Given the sack?

Given the sack?

There’s a rumor going around that over 80 Standard Chartered employees have been fired. Is it true?

November 5, 2008 12:34 by kippreport

It’s rumored that Standard Chartered has sacked over 80 people this week. ArabianBusiness.com received an email from the bank’s corporate affairs department neither denying nor confirming the rumor. Noura Gwanny wrote that “like all organizations, we continuously look at ways to streamline our operations to make sure we have the right resources in the right places,” wrote.

To be fair, Standard Chartered has been reorganizing departments worldwide. This week, the Singapore branch announced that the bank has merged its primary and secondary loan distribution teams: “The move will bring greater efficiencies and synergies,” said a source to FinanceAsia.com.

However, bearing in mind the GCC’s poor track record with dealing with the press, and being open about corporate decisions (especially negative ones), it’s likely that the Standard Chartered has indeed sacked at least 80 people. If they haven’t why didn’t Gwanny deny the rumors? In the same email to ArabianBusiness.com, she claims that “some roles may be consolidated or restructured,” so does this mean that out of the 80 (or more) people who’ve been fired, that a number of them will have new jobs? Or is she suggesting that no one’s been fired, but a few people might be given new roles?

Whatever she meant, this really isn’t the time for ambiguity. There’s enough uncertainty as is.