First, I gave you the “bad news meeting” photo at the London office of Lehman Brothers. Then I followed up with an imaginary scene that followed. Here, for those of you who like to follow business news, are some real scenes from the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse, courtesy of a Bloomberg News article titled Lehman Workers Clear Desks, Weep After Bankruptcy:
A couple of bits from the article jumped out at me. First, this one about some very new employees:
A 21-year-old Lehman graduate trainee in London, who declined to be identified by name, said he and 90 to 95 colleagues were called in by the human resources department and made redundant. They started work a week ago.
I wonder if those new trainees were the people in the London office photo I posted earlier today.
Another notable excerpt:
“The Fed didn’t bail us out,” said Khash Sajadi, 32, a vice president in Lehman’s mortgage capital division in London. “That’s the right decision. As a taxpayer, rather than a Lehman employee, you shouldn’t have to foot the bill for someone else’s decision. It’s a sad story for me and very many others.”
It’s nice to see that there are businesspeople who don’t believe in the “privatize profits, socialize losses” mantra.
One more excerpt:
Sphinx Patterson, who takes a so-called body-pump and step class every Monday afternoon at Lehman’s seventh-floor gym, said the complex was shut today, and the piles of towels had gone.
“People were hugging each other in the corridor,” said Patterson, 35, who’s worked at the gym for five years. “I saw girls crying. They don’t know what to do,” he added.
My thoughts:
And finally, for “I saw girls crying. They don’t know what to do.”: This is an interesting one…
This one’s by Adam Douglas Thompson, and you can view the original here. Also, I’m…
I like cottage cheese, but not like this! Swap it out for oatmeal or yogurt,…
Election Day in the U.S. was only yesterday, but the results and impact will be…
Buy me a birthday beer and hey, you’ll have emotional support aplenty.
I’ve been at this “blogging” thing since the start of November 2001, which makes this…
View Comments
It says right there that Sphinx Patterson is a guy. (And considering the names of some of the people I've run across, "Sphinx" seems downright ordinary.)
@Seth Christenfeld D'oh! I guess when I read "step class", it put a picture of a woman in my head. I've made the correction -- thanks for the heads-up!