The city’s potty-parity rule for offices is getting flushed down the toilet at Nomura’s new headquarters at Worldwide Plaza. The building owner, a group led by George Comfort & Sons, is seeking permission to install far fewer toilets for women on the Japanese financial giant’s lower levels — presumably the male-dominated trading floors. The owners of the 59-story West Side tower want the “water closets and lavatories” on these floors to be divvied up 75/25 because for “certain financial-services operations” the population is historically comprised of 75 percent men and 25 percent women, according to a document filed with the city. All bathroom humor aside, the city’s plumbing code requires that the number of toilets for women be equal to the number of toilets and urinals in men’s restrooms. The owners are getting around the rule by using historical data to show that potty parity doesn’t make sense…Robert Brubaker, program manager for the American Restroom Association, said normally the arguments for restroom inequity involve obvious places such as dorms and prisons. “This is the first time we’ve heard it from a business,” he said. “They could get into a thing where they say they can’t hire more women because they don’t have enough toilets. [NYP]
Nomura
Cuts are said to have gone down across the pond earlier today. Read more »
London employees are not the only ones being sat down for uncomfortable conversations today. Read more »
The company is still in the firing phase of the rebuilding process. Read more »
Things could be better in Europe. Read more »
Nomura is said to be encouraging people in equities to consider their options elsewhere but it’s okay because this is all part of a plan. Read more »
The firm has big plans to “rebuild the investment bank from the ground up,” starting by canning a few hundred or so employees. Read more »
“Straddle over a Japanese-style toilet every day.” Read more »
Nomura Employee Given Some Time To Ponder What He Would Have Done Differently In Having Fake Grenade Sent To Office
By Bess LevinNomura Holdings said it placed an employee on administrative leave who was responsible for bringing an “inappropriate item” into its New York offices after police said a fake grenade was found in the building, [causing 2 World Financial Center to be evaucated]…The package was ordered by an unidentified employee who had bought it from an Oklahoma City-based company that specializes in U.S. Marine Corps novelties, police said. There was no crime, according to the NYPD statement. [BusinessWeek, earlier]
2 World Financial Center Evacuated, “Suspicious Package” Being Investigated [Update: Break's Over]
By Bess Levin
Building 2 is home to Nomura Securities, among others. According to the Daily News, the package iswas thought to contain a grenade. Update: Though initially worried about what was going on, Nomura employees are apparently “pretty calm right now” and “gathered at a local bar waiting to see what’s next.” Update II: Everybody can get back to work– the package contained a “novelty grenade.” Read more »
Unfounded rumor of the afternoon: apparently big cuts are said to be expected by the end of the year. Read more »
