Job cuts start to bite at Barclays Barclays Bank is cutting 200 jobs from its IT department, but the bank is hoping it will reduce the number of redundancies originally announced. The redundancies are from its Global Retail and Commercial Banking department. We received an email from a Barclays worker which said 200 permanent jobs in technology and shared …
A spokeswoman for Barclays told us: "This is level two consultation for the 700 jobs we've already announced are having to go. In fact we now hope that we won't need as many as 700 cuts, more like half, or even less, than that number."
So let's see..
350 in May + 400 in january + 200 Now = 950
950 in bank economics is clearly far less than half of 700
Morale within Barclays is very low. Those escaping the current round of redundancies are bracing themselves for the next round where they be not be so lucky. There are many talented people working there who are keeping an eye out for a move elsewhere in the hope of better job security. Barclays are playing a dangerous game by breaking the redundancies down into so many bitesized chunks.
Suddenly now I'm glad I didn't get that Barclays job.
Not that I had much chance. After being made to wait for 3 hours in a conference room at the crap Hilton in Glasgow I was not so politely informed that my interviewer had, in fact, already gone home. Add to that the fact that the short-term parking at said Hilton is very far from free. Then to top it all off I get a letter telling me that, although I interviewed to a very high standard, I would not be progressing to the next stage.
Aye. Right. Barclays couldn't organise a pants-shitting. No wonder they're gubbed.
Like the Murphy's, I'm not bitter. They owe me for the parking, though.
My guess is that it will be based on the degree of consultation required, per percentage of workforce shed: the more people shed in one go, the greater the degree of consultation required (that costs money: a cost-cutting measure that costs money is no sort of use). It's a brutal calculation, and one that I would not condone, on any human level, but it's an unintended consequence of an Employment law which is intended to protect jobs. I've been through this meat grinder once, in the past, myself.
It is rather difficult to debate the relative merits of bankers, at the moment, but if you had to be a bank, right now, then, frankly, it's better to be a Barclays, than an RBS or a Lloyds. Remember, Barclays is one of the few that has thus far spurned any level of government subsidy - unlike almost all its rivals. Barclays is aiming to exit this recession as a financial juggernaut, unencumbered by government debt and any control that might impose on them. I suspect they're going to pull this trick off, but they've had to ask their own shareholders for an extra £10 billion, instead, in order to manage this. If you think they are being brutal, now, just wait to see what slaughter they wreak, among their rivals, once the economy starts heading upwards.
I used to work for Barclays Capital, and I can honestly say that I've never worked in a worse environment. Morale has always been low, staff are expected to work "above and beyond" in smallish teams with huge pressure from the Business. How are they rewarded? Redundancy.
I don't think these cuts are what is going to be making the headlines though, Bob Diamond and his cronies will be in line for HUGE bonuses when/if they sell BGI to BlackRock. I wouldn't like to speculate but I'm sure it will be several multiples of the £20+ million a year he gets now. One thing I do know for certain, IT staff won't see a penny...
Good Luck to all those made redundant!!! However I think in a few months you will all realise you are better off out of there! I may be a bitter former employee who's job was shipped to Singapore, but hey, what can you do?...
I worked in Barclays as a contractor on and off for about 7 years. When I started, they had a great core team of really talented and committed people who, even despite the strict controls, were able to produce serious and innovative solutions. Each time I went back, the skill set was lower, as was the morale.
When I last left in 2007, just before they closed their Poole IT operation, everybody was already expecting that the bulk of the support was going to be shipped to India and Singapore. The result is that the best people, even those who would have been happy to stay until their (non-contributary, final salary) pensions kicked in have left. This was the bulk of their long-term knowledge and experience.
And everybody was just really pissed off, to the point where they just lost their interest in the job. Every time they had an employee satisfaction survey, the results just kept going down, and the higher management could not understand why. They were mandating more and more work to be done out of normal working hours, and not paying overtime to the most technical people (they were on a pay grade where overtime was just expected). Surprise, surprise, nobody volunteered.
And to make it worse, the bigwigs listened to the computer vendors sales-droids more than their own people, who knew the business best.
I don't expect that I will work for Barclays again, because there will just not be the jobs in the UK unless they decide to insource again.
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