ZURICH, SWITZERLAND – Bank UBS issued a carefully worded press release Tuesday 30 October to explain how it plans to cut 10,000 jobs by 2015, but for many London employees of its investment bank, the news was delivered in a more jarring fashion.
Hundreds of staff reportedly showed up for work Tuesday only to discover that their swipe cards to get into the building no longer worked – a common method of letting staff go, in the banking industry. Others were herded into a holding area where they learned the news, according to UK and Irish media.
The Financial Times writes that “UBS was one of the most popular trends on Twitter as the blogosphere flooded with comments in several languages, describing the shock and resentment of staff.”
It’s not clear from information released by the bank or from fired bankers how many people actually lost their jobs Tuesday.
