NEW YORK —After an employee quit with a highly publicized critique of its culture, Goldman Sachs has been scouring e-mails and other internal communications for evidence of workers using derogatory comments about clients. The firm has been searching for “muppet” and other potentially derogatory terms since the former employee, Greg Smith, wrote in an March 14 opinion piece published by The New York Times that he had seen five managing directors refer to clients as “muppets,” sometimes in internal e-mail, over the preceding 12 months.
A muppet is a puppet that is popular in the U.S., associated with the “Sesame Street” franchise. In the United Kingdom, where Smith worked in equity derivatives, the term generally means idiot.
Smith had disagreements with a new boss after some management changes in the firm’s London operations. Goldman has been interviewing his co-workers and immediate superiors to determine whether there were disputes or specific incidents that led to his drastic action.
