1. Most enlightening
"At the point when the call comes, individuals know immediately. We may utilize the most pure manner of speaking when we say: 'Hello, would you be able to appear to the twentieth floor for a minute?' They know not: never get a surprising call from that individual, with the exception of … It is astounding how quick news of a round of redundancies spreads. It's similar to this tsunami of frenzy washes over an exchanging floor … After our discussion, which normally keeps going five minutes, they will be drove out of the building by security"
2. Proudest
If you want to know how it feels from the other side, read this banker in treasury sales before his redundancy at a major bank:“Insiders on your blog who are so negative about the sector … it’s not very kind to say, but they just didn’t make it. They get kicked out and then they go complain to the media. It’s tough to take, obviously. You had to go while your colleague is still at his desk. Because he was better.”
3. Humblest
“Looking back I may have fallen victim to the self-serving idea that we control our fate; as long as you’re good nothing bad can happen to you, and since nothing bad has happened to me, it must mean I am good and therefore safe; that sort of thing. In the same way military men tell themselves that they can’t die because they don’t make mistakes. But the best soldier can drive over a land mine.”
4. All-time favourite comment thread
In which a banking equity analyst debates with readers whether he deserved his one million pound bonus: “Do I deserve to be me, rather than some guy in Darfur trying not to starve to death or get murdered. I get paid a lot because I can do things, but if I had been born mentally handicapped I wouldn’t. That’s life. I do ask to be paid well when I’ve done good work, but that doesn’t mean I feel entitled to anything.”
5. Wisest
A structurer had worked for one of the most prestigious banks for a decade, building such cleverly complex financial products that his clients failed to understand that they didn’t understand them. Looking back, he says:
“It’s strange. Bankers are so smart, yet they get this thing wrong. They spend their lives in an office when the only truly valuable thing in life is time. It is the only thing that is not replenishable. You can always make more money, but you can never get more time. Maybe it’s because death is such a taboo in our society; that people live in this illusion that their life will go on forever.”
By: Norman J. Brodeur
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