Macquarie’s ‘unexpected layoffs’ leave staff on edge

afr.com:

Macquarie is conducting “unexpected serial layoffs” at its banking and financial services arm, creating unease about the breadth of the job cuts.

Sales, business development employees and people who work in contact centres focused on the bank’s investment platform, Macquarie Wrap, have been let go in the past two weeks, people familiar with the cuts told The Australian Financial Review. Employees in banking and financial services have been called into meetings, sacked on the spot and asked to leave immediately, they said.

Macquarie Group has been conducting “serial unexpected layoffs” in its banking and financial services division. Bloomberg

These back office job cuts come after the Financial Review’s Street Talk column reported on Tuesday that Macquarie had cut a number of advisers in its BFS division. The reductions have come from BFS management rather than board-recommended job cuts. Sacked employees have had access to their company software and equipment cut off instantly, and negotiations over the financial terms of their exit are started once they’ve exited the office, people said.

One person with knowledge of the situation described it as “unexpected serial layoffs”, adding staff were on edge about who was next.

The sudden and sporadic approach to the job cuts has left employees on edge. It has also prompted questions about whether Macquarie’s approach to layoffs is the best way to cut costs in a tougher economic environment, particularly when organisations say they are focused on improving employee mental health and wellbeing.

“No wonder they are a bit teary when they are stuck at a coffee shop in the city after,” one person said when asked whether marching a former employee in the middle of the day was best