Is unlimited annual leave really the perk that it seems?

Goldman Sachs has offered it to senior bankers. But is it the benefit that it seems?

Goldman Sachs HQ in New York (AFP via Getty)

Unlimited time off work? Isn’t that just the perk to beat all perks? Better than the car-with-driver, the country club membership, eating for free every day in the executive dining room or having unlimited use of an executive bathroom kitted out like a fancy spa?

If you’re fed up with grey, drizzly London, you can jet off whenever you like if you’re a senior Goldman Sachs banker, thanks to the company’s policy of unlimited annual leave.

Tormented juniors, on the other hand, some of whom have lately been in near open revolt, have to make do with a mandatory minimum of three weeks, one of which must be a full week.