Barclays Headcount Drops 8,000 In 4 Months

[TheCountOfNowhere]

https://next.ft.com/content/486fc54e-0155-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2e62

What a terrible thing to happen...why couldnt it have been 20,0000

[Sour Mash]

Likely a disproportionate amount of the people losing their income are back office types who do the mundane day to day stuff of keeping the infrastructure of the organisation going - not the greedy tw@s at the top who steered the ship onto the rocks nor the traders who made the crazy bets.

[billybong]

https://next.ft.com/content/486fc54e-0155-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2e62

What a terrible thing to happen...why couldnt it have been 20,0000

+1

They could have all gone off and worked in the US like the board threatened to do recently - move its HQ.

In 2015

http://www.reuters.com/article/barclays-idUSN3011934920110330

and in 2011

http://www.theweek.co.uk/business/6895/don%E2%80%99t-push-us-leave-uk-barclays-warns-treasury

and in 2010

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5e0ba186-b6bd-11df-b3dd-00144feabdc0.html#axzz45i86hb7f

Edited April 13, 2016 by billybong

[spyguy]

https://next.ft.com/content/486fc54e-0155-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2e62

What a terrible thing to happen...why couldnt it have been 20,0000

Banks canot make money when rates are low and the spread between short and long lending is narrow to negative.

[spyguy]

Likely a disproportionate amount of the people losing their income are back office types who do the mundane day to day stuff of keeping the infrastructure of the organisation going - not the greedy tw@s at the top who steered the ship onto the rocks nor the traders who made the crazy bets.

Nope.

Itll be traders.

[ccc]

Nope.

Itll be traders.

Barclays has 8000 traders ?

Unlikely.

As already said - it will nearly all be back office, call centre or branch monkeys.

[spunko2010]

My Barclays branch has gone from 6 days a week, to 5, to 4 days. And shuts at 3.30pm.

They may as well just do away with it entirely.

[MonkeyPuzzle]

Lots of branches have shut and there are loads more planned to shut or be essentially un-manned (filling the space with 'help yourself' machines for deposit/withdrawal). They even laughingly tried an experiment of NAMING the machines with real people's names. So you could go use 'Bob' to deposit a cheque, and then cross over to use 'Wendy' to withdraw some cash. As if that's going to make customers feel as if Barclays cares about them.

** weep **

And yes it'll mostly be average-joe type jobs to be cut -- they'll outsource lots of legal department work, and facilities management, marketing and corporate responsibility, internal comms, social media teams, telephony centres, oh and of course the HR recruitment team because they're a tad excess to requirements, eh?

[billybong]

It's a bit like retailers who put the cute "Buy Me" beside their goods. They think it's better than the bald "Buy It" instruction.

Edited April 13, 2016 by billybong

[dgul]

Lots of branches have shut and there are loads more planned to shut or be essentially un-manned (filling the space with 'help yourself' machines for deposit/withdrawal). They even laughingly tried an experiment of NAMING the machines with real people's names. So you could go use 'Bob' to deposit a cheque, and then cross over to use 'Wendy' to withdraw some cash. As if that's going to make customers feel as if Barclays cares about them.

** weep **

My local Barclay's is funny - loads of unused automatic tellers and a massive queue (mainly OAPs) for the single person in the lobby part of the branch (ostensibly for bureau de change but actually covers everything). I can't say I mind though - no queues for me...

[spyguy]

My local Barclay's is funny - loads of unused automatic tellers and a massive queue (mainly OAPs) for the single person in the lobby part of the branch (ostensibly for bureau de change but actually covers everything). I can't say I mind though - no queues for me...

Ive been with FIrstdirect for years.

The HSB branches I used ave been mainly automated for years.

Id hate to use a bracnh with loads ofOAPs. PITA.

[dances with sheeple]

My Barclays branch has gone from 6 days a week, to 5, to 4 days. And shuts at 3.30pm.

They may as well just do away with it entirely.

Nearly as bad as what is happening with libraries.

[Noallegiance]

https://next.ft.com/content/486fc54e-0155-11e6-ac98-3c15a1aa2e62

What a terrible thing to happen...why couldnt it have been 20,0000

I used to work for one of these horrific institutions.

The management team were told to get headcount down by the end of 2015. They didn't need to do a thing. People were leaving to indulge in the more pleasant pursuit of shoving a wire coathanger into their genitals.

Bearing in mind I worked in a small area in a bulding with 2000 staff, I saw over 20 staff leave between March and September 2015.

[sPinwheel]

I used to work for one of these horrific institutions.

The management team were told to get headcount down by the end of 2015. They didn't need to do a thing. People were leaving to indulge in the more pleasant pursuit of shoving a wire coathanger into their genitals.

Bearing in mind I worked in a small area in a bulding with 2000 staff, I saw over 20 staff leave between March and September 2015.

Bet the money was good

[Noallegiance]

Bet the money was good

As local wages go it was fractionally above median at full time staff level.

As local house prices go, sweet FA.

[the_duke_of_hazzard]

Barclays had a pay round recently, and many have left following that, as well as the usual attrition. These positions are not being filled.

We managed to get one person replaced, but the decision to replace had to go all the way up to the CEO.

[koala_bear]

Presumably also the sale of the some of the oversea operation especially in Africa too recently?

[nnails]

My mum left Barclays cause they closed the branch

Went to HSBC

HSBC closed

Went to tsb

[VeryMeanReversion]

Banks canot make money when rates are low and the spread between short and long lending is narrow to negative.

I've heard that said elsewhere but when I look, the banks are still making £'s.

e.g. Lloyds has a P/E of 8-9 and profit of more than a £billion, even whilst paying out for PPI .

FUNDAMENTAL DATA

Year ending: 31/12/2015 31/12/2014 Revenue (£m) 23,150.00 29,892.00 Profit before tax (£m) 1,644.00 1,762.00 Adjusted EPS (p): 8.50 8.10 P/E ratio 8.60 9.40

[Bloo Loo]

I used to work for one of these horrific institutions.

The management team were told to get headcount down by the end of 2015. They didn't need to do a thing. People were leaving to indulge in the more pleasant pursuit of shoving a wire coathanger into their genitals.

Bearing in mind I worked in a small area in a bulding with 2000 staff, I saw over 20 staff leave between March and September 2015.

low end jobs are becoming more and more demanding all the time...no breaks, constant demands placed for all the hours worked, no chatting, no interaction...just do the job.

We are back to the days of rows and rows of people working in silence and dressed in Sunday best just to keep the jobs, its just that they are working out of the rows now. Meanwhile, for mangers, its customer schmoozing, long lunches and meetings to escape the drudge.

[zugzwang]

I've heard that said elsewhere but when I look, the banks are still making £'s.

e.g. Lloyds has a P/E of 8-9 and profit of more than a £billion, even whilst paying out for PPI .

FUNDAMENTAL DATA

Year ending: 31/12/2015 31/12/2014 Revenue (£m) 23,150.00 29,892.00 Profit before tax (£m) 1,644.00 1,762.00 Adjusted EPS (p): 8.50 8.10 P/E ratio 8.60 9.40

They're making their numbers on volume. Household borrowing is screaming upwards; secured debt (~5% yoy) unsecured debt (~12% yoy). Osborne is still spending like a Venezuelan Marxist. Plus, there's a vast number of legacy mortgages on Standard Variable Rates of 5% approx.

[200p]

low end jobs are becoming more and more demanding all the time...no breaks, constant demands placed for all the hours worked, no chatting, no interaction...just do the job.

We are back to the days of rows and rows of people working in silence and dressed in Sunday best just to keep the jobs, its just that they are working out of the rows now. Meanwhile, for mangers, its customer schmoozing, long lunches and meetings to escape the drudge.

Sounds like the Japanese corporate culture. We are going Japanese.

[MinceBalls]

Direct experience of a couple of these banks, most are getting rid of staff to meet ever changing short term targets. Said banks are hiring 'consultants' at quite a rate and paying them 700-1500 a DAY contract rates for what are affectively permanent positions. If you've already made it into the 1% 'consultancy' network then most of your time and daily effort will involve networking, protecting and increasing your already inflated salary at the expense of the people that take care of the day-to-day running of the institution. We're not far from a massive banking IT failure because these systems are creaking and the people who support them are being replaced by idiots. House of cards.

[MinceBalls]

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/apr/14/rbs-close-32-natwest-branches-axe-600-jobs

[ccc]

Direct experience of a couple of these banks, most are getting rid of staff to meet ever changing short term targets. Said banks are hiring 'consultants' at quite a rate and paying them 700-1500 a DAY contract rates for what are affectively permanent positions. If you've already made it into the 1% 'consultancy' network then most of your time and daily effort will involve networking, protecting and increasing your already inflated salary at the expense of the people that take care of the day-to-day running of the institution. We're not far from a massive banking IT failure because these systems are creaking and the people who support them are being replaced by idiots. House of cards.

Most of those hugely paid consultants come through the likes of Deloitte etc..

There are of course some individuals who command that sort of money - lucky them !

Either way -its still costing the banks £1500 per day for some shiny suited bod who knows how to produce a powerpoint that will blow the boss's socks off - instead of a £400 independent contractor who may actually [Not always] be a grafter.

Then on top of that you have the opposite - the off[or in] sourcing of mainly Indian bods for much of the back office IT work. In £ terms this probably helps them justify the massive payments to the consultancies.

In reality - they can be a nightmare on the job [Not always] and cause a serious amount of hassle and frustration with those trying to get things done [Generalisation]

So in essence - you have a lot of people in the middle - many of whom are pretty decent at their jobs and earning good - but not amazing money - being replaced by cheap labour who are generally poor at their job - and uber expensive labour who do little apart from self selling their services whilst wearing brown shoes with shiny suits whilst carrying a satchel.

Fantastic.