End of an era

The reason for my absence has been pure laziness to write combined with shocking events at work. Yes, I work for that Wall Street firm which declared bankruptcy a week back. And I was in Europe on Sunday desperately calling S every one hour to give me updates. I couldn't sleep all night as concerned friends kept calling and msging and finally I decided to go to the airport early and demand that they put me on the first flight to NY. Monday at work was surreal - no one knew what this meant and everyone was packing and writing out goodbye emails and furiously emailing consultants. I felt sad and something more than the fact that I will be unemployed troubled me. It was demise of the firm - it has been my first job out of school and have had a fantastic time here over the last 5 years.

I still feel sad that the name will cease to exist - still not used to saying that I work with Barclays. Don't get me wrong - of course, I was relieved that the acquisition went through. I get to keep my job, still have a source of income and not look out in this bad market. But I will still take time to get over the events of the last week - I feel I haven't had a chance to mourn properly and get it out of my system. I know, sounds really silly, this attachment with an employer who I anyways wanted to leave. But it is the end of an era for me - my first job and my first training ground - which I will always remember with fond memories.

Then I hear that some people are actually happy with this turmoil in the Wall Street as "bankers who didn't deserve to earn all that money deserve this". I was really shocked - a significant percentage of people who work in our building are support staff - admins, cleaners, security - are you really happy that these people may have lost their jobs? Don't you think these 'rich bankers' employ household staff, chauffeurs thereby creating jobs? But above all, how can anyone ever be happy with someone else losing their job? You don't know how many people that person is supporting, what charities he/she may be contributing to. It is sometimes amazing how resentful some people are.