The Hindu Business Line : Back office workers keeping their fingers crossed

Mumbai, Sept 21 Employees at the Indian back offices of high profile overseas banks used to change jobs on the year with quantum jumps in their salaries. However, the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the situation in the overseas financial markets have now put them in a quandary.

Some have already sent out their resumes on the various job sites while some others are waiting for that meeting or call where the big guys would let them know that it is time to pick up their things and move on.

According to reports, Lehman Brothers will shut down their backend process in Mumbai, which means that almost 2,000 of them will become jobless. Employees at the Powai office say that there hasn’t been much work in the past one week or so and some of them have been told to work from home until further notice.

“As of now, I am just waiting for that meeting to let us know our fate. I know that the pay at my next job will not be as good as what I am getting here, but then, what can a person in such a situation do?”, said an employee at the Mumbai back office of Lehman Brothers, who works in the payrolls section there.

The calls these employees have to handle from overseas Lehman employees donot make them feel any better. “They call up weeping to ask about their dues,” she said.

Job stability

Employees at other international back offices are also worried about the stability of their jobs and wondering when it might be their turn. “We, the investment banking lot, have been scooting for cover, it has been terrible. People here are wondering if our company will be the next to crash,” says an employee at the back office of a giant US financial firm. “Our managers say things look alright for us but then, these things change from being alright to bankruptcy in a matter of hours!” she said.

Another employee at this firm said that the company has been transferring entire processes out of the country to diversify their geographical risk, which means more job losses here.

“Many of them who think that their jobs might be at stake are forwarding their resumes to us,” says a manager at a recruitment firm. “It is not that these people will not get jobs; our job market has place for everyone. The sad part is, these people, who have been getting very handsome pay packages are in no position to demand such pay packages now, as Indian companies will not pay that much.”

Steve&Barry’s

The first few months of 2008, it was the retail firms in the US that were facing the heat. And one of them to file for bankruptcy was Steve & Barry’s. To cut costs, itshut down many of its backend operations, among them their Mumbai offices where more than 500 lost their jobs. “We were kept on hold for more than a month, we didn’t know if we were in or out! The waiting was unbearable beyond a point. All of us here know how exactly the people at Lehman or Merrill must be feeling at the moment” said a former employee at Steve & Barry’s back office here.

Overseas, some Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch employees are trying to brighten things up for themselves. They have been putting up their company memorabilia for auction on ebay.com. Things such as the company pens, mugs, water bottles, T-shirts, baseball caps, emergency kits, paper weights etc are up for grabs. A Lehman Brothers lanyard (ID card string) has been auctioned for $39!