For Wall Street Workers, Ax Falls Quietly

[Bozita]

Source: NYTimes


May 16, 2008
For Wall Street Workers, Ax Falls Quietly

By LOUISE STORY and ERIC DASH

People on Wall Street seem to be vanishing overnight.

Thousands are losing their jobs as hard-pressed banks cut deep. But while layoffs are nothing new in the financial industry (they come with almost every downturn), this round seems different: it is eerily quiet.

So quiet, in fact, that people refer to these cuts as stealth layoffs. Some bosses hardly say a word after people are fired. At Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, for example, the first clue that someone is gone can be e-mail messages that are returned to senders from a former colleague’s inactivated corporate address.

-snip-

And gallows humor is rampant. One joke: A banker calls a colleague and asks, “Are you busy? Or are you lying?”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/16/business/16layoff.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[MADem]

1. Well, never wory. The 'Migra' are rounding people up and deporting them.

There will be plenty of dishwashing, mopping, and burger flipping jobs for those people.

Help is on the way!

I suppose I need to haul this out :sarcasm: for the irony impaired and otherwise clueless.

[sharp_stick]

2. I try to feel sorry for them

but then I remember the happiness they (wall street analysts and traders) greet every merger and buyout because thousands are losing there jobs and there will be more money for them. Then I think what the hell, what's good for the goose is good for the gander, enjoy updating your CV.

[Bozita]

3. These folks need to go back to school and study up on stuff related to the jobs of the future.

The Bushies give that advice to everyone who loses their job.

They just never say what those future jobs are.

[customerserviceguy]

6. It's not just analysts and brokers

getting the shaft, but the folks who work hard trying to keep those places running from day to day. I used to work in the title insurance business, not as a sales rep or a manager, but as a grunt doing his job researching title histories so that other people could sell homes they needed to cash out of, buy homes that were going to be the places to raise their families, or refinance themselves out of high interest rates as the cost of money fell. Sure, I made some overtime money, but not without putting in the time, often at the expense of my own family. When I got the axe after 20+ years of experience back in August 2005, I knew that many more like myself would follow.

I don't feel sorry for the fast buck artists, the commissioned scammers, and the house flippers, but I do feel for the little people that made things work for innocent buyers, sellers, and refinancers.

[BrklynLib at work]

4. Sad for all these people who work their asses off for these companies...and then..

poof, out the door with them. Not even a chance to say goodbye to those left behind. And those that are left have to worry if they are next, while at the same time, doing the work of those that were fired, in addition to their own work.

No loyalty, no commitment. That is why I could NEVER go back to the corporate world.

[rosesaylavee]

5. Sad for them and anyone who is spending today laid off.

Whatever the industry, ANY layoffs are bad for all of us.