If Gary Cohn so much as sees one ass in one chair past 9PM on a Friday, there'll be hell to pay.

As David Solomon discussed at last week’s Americas IBD Townhall, several initiatives are being rolled out over the next few weeks/months that are designed to improve the junior banker experience. We are committed to implementing these initiatives to better enable our junior bankers to have successful and sustainable long term careers at the firm. We have summarized the key initiatives below.

Please note that the Saturday rule begins this weekend.

Please let your BUL/BUM know if you have staffing needs that require your junior banker(s) to be in the office from Friday 9PM through Sunday 9AM. Going forward, please make sure you notify the BUL/BUM by 9AM on Friday mornings.

· All analysts and associates are required to be out of the office from 9PM on Friday until 9AM on Sunday (begins this weekend)

If a junior banker needs a cultural, personal or religious exception to the Saturday rule (i.e. would like Sunday off instead) please post your BUL/BUM by 9am on Fridays

If a team needs a professional exception to the Saturday rule (i.e. a junior banker needs to work on Saturday and/or the entire weekend), please email your BUL/BUM by 9AM on Friday for approval. Please cc the team and state the business critical reason for the junior banker needing to work Saturday.

· Exceptions will not be the norm and should be used sparingly

· Exceptions will be tracked and reported to Exec Comm on a quarterly basis

Work should not shift from office to home: junior bankers are not expected to log in from home and work. Junior bankers are still expected to check their blackberries on a regular basis over the weekend. The expectation is that work will not be assigned on Saturday to be completed Saturday.

· All analysts and associates are expected, and will be strongly encouraged, to take 3 weeks of vacation a year:

This should include at least one, but preferably two, protected one-week vacations

Vacations will be tracked and reported on a quarterly basis

All analysts, including new first year analysts, are expected to take time off (preferably one week) before the end of the year in an effort to focus on work-life balance