IN gleaming glass offices across the City and Wall Street, executives in the top investment banks’ personnel departments were conferring last week about “the Goldman problem”.

Christmas is always a busy time for bank human-resources departments — and sexual harassment at the office party is the least of their worries. Bankers work for bonuses. The hundreds of thousands they earn in salary can seem like peanuts compared with the millions that can come with the end-of-year bounty.

For many banks, this has been the best year on record so expectations are high, and unrealistically so for some of their staff — thanks to Goldman Sachs.

The top investment bank announced the size of its bonus pool last week. It made headlines around the world. In the bank’s home city, the New York Post led with the headline GOLDMINE $ACKS. Next to a picture of a cigar-chomping banker with a fistful of dollars, the paper reported that Goldman was “lavishing bankers, traders and stockbrokers with more than $16.5 billion (£8.5 billion) in bonus loot.”

The bonus pool is the largest ever doled out by a Wall Street firm. Inevitably, jealous rivals want similar sums, so stories abound of fits of pique and resentment — hence, the “Goldman problem”.

One London banker said: “This Goldman stuff has caused us a nightmare. Suddenly I’ve got a row of 25-year-olds outside my door telling me that if they get £200,000 it’s not enough. We’re not even announcing bonuses yet — it’s extraordinary. They know it’s far more than their parents earned over a period of years but there’s still this culture of jealousy.”

Another added: “It’s all rumour: an e-mail goes round saying ‘my mate at Goldman has got 40% more and another at Lehman is expecting 30%’ and then you’ve got a bunch of people saying they will resign. Sometimes you just have to call their bluff and say fine; but most of the time you take on the role of counsellor and find yourself saying: ‘Well, £100,000 isn’t that bad and you’re doing brilliantly.’ We just don’t want to lose them to others.”

Goldman’s bonuses average $622,000 per employee; some will get considerably less but many will get much, much more. The most senior “partners” can expect $10m to $20m in their Christmas stocking; some top traders are expecting $60m. Other investment bankers seek to explain that these figures are unusually large because of Goldman’s partnership structure, which means the partner managing directors are paid considerably more than normal managing directors.

As one London-based former Goldman banker said: “It’s like being paid twice. Once is your normal salary like everyone else. Then you get your partner’s share — it’s amazing. The level below is a long drop — but that’s their incentive, they need to get up. Equally, the level of partner pay at Goldman means every other banker in London and New York wants to work at Goldman.”

If any firm is aware of the problems huge bonuses can generate, it’s Goldman.

Goldman Sachs loves voicemail — much more personal than e-mail — and last week Lloyd Blankfein, chief executive, left a message for everyone in the bank. Bonuses were coming through. Don’t be “irrational or arrogant”, he warned.

Goldman doesn’t like publicity about its bankers’ wealth. It doesn’t really like publicity at all and it frowns on any employee who flaunts his rewards.

“Buying a Ferrari is not cool at Goldman. You’d get more brownie points for turning up in a second-hand Toyota Prius,” said one banker.