"My bank cut jobs last Wednesday. My manager was thoughtlessly malicious"
This time last week, the bank I work for cut jobs. I was not among the people cut, but a few people I know were. It was a difficult day for them and the thoughtless behaviour of our manager made it far worse.
The team I work for was set up a few years ago. It was founded in 2021 and many of us joined at that time. However, several senior people left in 2023-2024. At that point, the team over-hired massively in response.
Last week's cuts were intended to remedy the over-hiring. Deal-flow in our area is down and the front office team we support has built its own bench and automated several tasks. We're not really needed and none of us was really that surprised when people were let go. In some areas, 20% of people were cut.
What was surprising was the behaviour of the manager. After cutting the team, he left for a company event in the evening. Most of us didn't attend this event but someone there helpfully took photos of the happy times.
Plenty of the people who were fired on Wednesday were asked to continue working through to Friday. On Thursday, the manager's assistant circulated the photos of him the previous evening. He was drinking, playing games and generally having a great time.
It seemed very insensitive. People who had just been told their jobs were disappearing were expected to celebrate their manager having a night out, fully paid for for by the bank. Many of them felt like they were having salt rubbed in their wounds. I know several who wanted to leave immediately but who couldn't because they didn't want to jeopardise their severance payments.
The whole thing seems incomprehensibly insensitive. Morale was already low and is now even lower. Everyone on the team is extremely hard working and has been well respected in the bank. The thoughtless managers on the team have been the real issue. The events of the last week have simply confirmed that.
Michael Cormick is a pseudonym
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