The Desperate Bankers Club
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Suddenly we had unlimited free time - no meetings, no planes, no budgets. Hadn’t we said, so many times, “If only I had the time, I would...”? Well, now we actually could, and there was no boss or client to blame on a bad day, not even the Tube.
An ever-growing group started to form, and would gather for lunches, drinks and dinners and, in order to balance it out, gym sessions. 'Fat' and 'unemployed', that would limit our chances! And so The Desperate Bankers Club was born.
Who said the crisis was all bad?
We soon realized we could now eat on proper plates instead of filthy plastic boxes, and nice cutlery and white table linen would replace our germy keyboards. To my astonishment, we could live in style for a bit more than twice the price of our usual sandwich. Yes, we could survive without the Corporate AMEX!
Our favourite tip is that Michelin-starred restaurants are cutting deals for the like of us desperate bankers. For just £34 you can have lunch or dinner at Aubergine, including starter, main, dessert and half a bottle of wine. For a two-course lunch, Tom Aikens charges £23 and L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, £19.
We quickly got a structure in place, with a Head of Research (food selection), a Head of Origination (bargain hunting), a Head of Liquid Assets Trading (wine selection). Some things apparently never change.
My biggest surprise was to see so many people around us doing nothing, and that was food for thought: were all these people potential members of our club, or had we missed something over these years on the trading floor in between three screens and two phones?
Meanwhile, we are thinking about what to do next. So many years of frantic career-driven running around can not just turn into lunching and dinning, however pleasant (and to be honest, is more that we can afford anyway).
Obviously, this tip is not going to help you achieve the ultimate banker’s dream of retiring at 40, although realistically that is a moving target these days. What this tip can do though, is change the perception of your working friends who will potentially think you've become an alcoholic, have no sense of basic nutrition, or even worse, have completely lost touch with reality.
And ultimately, I think that some positive spirit and a spoon of irony does not hurt at times where bad news and bad press are the daily menu for bankers.
So bon appétit!
Who said the crisis was all bad?
We soon realized we could now eat on proper plates instead of filthy plastic boxes, and nice cutlery and white table linen would replace our germy keyboards. To my astonishment, we could live in style for a bit more than twice the price of our usual sandwich. Yes, we could survive without the Corporate AMEX!
Our favourite tip is that Michelin-starred restaurants are cutting deals for the like of us desperate bankers. For just £34 you can have lunch or dinner at Aubergine, including starter, main, dessert and half a bottle of wine. For a two-course lunch, Tom Aikens charges £23 and L’Atelier de Joel Robuchon, £19.
We quickly got a structure in place, with a Head of Research (food selection), a Head of Origination (bargain hunting), a Head of Liquid Assets Trading (wine selection). Some things apparently never change.
My biggest surprise was to see so many people around us doing nothing, and that was food for thought: were all these people potential members of our club, or had we missed something over these years on the trading floor in between three screens and two phones?
Meanwhile, we are thinking about what to do next. So many years of frantic career-driven running around can not just turn into lunching and dinning, however pleasant (and to be honest, is more that we can afford anyway).
Obviously, this tip is not going to help you achieve the ultimate banker’s dream of retiring at 40, although realistically that is a moving target these days. What this tip can do though, is change the perception of your working friends who will potentially think you've become an alcoholic, have no sense of basic nutrition, or even worse, have completely lost touch with reality.
And ultimately, I think that some positive spirit and a spoon of irony does not hurt at times where bad news and bad press are the daily menu for bankers.
So bon appétit!
Here Is The Writer : Miss Margaux
Miss Margaux is a Eurotrash banker in-between jobs who is enjoying London and has not packed her bags to go back to the continent like many others. At last she has the time to observe the city from a different and refreshing angle, and is amazed by the amount of clichés and fascinations going on around around the city.
view more articles by Miss Margaux
Article Comments & Ratings
Tony M @ leavingfinance.com 13th Jul, 1:31pm
Great article, thanks. Enjoy London in the summer months. My new blog has a similar conclusion to your article - that life after i-banking really isn't so bad after all (www.leavingfinance.com)
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