About to be fired. How to handle this?

I can only advise from a similar position and not from one of firsthand experience, but I might recommend having a candid discussion with your firm about the implications of the review, and if appropriate, setting up a 2-3 month transition period so that each party "gets what they want" - they cut you with no backlash, and you have a smooth employment transition. 

Classic lol. You hit the nail on the head. They're laying a paper trail. They want to be covered in normal times where you aren't fire for "discriminatory reasons" and with COVID they need to double up their efforts on ensuring you weren't fired for "covid" related reasons you / your lawyer could've easily spun. best of luck

So I've been / am in exactly same situation. In IBD my reviews were good up until the moment when I got a ridiculously negative review - things made no sense and people who gave me my review ignored my emails to catch-up for a coffee to discuss what went worng and were I could improve. I was shocked to see it happening - seemed almost surreal. The problem with this is that every HH wants to know your rating and bonus - once this kind of shit went down - things get pretty bad. Try to secure a different job before the underpayment event, relying on your past good reviews.

My company treated me HORRIBLY and extremely unfairly and i was also hurt and wanted to contact a lawyer. But I've realised that this is just a bitter thing i need to suck up as they would crush me in court, i will drown in legal fees, get a stroke from stress and prove nothing. So i chose just to quietly leave and find a better place, 

This situation ucks and it took a signifocant toll on my mental health, but that's finance world - these things happen to so many of us - it's just that noone speaks about it. Go have some drinks with friends and family, remind yourself that your job doesn't define you, get yourself a large coffee and contact HHs and apply for other jobs. Make sure you have also plan B and C as having a bit worse job is sometimes better than having a gap on CV. You're not alone in this, and it's by far not the worst thing in the world :)

Hey man - sorry to hear about your situation. I've gone through being fired and it's not the end of the world, not by a long shot. In fact every difficult moment in my career which necessitated a change led to a positive outcome. 

What I recommend here is to ask them for a 3 month transition period on a lower salary; might be a 1 month salary spread over 3 months. This will give you air cover while you look for a job. The next step post agreeing this with them is to have stories depending on whether you want to go to IB or PE or a HF. You need a strong "why" to back you. 

Or, you could just resign and take a week to collect your thoughts and start the healing process, and then go about finding your way forward - you'll need these guys as a reference, so try to exit in a way that is honorable and express your wishes that they support you in your transition, and that you would also remain a positive ambassador for the firm. 

I've been in two situations, one in which I did the transition and the other where I quit and went about recreating myself. It's not easy, but it gets better and then you find a new way that's often times better than the last one.

Pants that don't fit eventually split - go find some more comfortable pants. You've lost nothing here. 

Whatever you do, don't quit. Better for them to fire you, then for you to quit. Start job hunting now. Even if you do get fired, it won't matter. You can make up whatever story you want, such as due to covid the firm had to let go of people, etc. 

Don't bring up the topic of being let go. Just continue performing your best and start mass applying. I see banking and pe openings everywhere on LinkedIn, especially banking openings. 

Sorry to hear about what you went through, sometimes you're in the wrong place at the wrong time and that seems to be the case here. 

Do Not Resign (until you already have another job offer)

since this is now all about the paper trail, i suggest you reply email (in writing) and ask for very specific tasks that were subpar, with evidence that they can point to to elucidate exactly what you did wrong, so that you can understand how your reviews turned from positive to negative, and so you can understand what work you need to improve.

This of course doesn't stop them from firing you and claiming for "poor performance"...but it gives you ammunition to claim "the company made up an excuse to fire me to avoid paying severance" and you can then use this when interviewing with future companies if your company slams you and claims that you were fired for poor performance.

Also, start looking for your next job NOW, and with urgency.  Assume the writing is on the wall, the clock has started, and within 2-3 months you will get fired.  So, ideally, you find your next job before they fire you ASAP (this is the win / win).

So having read a few responses here I would like to disagree with a few points (speaking from current personal esperience):

1. Do NOT let them fire you - HHs have a strog network anywhere and everyone knows that in the case of cuts only worst performers are being let go. The trick of Covid only works if entire division was let go. Also other companies will spend 20% of interview going through every detail of you leaving - they will ask about timing, reason and question why resigning before finding a new job. Once hired - there will be extensive background checks done - and not just a paper from HR with details and dates, but people might use their network to speak to people in your team to ask what exactly happened

2. Writing an email asking what you can improve - pointless and you are not going to court with that email. The decision has been made and from here you have 1 job only - MAKE SURE YOU LEAVE ON GOOD TERMS, go for coffee with a person you will mention as a referee and be nice, ask for a advice where to go etc.