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[Dealbook] A Blow to Pinstripe Aspirations

Qgurl

Joined
11/22/11
Messages
3
Points
11
Oh boo hoo. You showed up to work and got laid off. Stuff happens and you have to make the best of it. Honestly...?

Cry me a freaking river. If you have the skills (or at the least potential), someone will hire you to work for them. If you're just expecting a cushy job because you got some degree and put your ass in a seat doing who knows what, I have no sympathy for you.
 
Ilya, I know you feel compelled to do so, but there really is no need to share your life's story in every single post.
 
Those who did not perform well enough, got sacked. The performance benchmarks have always been high in this sector, and they have just been kicked up a notch. So unfortunately, some of those mediocre performers have to leave.

Put it this way: will any for-profit corporation fire an employee that is bound to make them a profit?
 
FREAKONOMETRICS said:
Those who did not perform well enough, got sacked. The performance benchmarks have always been high in this sector, and they have just been kicked up a notch. So unfortunately, some of those mediocre performers have to leave.

Put it this way: will any for-profit corporation fire an employee that is bound to make them a profit?
Click to expand...

It's not the for-profit-corporation that sits down to fire an employee, it's some people in the management in that corporation who fire the guys. In an ideal world, what you said would be true. However, I wonder if all decisions made by the management are always and entirely rational? And always and entirely in the best interest of the corporation and never guided by anything else?

I think it's true in a lot of cases that the firing decisions are rational and intended for the best interests of the firm, but to assume it as a certainty would be naive. Slowdowns etc do make things pretty un-ideal. Sometimes whole teams are laid off, do you really think every person on those teams sucked at his/her job?

Grey is the word, not B/W.
 
Sushant said:
It's not the for-profit-corporation that sits down to fire an employee, it's some people in the management in that corporation who fire the guys. In an ideal world, what you said would be true. However, I wonder if all decisions made by the management are always and entirely rational? And always and entirely in the best interest of the corporation and never guided by anything else?

I think it's true in a lot of cases that the firing decisions are rational and intended for the best interests of the firm, but to assume it as a certainty would be naive. Slowdowns etc do make things pretty un-ideal. Sometimes whole teams are laid off, do you really think every person on those teams sucked at his/her job?

Grey is the word, not B/W.
Click to expand...

You just did exactly what some of the people in the article did: make up excuses for getting fired.

In addition, you're assuming that I think everyone who got fired deserved it. If you read closely I'm talking about relative performance and therefore on average the people who got fired underperformed relative to their peers. If times get hard those are the ones who suffer (and get kicked out).

Everything you're saying is common sense, right? Banks have warned they're cutting costs, not heads. In other words: "We are going to weed out everything that bears to much risk relative to the profits", "We want to keep the best of the class" etc.
 
FREAKONOMETRICS said:
You just did exactly what some of the people in the article did: make up excuses for getting fired.

In addition, you're assuming that I think everyone who got fired deserved it. If you read closely I'm talking about relative performance and therefore on average the people who got fired underperformed relative to their peers. If times get hard those are the ones who suffer (and get kicked out).

Everything you're saying is common sense, right? Banks have warned they're cutting costs, not heads. In other words: "We are going to weed out everything that bears to much risk relative to the profits", "We want to keep the best of the class" etc.
Click to expand...

But dont you think, if you talk about under performance is relative, it is always going to be the case. And its never the case the best ones are kept, most of time entire business's are eliminated. Its more about whether you are in right project. People can get laid off even after a best performer rewards.
 
Sushant said:
It's not the for-profit-corporation that sits down to fire an employee, it's some people in the management in that corporation who fire the guys. In an ideal world, what you said would be true. However, I wonder if all decisions made by the management are always and entirely rational? And always and entirely in the best interest of the corporation and never guided by anything else?
Click to expand...

In real life those who are politically connected inside a firm tend not to get fired in the same manner as those who are not connected -- even if the latter are superior performers making more money for the firm. Political logic works differently to technical, profit-maximising logic.

Referring to the article initially cited: Yes, of course, many (most?) of those jobs are not going to return. No great insight required. It's going to be a case of musical chairs with fewer and fewer chairs.
 
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