Happy Unemployment!
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It has been almost 18 months since the markets first turned on credit professionals and then turned on everyone. But friends who are casualties of the market do not seem very depressed about their lack of employment. What's wrong with this picture?
It is inevitable that, when banks start laying off 10-15% of their workforce, people you know will be hit. In my case, a few close friends have become victims and lost their jobs. Some of them even accepted voluntary redundancy when it was offered, so conceivably they could have clung to their jobs, and still be 'happily' employed.
However, as it turns out after doing some catching up (and being prepared for some hand-holding and back-patting), I found out to my surprise that neither of them is particularly unhappy.
On a side note: when I grew up in the '80s, there was a huge rise of unemployment in the country in which I was living, and it was generally perceived to be a big catastrophe to lose one's job. Chances of getting back into work were slim, and everybody feared the financial and social consequences of being out of work.
I turned out to be unemployed back then - albeit for only four weeks - before starting university. But our neighbours kept asking my parents in a very concerned fashion about my future, when all I could think of was blowing the little money I got from the state on a trip to Lanzarote.
So what has changed, such that my friends do not seem to be concerned about turning into long-term residents of the local job centre? Is all the doom and gloom written about everyday maybe not that gloomy after all?
After seeing them, a few reasons for the total absence of depression transpired:
The atmosphere in the market is so downbeat, that with bonus expectations also getting in a downward spiral, maybe those out of the market currently are not missing out on much.
But probably a colleague who turned down redundancy to take a different role has it right when she thinks you have a better chance of being in the game when markets pick up again if you stay in the game now.
Let's just hope that when that happens, banks do not repeat earlier mistakes by bringing in expensive outside people instead of looking after the staff that has managed them through the rough times.
However, as it turns out after doing some catching up (and being prepared for some hand-holding and back-patting), I found out to my surprise that neither of them is particularly unhappy.
On a side note: when I grew up in the '80s, there was a huge rise of unemployment in the country in which I was living, and it was generally perceived to be a big catastrophe to lose one's job. Chances of getting back into work were slim, and everybody feared the financial and social consequences of being out of work.
I turned out to be unemployed back then - albeit for only four weeks - before starting university. But our neighbours kept asking my parents in a very concerned fashion about my future, when all I could think of was blowing the little money I got from the state on a trip to Lanzarote.
So what has changed, such that my friends do not seem to be concerned about turning into long-term residents of the local job centre? Is all the doom and gloom written about everyday maybe not that gloomy after all?
After seeing them, a few reasons for the total absence of depression transpired:
- In general, their redundancy packages were appropriate, and while nowhere near enough to retire, were sufficient to get them through some time and to enable them to sit out the current bull market.
- A few of them perceived their job loss as an opportunity to do something they always wanted to do but had never had the courage to quit their jobs for. And the goals they dreamt of pursuing ranged from setting up their own trading operation to finishing another university degree.
- Still being optimistic that markets will come back (they probably learned in dot-com crash how cyclical the markets are), the opportunity to spend more time with their families is seen as something of a Godsend.
- And finally, with another one of them, I couldn't even catch up in person since she has chosen to travel the world, and happened to be in Thailand last time I tried. As I found out before, even a modest London severance package goes a few extra miles in other places of the world.
The atmosphere in the market is so downbeat, that with bonus expectations also getting in a downward spiral, maybe those out of the market currently are not missing out on much.
But probably a colleague who turned down redundancy to take a different role has it right when she thinks you have a better chance of being in the game when markets pick up again if you stay in the game now.
Let's just hope that when that happens, banks do not repeat earlier mistakes by bringing in expensive outside people instead of looking after the staff that has managed them through the rough times.
Here Is The Writer : Billy No Box
Billy No Box has worked in the city for six years, and currently works in Derivatives for a North American bank. He enjoys playing golf, reading books by Umberto Eco, singing "Copacabana" in the shower and at karaoke bars, and occasionally updating his blog about London and everything else.
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