
‘It was extremely laborious to talk out,’ she says.
The miserable proposition on the convention occurred 4 years earlier than the #MeToo motion of 2017. Certainly that sort of behaviour has been stamped out because of this? In any case, Goldman Sachs has since made a giant dedication to ‘advancing gender equality and growing illustration at each degree of our agency’.
So maybe essentially the most stunning factor about Jamie’s story is her declare that nothing a lot has modified. ‘I feel the extra egregious acts, like my assault, wouldn’t be tolerated now,’ she says.
Jamie’s most stunning declare is that nothing a lot modified even within the wake of the #MeToo motion
‘However are journeys to strip golf equipment occurring? Completely. Simply a few months in the past at a convention, apparently. Girls are telling me what’s occurring. I’ve heard from ladies who’ve been mooed at like I used to be, who really feel that motherhood is handled like a illness.’
Then, she says, there are the ladies who’ve been ‘managed out’ of roles after complaining to HR. She alleges firms like Goldman Sachs are, nonetheless, ‘getting lots higher at conserving it underneath wraps’. ‘They’ve all these nice press releases and targets, however they don’t seem to be following via with concrete measurable steps. To me, it’s simply fluff.
‘It simply reveals the lengths they may go to to maintain the “establishment” — and the facility.’
Jamie isn’t the primary lady to complain. Goldman Sachs just lately paid greater than $12 million (£9.8m) to a former feminine companion to settle claims that senior executives created a hostile surroundings for ladies.
A lot of the occasions appear to have taken place in 2018 and 2019, at a time when Goldman was publicly pushing to rent extra ladies.
She even claimed that some ladies have been managed out of their roles after making complaints
There’s additionally a class-action lawsuit towards the financial institution, alleging widespread bias towards ladies in pay and promotions. The case will go to trial subsequent June. But when Jamie first walked into the buying and selling flooring of Goldman Sachs’ New York workplace as a trainee analyst on July 13, 1998, she felt like Charlie Bucket in Charlie And The Chocolate Manufacturing unit: ‘I had the successful golden ticket. I felt so fortunate to get that job.’
She had grown up in New Jersey, as a part of a close-knit Italian-American household. Her grandparents had come from Naples and Sicily in the course of the Melancholy. Her grandfather took his life after falling into debt when her father was solely ten. ‘For my household, cash was about safety, security.’
As a baby, spinal scoliosis led to costly surgical procedures. This left her feeling responsible and beholden to her dad and mom: ‘Rising up with well being points, I actually needed to be a healer and a helper and so social work appealed.’ However her household made it clear they anticipated her to take a higher-paying job as recompense for his or her sacrifices.
She arrived anticipating Goldman’s recruitment mantra: Minds. Large. Open. What she discovered was a kill-or-be-kill world, dominated by misogyny and sexism — an environment of hyper-masculinity fuelled by cash and energy.
Basically, she feels Goldman Sachs (pictured) purchased Jamie silence with these dizzyingly excessive salaries and bonuses
It was to be a baptism of fireplace. At her first networking occasion at an upmarket steakhouse in New York, she found three trainees snorting cocaine within the rest room. ‘We’d simply signed an settlement promising to be drug free!’ she says. Later, she discovered two trainees in flagrante on the ground of the pc lab: ‘Right here was I, cramming for my pitch, and so they had been having intercourse.’
A recurring theme of her guide is the corrupting energy of cash. ‘I noticed how cash modified folks,’ she says. ‘The extra money folks made, the extra they spent, the crummier they had been.’
Jamie alleges that girls at Goldman had been paid lower than males and had been ranked by male colleagues on their ‘f***capability’, with breast dimension, backside form and leg size logged on an Excel chart.
‘They talked about this spreadsheet overtly — I pretended to not hear.’ She was nicknamed ‘Sister Jamie, our prude little nun’ as a result of she blushed at soiled jokes. Months into her profession, a male dealer informed her: ‘At Goldman, intercourse will propel you additional than any Ivy League diploma.’
She selected to show a blind eye to the misbehaviour round her, rising via the hierarchy.
When she married on the age of 28 in 2004 and went on to have 4 youngsters, she discovered herself with a brand new label. She explains, ‘I used to be informed, “Reduce the mum crap. We’d like you to be a industrial killer”. As for those who can’t be a mom and a “industrial killer”.’
Her boss informed her to take away footage of her youngsters and their drawings from her desk. ‘The blokes all had footage of themselves on the golf course and that was OK,’ she says. ‘These footage and drawings had been the one issues at work that made me pleased.
‘You’re consistently feeling like you must shave part of your self away. There was a strict algorithm for the ladies. Males might be whoever they needed.’
Goldman Sachs gave her 16 weeks of maternity go away however her workplace would name typically: ‘I even acquired a name after I was in labour.’
Later, in a managing administrators’ assembly, she was requested to applaud a male colleague, who on the morning of the delivery of his baby had flown to Asia to seal a deal. ‘Everybody was clapping and I used to be infuriated. I stated, “A girl can not give delivery at 8am in New York after which be on a aircraft to Asia that day. You’re creating targets that girls can’t obtain.” ’
One other male-orientated expectation was the extent of socialising, no matter whether or not you had a household ready at dwelling. Going for drinks and dinners to schmooze the shoppers was obligatory.
Jamie says the places had been typically male and clubby: golf course, strip golf equipment, whisky bars, weekend romps in Vegas, the place ladies would by no means be invited. ‘It maintained the previous boys’ membership and solidified its energy,’ says Jamie. She continues: ‘Girls must work twice as laborious, as a result of they must endure a lot extra.
‘You’re consistently having to push and combat after which you must take care of the “white noise” of Wall Road.’ Crude jokes, homosexual jokes, sexual innuendo, males speaking concerning the dimension of their penises and even grabbing their crotches, frequently. ‘If a shopper handled me effectively, they’d say, “Did you give him head, Jamie?”’
Regardless of the poisonous surroundings, Jamie went on to turn into a supervisor in 2007, aged 31 and managing director in 2012, at 36. Her common bonus was $800,000 (£660k). Her greatest $1million (£820k) in 2009.
The guide is a devastating and frank indictment of how even she, ‘Sister Jamie’, was manipulated by the Goldman Sachs tradition. Take her repeated failure to report wrongdoing. Shortly after her promotion in 2007, Jamie found one in every of her subordinates was having an affair with a shopper. She took him off the account. He reacted by slamming her towards a wall, grabbing her throat and saying: ‘If I might, I’d rip your f***ing face off.’ However Jamie didn’t report the assault: ‘My boss stated, “Hear, you’ll be able to name HR, and report it, however I’m not going to do away with him”.
‘He was an excellent golfer, knew the golf execs and with one name might get shoppers on the massive programs. “So think about how laborious it’s going to be so that you can report him after which must work with him.”
‘I used to be a supervisor, it was my first promotion. I needed to start out a household. So I stored my mouth shut.’
That was one of many first of many instances Jamie shut as much as defend unhealthy behaviour: ‘That’s what I used to be paid and promoted for, quite a lot of the time: my silence.’ The masking up left her exhausted and depressing. And now she’s stuffed with regret.
‘It’s ironic how ladies didn’t actually assist each other,’ she says. ‘I definitely didn’t. I’d begin, however when push got here to shove, I didn’t assist.’ She knew what would occur if she did.
She offers the instance of a former colleague, Lizzie: ‘She didn’t put up with the crap. She pushed again. That intimidated the fellows on the desk and so they began funneling enterprise away from her.
‘They known as their buddies at different brokers, saying: “Don’t do enterprise with Lizzie.” Her gross sales began to say no and so they stated, “She’s not an excellent performer.” Actually, that they had created the issue.
‘She left and acquired a job with a competitor. After which she sued. My boss stated, “Attorneys are going to name and ask you what it’s prefer to be a working lady right here. I belief you’re not going to say something unfavorable.” ’
Jamie had two younger youngsters by this level and was centered on making managing director. ‘I shut up. I swallowed it. I lied. I stated, “It’s an excellent place for ladies to work”.’
However in 2012, she discovered herself behaving in a manner that threatened her household life. She fashioned an in depth relationship with Wealthy, an older, just lately divorced colleague. It began with a goodnight hug at a convention in Florida; a 12 months or so later, she was entwined with him at the back of a automotive.
The ‘affair’ lasted on and off for a 12 months, though it was by no means absolutely consummated. Her husband sensed that she had turn into emotionally distant and moved into the spare room. They lived ‘aside collectively’, hardly talking to one another for weeks. Jamie ended the connection with Wealthy after her daughter known as her one night when she was in mattress with him, saying she had a tummy ache.
She appears again on her near-affair with horror: ‘My grandma can be handing over her grave. I feel that’s why my husband was so beneficiant along with his forgiveness. He realised, “Holy crap, the place warped her”. I used to be so ashamed as a result of I realised the affair had little to do with my marriage, however needed to do with me.
‘I used to be dwelling in such a poisonous surroundings at work and making unhealthy choices to manage. It was an escape — and what I actually wanted was to flee from Goldman Sachs.’ After confessing all to her husband, they reconciled and went on to have a fourth baby two years later in 2015.
Jamie lastly handed in her discover in 2016, having waited to obtain her ultimate bonus of $500,000 (£409k).
‘I’d have been high-quality financially if I’d left years earlier,’ she admits, as somebody who’s eminently wise together with her cash. ‘However I used to be too beholden to this concept that I used to be fortunate to be there. That I’d be nothing with out them.’
She continues: ‘Girls want to grasp they’re of worth. That Goldman is fortunate to have them. When you’ve got that autonomy you will have an opportunity to push again.’
When invited to reply to Jamie’s assertions, a spokesperson for Goldman Sachs stated: ‘We strongly disagree with Ms Higgins’ characterisation of Goldman Sachs’ tradition and these anonymised allegations.
‘Had Ms Higgins raised these allegations with our Human Sources division on the time, we might have investigated them totally and addressed them significantly. We now have a zero tolerance coverage for discrimination or retaliation towards workers reporting misconduct, and all claims are totally investigated with discretion and sensitivity.’
In her guide, names and figuring out particulars have been modified, and a few characters are composites. The timing of some occasions has been compressed and dialogue displays ‘the essence of the conversations’ fairly than ‘verbatim quotes’.
Now 46, Jamie nonetheless lives in New Jersey together with her husband, Dan, an IT guide, and their 4 youngsters, twins, Abigail and Elizabeth, 13, Luke, 11, and Hannah, seven. She now works as an expert coach, primarily advising ladies.
Her recommendation for younger ladies wanting to start out a profession in funding banking? ‘Do the evaluation between what you’re incomes and the expertise you’re getting. Ensure it’s value it. And know that, at any time, your profession will be redesigned. We’re all of the CEO of our personal careers.’
Unhappy that so little has modified, she concludes, ‘That’s why we have to maintain telling our tales, and exposing what’s actually occurring in these highly effective companies.’
- Bully Market: My Story Of Cash And Misogyny at Goldman Sachs by Jamie Fiore Higgins (£20, Simon & Schuster) is out now.