Layoffs Watch '12: UBS Tells Employees Not To Bother Themselves With Figuring Out How To Get Into Work (Ever Again)

Earlier this week, before a natural disaster struck the East Coast, UBS announced that it would essentially be getting out of the investment banking business and focusing its energy on wealth management, letting go of approximately 10,000 employees as it transitioned back to its tax evading roots. That was Monday morning, and while the bank had said that it planned to start cuts on Tuesday, most people assumed that the Swiss would wait at least 24 hours between the time Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy told residents to seek safety from the storm on their roofs, or power for the many who lost it was restored, to can a bunch of staff. Those people, however, thought wrong. Apparently when UBS decides to do something, neither wind nor rain nor is gonna stop them.
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Earlier this week, before a natural disaster struck the East Coast, UBS announced that it would be calling it quits on its fixed income experiment and focusing on wealth management, letting go of approximately 10,000 employees as it transitioned back to its tax evading roots. That was Monday morning, and while the bank had said that it planned to start cuts on Tuesday, most people assumed that the Swiss would wait at least 24 hours between the time Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy told residents to seek safety from the storm on their roofs or power for the many who lost it was restored or NY/NJ/CT mass transit started functioning again to can a bunch of staff. Those people, however, thought wrong. Apparently when UBS higher-ups decide to do something, neither wind nor rain nor is gonna stop them.

"Need time to get your shit together after Hurricane Sandy? UBS HR doesn't think so. The cuts started for New York yesterday, calling people on their cell phones to cell them they were done. It was a bloodbath. They spared very few. Whole divisions in fixed income trading were let go. All the way up to Executive Directors. No junior person in Fixed Income Trading remains, even first years on the desk who started the training program in July and then started on the desk in August were let go. We were told not to return to work by either HR or your MD, if he/she had enough courage to do it themselves. It was over their heads it seems. A small senior level staff remains to support secondary trading in our High Yield primary issuance business, but it looks like most of IG got wiped out, Distressed no longer exists and is being wound down, CLOs is gone....they decimated the business overnight and spared nobody, including older guys with families who were lifers at UBS."

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