After a surprise round of layoffs at Deutsche Bank on Tuesday, some senior bankers had expected to see surviving employees diligently showing as much as the office for the remaining of the week — and so they were sorely disillusioned, insiders told The Post.
“The lights are actually off,” one senior banker complained to The Post — referring to the proven fact that the motion-detector lights at Deutsche Bank’s posh Manhattan offices on Columbus Circle only activate once they sense there are people within the room.
On Thursday, The Post was first to report Deutsche Bank axed greater than 20 junior bankers — in addition to a handful of senior executives this week — amid a slowdown in dealmaking.
Insiders had assumed the bloodbath would encourage the rank and file to schlep into the bank’s enviable Latest York City offices on the Deutsche Bank Center — formerly the Time Warner Center.
Nevertheless, senior executives were greeted with empty desks on Friday, an indication that not even the fear of losing a job — not to say the bank’s posh glass tower that boasts sweeping views of Central Park and a swanky shopping center downstairs — can bring younger staff back to their desks five days every week.
“Nobody is within the office on a Friday — even after layoffs,” the exasperated executive added. “Ghost town.”
Executives were shocked to see empty desks on the bank’s NYC offices after layoffs earlier this week. Bloomberg via Getty Images
Deutsche Bank’s official policy is a hybrid work model, with managers making the decision on what number of days of face time per week are required. That’s easier than the five-days-a-week policy at Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.
Still, a lot of Deutsche Bank’s senior executives are coming in five days every week — and are annoyed that the younger set isn’t doing the identical, based on sources.
Earlier this week, insiders told The Post that while a couple of higher-level Deutsche Bank executives — including several managing directors — were laid off, junior bankers are viewed as more expendable on Wall Street generally.
“You possibly can easily replace junior bankers with the following graduating class,” a source said. “Jamie Dimon isn’t going to have kids sitting around drinking lattes all day — banks aren’t welfare for overeducated Ivy Leaguers.”
A Deutsche Bank spokesman declined to comment.
