UK
TRANCHED: Compromised by a compromise agreement
10 October 2008
My quote of the week this week goes to Christian Noyer, the governor of the Bank of France, who stated that “there is no drama in front of us”. This leaves me thinking that either Mr Noyer has an exceptionally high drama threshold, or that he has lost all perception of what is going on in the world. The travelling credit crisis circus arrived this week in Europe. It seems to have lost none of its venom on its way across the Atlantic and has morphed from Anglo-Saxon arrogance to Celtic catastrophe.
Against this backdrop, it was a volatile week from a job hunting point of view as well. After being offered a lucrative short-term contracting role with my former employer’s new owner, I was delighted to have something to tide me over short term.
In the back of my mind, however, there was a sneaking suspicion that my compromise agreement might have something to say about this solution. I checked the fine print and it appears that returning to my old employer would require me to pay half my redundancy pay back if I joined on even a short-term contract. I said it was lucrative but not that lucrative. The bad news was confirmed by the same HR contact who had made me redundant in the first place. I am pretty sure I could sense a touch of glee in her voice.
Ultimately, it is my former employer who is going to suffer because of this decision. The project I was looking at is already behind schedule by months and is slipping further behind with every day that passes. I was the easiest possible option for the role: I had years of experience of the products and the team, I was available yesterday and I came directly without going through an agency so I would be relatively cheap. Even in these chaotic times, HR seemed content to work against the firm’s best interests. You have to love their style.
Contracting these days raises some particularly confusing scenarios. In my only other experience of it, a proportion of my daily rate was held back until the end of the contract to ensure completion. Given the weakness of some banks, the reverse is what's needed, some sort of security over assets to ensure invoices are met. It is a very worrying state of affairs when my own personal credit rating is higher than that of my potential employer.
Fortunately, a fresh glimmer of hope has ignited itself. Again it is another short-term role, but the money is good and it even sounds interesting. Given the developments of recent weeks, it has become fairly obvious that in this market nothing is what it seems; jobs can appear and disappear overnight as companies rise and fall.
I am therefore not counting these particular chickens before they have hatched. As if to prove this point, my former employer has become this week’s whipping boy: its shares are down almost 50% in two days, an ominous sign, but possibly a lucky escape.
However, on the plus-side things are so volatile at the moment that where one door closes others may suddenly open. Don’t blink, or you may miss something. This dislocation will offer up some fresh challenges and opportunities. Until then, soup kitchen anyone?
CDO Joe is a structured products specialist who lost his job 21 weeks ago.
Why are you still trying to get a job in structured products? You seem have lost all touch with reality. Regarding your life and your career the phrase "Nero fiddles as Rome burns.." could not be more apt.
Rupert 10 Oct 2008
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