Survival Tactics For City Staff

摘要

Headhunters Sarah Dudney and Yuan Yuan Xu say that the crisis is changing the face of jobs - and pay - in the investment industry and both staff and managers need to change. Writing a commentary in this market is a dangerous activity, as the moment words drop onto the page, yet another financial tremor can take us to a new historic low. In this article we would like to examine some of the implications for working in the City in the next few years, as far as we can see through the fire and smoke. One issue we have been looking in the current crisis is its proximity to the last one - it is only seven years since the last crash. And that is the problem in analysing survival scenarios: we are dealing with a highly complex global crisis which has been further compounded by issues that perhaps the asset management community did not have an opportunity to resolve last time round. Was this oversight or carelessness? The major issue that the industry faces right now is the complete breakdown of trust in the financial system between institutions and, critically, between investors and fund management groups and banks. Added to this we have seen the breakdown of trust between employer and employee with the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. As part of a search business in asset and wealth management, this was one of many landmark moments we have seen in the past six months. That event will have implications for everyone in how we view our City employers and how staff want to be rewarded. For one thing, the days of 'my word is my bond' are over and, second, cash now reigns supreme in any compensation package.