Fired bankers are complaining that Goldman Sachs used scare and underhand tactics as it staged this week’s bloodbath that claimed the lives of more than 3,000 employees, The Post has learned.
Insiders claim the Wall Street giant – whose Wednesday layoffs were dubbed ‘David’s Demolition Day’ after CEO David Solomon – emailed calendar invites that called targeted employees to fake ‘meetings’. business at its New York headquarters.
But once employees arrived in a conference room – many for meetings as early as 7:30 a.m. Wednesday – they were greeted by the team leader telling them they were being canned and that their leader was watching the proceedings grimly.
“He arrived early for the meeting and heard the news,” said a source, telling the sad story of a colleague who had been laid off. “The meeting was put on his calendar under false pretences.”
“The managers were sorry to do this but their hand was forced and they wished him well,” the insider told the Post.
Another employee was told to arrive at 7:30 a.m. for a call with Goldman counterparts in the Asia-Pacific region and did not question the anticipated meeting since those with other regions are generally “off”. hours,” another source said.
Dismissed employees had the choice of leaving the office immediately or waiting for colleagues to arrive so they could say goodbye. Most of the victims chose to leave the building following a wave of ax blows that took place before 9 a.m., leaving co-workers who later walked in confused as to what had happened, have indicated sources.
Indeed, the cold efficiency of the procedure took a more chaotic turn, as many officials were unclear on the next steps, including the end date of health insurance coverage or the amount of the severance pay that terminated employees would receive.
That’s partly because the human resources department was among the units hard hit by the layoffs and was understaffed to properly administer meetings, insiders said.
“When he asked questions…they had no details and asked him to confirm his personal mobile and email and that someone would ‘get back to him later,’ the source added. “Typical for our management human capital (Goldman’s Human Resources) … they’re a sloppy mess on all things administrative.”
A Goldman spokesperson denied that the human resources cuts had any impact on the communication of the layoffs and pushed back against the idea that the layoffs were a surprise. Solomon had warned in recent months that cuts were coming and the company said they would begin on Wednesday.
“We know this is a difficult time for people leaving the company. We are grateful for all the contributions of our employees and we are providing support to facilitate their transitions,” said Global Communications Manager Tony Fratto, in a statement.
Another source noted that Goldman was treating chief executives and vice-chairmen with more transparency – warning them they could be cut in the last few weeks before a final decision is made.
Upper-tier Goldmanites didn’t have much sympathy for those blindsided by getting fired after receiving a rogue calendar invite. An employee who had worked in finance for more than a decade told The Post sending someone a calendar invite as a ruse to get them one by one and then firing them is “pretty standard”.
“If anyone didn’t see this coming…it’s on them,” the employee added.
Young employees in other industries seemed unaware that Goldman was using a common tactic to fire people.
A frantic employee of data company Dremio posted on the corporate bulletin board Blind, which verifies users’ workplaces using their corporate email accounts, they were the only ones of their co-workers to receive a invitation from their manager for a 15-minute meeting.
“I’m so worried…How likely is it to be a layoff?” asked the employee.
More experienced employees responded, “Yes, it’s a layoff. The decision has already been made. »
Another blind user said, “You are fired. Clean your laptop staff. Collect anything you want to save, like contact details for referrals.
The Dremio employee has not posted an update on his employment status since.