Goldman Sachs begins major round of global layoffs, fires at least 700 employees in India
Hundreds of people working for Wall Street banking major Goldman Sachs were fired on Wednesday and Thursday as the company began laying off as many as 3,200 people across the globe. Anywhere between 700-800 people working for the company in India are understood to have been fired in the restructuring, said to be among the company’s largest since the 2008 financial crisis.
The layoffs, done predominantly to cut costs in the face of economic headwinds such as high inflation, have affected a number of senior employees too, including those at the vice-president level, people aware of the matter said.
Before the layoffs, the company had close to 9,000 employees in India working out of its offices in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Mumbai — meaning that the restructuring has affected close to 9 per cent of its employees in the country.
The Indian Express spoke to five people who were laid off. They said that those present in the office were called for a quick meeting and informed that they were fired. After that, according to these people, they were escorted directly out of the building without an opportunity to return to their work desks. Those who were working from home were called over Zoom and laid off.
“Right after I was informed that I was being fired, I was escorted out of the building and asked to go home. I couldn’t even say bye to my friends,” said one person, who was employed as a software developer at Goldman’s Bengaluru office.
Some of the people who were sacked said that they were hired just months ago. One person, a fresh graduate from one of the country’s top engineering colleges, was hired in November 2021 for a fintech-related role. She said she was “disappointed” about the fact that she lost her first job within two months. “For a company that analyses all global trends about pretty much every industry, Goldman seemed pretty short-sighted when they were hiring me. Why would you employ someone if you have to lay them off in two months,” she asked.
A senior executive, who was not among those fired, said the company had to cut access for sacked employees from company systems in order to secure sensitive data that might be present on their computers. This person also said that more people in India could be laid off, and the firings could happen until at least the middle of January.
While announcing the layoffs earlier this week, Goldman Sachs had said: “We know this is a difficult time for people leaving the firm. We’re grateful for all our people’s contributions, and we’re providing support to ease their transitions. Our focus now is to appropriately size the firm for the opportunities ahead of us in a challenging macroeconomic environment.”
A Goldman Sachs spokesperson in India declined to comment on specific incidents about the way some people were asked to leave.
Goldman’s move follows smaller cuts from Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Barclays in recent months. Credit Suisse, which is in the midst of a restructuring, had said it would cut 2,700 jobs in the last three months of 2022 and that it aimed to remove a total of 9,000 positions by 2025.
