I’m being fired but am supposed to start at another bank this fall
I’m a third year IB analyst at a MM bank. I interviewed for associate role at one of the better BBs earlier this year. I got an offer to start in the fall (because of Coronavirus) and signed it. I’ve told them I’ll stay at my current bank just until I join them, which they tought was a good idea.
Now I suddenly found out that I’ll be fired this week. I’m pretty sure my current bank doesn’t know about my offer. But I definitely don’t want the BB to find out I was fired.
A few questions:
1. What the hell do I do?
2. What do I tell the bank I’m joining?
3. My background check won’t happen until 1-2 months before I join the new bank. Will they find out?
4. Another analyst on my team got fired two weeks ago. They offered him shit severance package so he got a lawyer to negotiate it and ended up getting a huge payout. I talked to a lawyer on Friday and he told me he could get me the same (no fixed legal fees, he would take a % of severance). Should I go down this route?
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You lose the severance if you do this dipshit. Nothing worse than a prospect thinking he's an MD.
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I'm European, so I have no presumptions on actually understanding how this works in the US (are you in US? Actually interesting information for this question). But what I do see as an option in your position is to play a bit of poker: tell your current employer that you see that they might be reconsidering the size of the team and that you would be open to leave voluntarily if they do you a good offer on exit-package. No hassle for them with lawsuits and other legal stuff, just clean golden handshake and that's it. Give them a number that is 110% of the package of your former colleague and go down to 80% if needed. Of course you still have to come up with an excuse towards your new employer but at least you didn't get fired. Excuse to them also depends on where you live/travel restrictions.
I don't know what to do in this situation but OP could possibly say that you wanted to spend some time with family before starting his new job. Could possibly even claim that someone got COVID, so he chose to leave early and help out some way.
The quickest way of getting fired before starting at another firm is lying. They do a background check, you don’t even know whether “fired” is how the background check will return.
I understand the sentiment, why give a firm information that they may not have, I mean they hired you based on your interviews, experience, and background. But I would bet heavy money that if they find out (about lying) that they will rescind your offer. The OP should share some more info on the situation, as there are many ways to explain this and be truthful, it is almost certainly the better way to go.
What are you being fired for? Is it fired or laid off?
That matters, and I’m guessing it is fired (since you said that explicitly), if it is something egregious (integrity or some sort of compliance violation) then it’ll be tough. If performance related that isn’t a great look but can be explained away (bank was letting people go in this environment, more than normal due to lower deal flow, etc), but like I said, it isn’t great and can be a risk to your new role.
I don’t know if you need a lawyer until you understand the severance, unless I’m misunderstanding something. A lawyer is a reasonable step here, but they will take their fee/cut which may or may not be needed for you depending what they offer.
Do you have references at the bank that will back you? If so make sure they will speak to new firm if needed, firms know this happens, and if there are senior people at your bank that will support you that is a big step. Everyone knows there can be politics and that sh*t happens, but again it goes back to why you got fired.
As for how to communicate to your new firm, that is tough I would first check on who you have to back you before making that decision. If you have a good relationship with your current bank make sure you understand how they will communicate this in background checks (I.e. confirm work dates or give reason for leaving).
I should probably note that I’m not based in NYC. Labor law works just a bit differently here, but would rather not reveal my exact jurisdiction. I think I can work out the legal details with a lawyer, but would love to know how to manage my reputation over the coming months.
To answer your question, I have no idea yet whether I’ll be fired or laid off, but I’m 99% sure they’ll want me to leave in one way or another. I don’t know all the specifics, but the other analyst that was shown doors two weeks ago managed to reach some kind of an agreement. Reason they want me out? Don’t know yet. I haven’t done anything stupid. My performance isn’t bad, but there are some better people on my team, and two guys are returning from a sponsored MBA. Deal flow hasn’t been amazing in the last few months either.
See my other comment but it sounds like you’re going to have a chance to get a little severance and more importantly, an opportunity to resign. Assuming this happens, you’ll be able to tell your next firm (and every employer going forward) that you quit and you’ll be able to give whatever reason you want.
Your current firm will not be able to provide any negative details, they would be liable for slander if they did. Officially, on paper, you quit. That resignation releases them from any liability for discrimination and also prevents them from saying you were fired.
What I’m describing above is 99% of situations, but never a bad idea to have a lawyer take a quick look at your specific deal before you sign. This would cost about $1-2k in NYC, less elsewhere.
its a small world. smaller than you think. even smaller in ib circles.
You are probably right. What do you think I can do about it?
Seems like safest route might be to quit. Yes, you'll miss out on severance, but at least avoid the "got fired" stigma. And the ol' "wanting to spend more time with my family before start my new job" is a reason that simply cannot be disproven. Now, whether you heighten that with "family member got sick" is tricky -- I wouldn't go COVID because, ironically, if that family member did have COVID, you would be spending LESS time with them (can't be near them).
It's a tough call. No matter how you slice it, if new firm finds out you were let go/fired, there'll probably be a bit of at least a subconscious "damaged goods" label in their head... then again, despite this, after you perform for a few months, they might not give a shit.
If you stay and accept the firing, maybe you spin it that "I think that when they found out I accepted another offer, they wanted to cut me loose." Though I don't know if this is plausible -- is there a place for third year analysts to go, internally, at your firm? If so, then it seems plausible that, because you shunned them, they got offended and cut you loose. Maybe you spin it that you were shocked to be let go -- your work was good, you got along with everybody... pretty sure that when they found out I was leaving, they got pissed and said "F him, let's cut him loose." This seems believable to me, and then makes it sound like you broke up with them, instead of that they broke up with you.
An intern is telling an IB associate how to navigate complex negotiations and how to manage a severance package... no offense but what in the world are you doing my guy?
Just analyzing the situation and throwing out possible solutions... not saying which is “best” way to go, but tossing out different tacks and possible results/ramifications.
Severance always comes with a resignation letter. It’s always treated as a quit.
This is very easy to solve. Just say due to the slowdown in activity, your bank provided offers for voluntary layoffs. F500 companies across the board are doing this right now. Say given that you had the offer secured, you decided to take it. The timing was ideal and this would give you a chance to refresh/recharge for your next role with the BB.
This. You're getting laid off, say you rasied your hand for it to get the payout and take some time off. I did this literal exact same thing, was never asked a word about it. If in US, your current employer is very resctricted with what they are allowed to tell your new employer about the circumstances of your departure - use that to your advantage. If I'm not mistaken, ALL they can do is verfiy the dates you worked there, and that you were terminated not for performance reasons but due to layoffs.
When you leave your current bank, you will almost certainly “resign” ie they will give you severance and you will technically quit. When any outside party asks your status there, they will say you quit (or even say nothing . . many banks just give dates now).
Only way this doesn’t happen is if you are being fired for cause, which . . are you? It doesn’t sound like it.
What’s more, your last day will be when your severance ends. So if you’re getting a month, your last day will be in July etc.
So basically, you probably don’t have a very big gap to cover. Just say you left early to spend time with family or something.
Know some people who had this same issue happen to them as a form of a specific bank wanting to retailate against the top bucket analysts leaving for better opps. It is very disgusting how much these banks will do to retailiate.
This is ridiculous, it makes no sense, and I don’t understand how you possibly think this happens.
If you are a top bucket analyst and you are fired, not laid off, but fired without cause, you will 1) collect severance and 2) definitely file a lawsuit for the firm retaliating due to your offer. Additionally, that is very easily explainable to a future firm, and you wouldn’t have to, because as I said, the legal risk is unbelievably high.
How can you prove you are a top bucket analyst? The firm could easily say that the people they are firing are not a fit or terrible at their jobs or something ethical and then, let that person go just so they could ruin the other person's life. you might think it's weird or unheard of but I know many people who this has happened to. The banks they were going to understood that this was the case as the bank most of these people come from is knonw to be vindictive and jealous that way.
Lmao absurd
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