Wall Street banking major Goldman Sachs has fired hundreds of its employees on Wednesday and Thursday.
Why Would This Happen?
It appears that the financial firm began laying off as many as 3,200 people across the globe.
When it comes to Indian operations, around 700-800 people working for the company in India are understood to have been fired in the restructuring.
The layoffs are said to be among the company’s largest since the 2008 financial crisis.
This is predominantly caused due to the cut costs in the face of economic headwinds such as high inflation.
Who Got Affected ?
The cuts have affected a number of senior employees too, including those at the vice-president level, said the sources.
Before this, the firm had close to 9,000 employees in India.
Which were working out of its offices in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai.
In simple words, the restructuring has affected close to 9 percent of its employees in the country.
How Did This Happen?
One of the laid off employees said that those present in the office were called for a quick meeting and informed that they were fired.
Next, they were escorted directly out of the building without an opportunity to return to their work desks.
For those, who were working from home were called over Zoom and laid off.
Another employee said, “Right after I was informed that I was being fired, I was escorted out of the building and asked to go home. I couldn’t even say bye to my friends,” who was employed as a software developer at Goldman’s Bengaluru office.
Notably, some of the people who were fired were only hired just months ago.
Among the fired employees, there was a fresh graduate from one of the country’s top engineering colleges.
She was hired in November 2021 for a fintech-related role.
She showed her disappointed about the fact that she lost her first job within two months.
She said, “For a company that analyzes all global trends about pretty much every industry, Goldman seemed pretty short-sighted when they were hiring me. Why would you employ someone if you have to lay them off in two months,”.
More Firing In Future
One of the company’s senior executives said the company had to cut access for sacked employees from company systems in order to secure sensitive data that might be present on their computers.
Further, this person said that more people in India could be laid off, and the firings could happen until at least the middle of January.
Earlier this week, Goldman Sachs said, “We know this is a difficult time for people leaving the firm. We’re grateful for all our people’s contributions, and we’re providing support to ease their transitions. Our focus now is to appropriately size the firm for the opportunities ahead of us in a challenging macroeconomic environment,” while announcing the layoffs.
It appears that Goldman’s move follows smaller cuts from Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Barclays in recent months.
