Lehman Employees Still Expected To Show Up Tomorrow

Posted by Bess Levin, Sep 14, 2008, 10:25pm

We've received a bunch of calls and e-mails from Lehman Brothers employees asking if they should report to work tomorrow. We think you all deserve the day off but obviously we aren't the ones making the decisions here. Various teams have been contacted by their supervisors in the last couple hours and told yes, they still need to come. Here's one from the IT guys.

From: Gopalkrishnan , Hari (Technology)

Sent: Sun Sep 14 19:51:49 2008

Subject: Business Support for Monday

Team,

Given the recent press reports regarding Lehman, I wanted to communicate that we are counting on you to be at work on Monday and ready for business as usual. In fact, I ask that you take the extra time necessary to coordinate with your teams to conduct a "ready for business" check on all mission critical activities before the day begins. As I learn more, I will communicate with you.

Thanks as always for your commitment.

Regards

Hari

18Recommend this! 33Comments

Tags: at least wear shorts and flip-flops, Lehman Brothers

Comments

1

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:31PM

well, even a bankrupt company has to operate.

i thought these kids went to B-school?

2

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:32PM

sure,of course there's work in IT, and in India.

3

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:33PM

So who still aspires to be a CFA Charterholder or an MBA grad from a top 10 school? With the the structural changes that will take place in the industry, say bye-bye to high salaries, bonuses, and an abundant number of available positions....

4

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:34PM

i like that people are calling db and asking what to do

5

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:37PM

I just read that Phillip Delves Broughton book on his 2 year experience at HBS. It sounds very lame -- the MBA program seems like a fad...

6

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:42PM

Working in IT must suck. Everyone looks down on you inside the company even though the people from the business aren't smart enough to ever write a line of code.

That said, IT is first on the firing line anytime the firm hits a rough patch- getting rid of the people that wrote the apps everyone uses. Why don't you guys go to San Fran where people value your abilities?

8

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:49PM

Bess- good to hear from ya! No cursing in your post, now that's disappointing.

9

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:50PM

@6, I love how you say "people from the business."

10

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:50PM

Bess

Can I buy you coffee tomorrow at LEH still? How will I know which one is you? It is a circus?

11

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:51PM

i was always pissed when there was a snowstorm and they still made us go to school

12

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:51PM

@ 5 IT sends people's jobs to india.

IT writes code that drives users nuts.

IT has obnoxious accents.

IT is way overpaid.

IT buried the street in JAVA, which sucks beyond words.

IT think the world revolves around them.

13

Posted by Bess Levin, Sep 14, 2008 10:52PM

@8-- I know, I'm sorry...I just came from Times Square and am too depressed to curse. I'm sure I'll be able to pull it together for you by tomorrow, though.

14

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:53PM

@6. Very smart but think of it from it from a different angle... As an IT guy you can earn up to $1MM and still maintain transferable skills. No other industry will reward you as richly but you still get to pay the mortgage. Contrast that to Operations, Treasury or most other areas and you'll see it ain't such a bad place to be...

15

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:57PM

Investment banks being absorbed into commercial banks means investment banks regulated as commercial banks.

Party's over.

16

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 10:59PM

@6 IT does not suck at all. Out of all the staff at LEH and others I'd worry the least about them. Still lots of good jobs out there.

And speaking of opportunity if anyone ever considered opening a Big House of their own this is a once in a lifetime chance to take advantage of what will be an enormous void in the global financial system once the dust settles.

17

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:04PM

@15

You idiot. The whole reason this is all happening is because of your "party".

The party was over a long time ago (you just were too high to notice).

Hope it was worth it.


18

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:12PM

IT and accountants will always have a job.

19

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:21PM

#18, doesn't mean I'm not going to continue hating them.

20

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:25PM

To the idiots that ask db if they should come to work on Monday:

Stay home.

21

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:26PM

@ 20

it works from home anyway.

22

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:27PM

@ 15 it also means hedge funds become investment banks.

23

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:29PM

No. 20
You can stay home too, douchtard.

24

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:30PM

Bess,

While cursing may be a short term fix, I think we all know what we really need from you at this point:

Alf episodes and plenty of 'em. (Ideally this should include the one where Alf hacks into the Nielsen system to keep some polka show from being canceled.)

25

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:38PM

"Working in IT must suck. Everyone looks down on you inside the company even though the people from the business aren't smart enough to ever write a line of code. "

No, most people in IT cannot write a line of code. If they could, they'd be quants. I think bankers' excel models have fewer bugs than the stuff IT develops. And that's saying A LOT.

26

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:38PM

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&item=320299692197

WWW.FALLOFLEHMAN.COM FOR SALE ON EBAY

LOL

27

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:38PM

What is the time frame as far as turning off the light show?

28

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:47PM

IT management sucks.

IT management lacks the balls and leadership ability to make sensible, business-aligned technology decisions

IT management is nothing short of incompetent, which explains both the infestation of JAVA within the banking industry and the offshoring of IT jobs to under-skilled and poor-performing outsource staff.

IT management is self-selecting, promoting only cowardly dumb-asses like themselves, which explains why good IT people become disenfranchised and leave the industry. (The really good ones join the biz and work on a trading desk).

You could eliminate 90% of IT management and offshor staff, and the only difference you'd notice is that the quality would increase and responsiveness to issues would get allot better.

29

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:50PM

There aren't going to be a lot of hedgies left after the incoming bloodbath. The big boys that are actually run well, yeah. The Citadels will survive.

The rest? The Fed is probably laughing over the number of short strategies that it's going to destroy tomorrow. I don't even want to imagine the carnage from an AIG failure or LEH's counterparty fiasco.

Hedgies supposedly manage risk, but I would hope that everyone on this blog knows better than that. Too much hotshot trash whose idea of strategy is to buy RIO.

30

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:51PM

Some of Lehman's IT is incredible (better than GS). Most of it isn't bad. Careers are very long there, and while a lot of the junior underlings do suck, they tend to wind up in the least interesting roles.

Some of LEH's IT people get paid _very_ well.

31

Posted by guest, Sep 14, 2008 11:55PM

I was at GS for five years. Not impressed by their IT in the least (as an end user).

32

Posted by guest, Sep 15, 2008 12:24AM

Heh, I got an identical e-mail from my boss, word for word.

33

Posted by guest, Sep 15, 2008 12:23PM

Hey frnd,

I needed to know if AIG collapses, will it have effect in INDIA? In INDIA, AIG is tied up with TATA to provide life and general insurance....


I hope it won't......... Plz reply on my blog

Thanks,
Ojal Suthar,
http://lifinsu.blogspot.com,
INDIA

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