City Diaries: "Caroline"

"Caroline" (not her real name) works in a High Street branch of a large UK bank.

She is writing a diary on the mood in the financial industry as it goes through dramatic changes.

Staff are so demoralised

We are all feeling the threat of losing our jobs and not just by means of redundancy. An unbelievable tactic now is to put staff on a disciplinary warning if targets are not met, but our targets have not been reduced.

Staff are so demoralised. Are they just trying to get us to quit and save them even more money? Where are you supposed to get another job in a financial institution? So many staff are going off sick - is it any wonder?

The constant e-mailing from bosses is getting tiring, they don't seem to realise we are trying our best. Apparently that is just not good enough. Some Christmas this is going to be!

Stress levels are rising daily

We all had high hopes that recent announcements would help kick-start the housing market and therefore mortgage applications. All my colleagues know that now is not the time to be thinking of moving house with falling prices and job uncertainty. However, the company see it differently. They still expect us to be able to refer customers for new mortgages as if there was no problem at all. We try our hardest but that's just not good enough apparently.

Stress levels are rising daily, staff are going off sick and customers are becoming more agitated. Staff morale is so low, I think we are going to come back after Christmas and be told that's it, no more job! I really miss colleague banter and the support we gave each other. Now it's just think of number one.

Everyone is out for themselves

I was wondering how long it would be before dissension amongst the ranks! Every conversation is being listened to, every move monitored.

We used to work well as a team but now it seems everyone is out for themselves no matter who gets trampled on in the process. The all important "sales" seem to take precedence over everything else.

Each day we are hearing conflicting versions of progress from the press and from head office. The worst scenario is a huge percentage of us will be out of work next year.

It is not a good time to be looking for alternative employment as I have found out recently. There are so many unemployed and desperate people competing for ever decreasing jobs. How I wish we could go back to the days of good old fashioned customer service!

There could be thousands of job losses

I have worked for one of the big UK banks for more years than I care to remember. Most of that time I have enjoyed my work, I have made friends with my colleagues and hold a responsible and trusted position.

We became aware that the market was getting tougher, business harder to attract and shares falling. Our chief executive kept telling us we were in the strongest position and we could ride the storm so we felt reassured.

Then one morning a customer announced to us we were being taken over. We thought they must have misheard the news or got their facts wrong. There was still no confirmation from those above - until the next day. There could be thousands of job losses. You can imagine how upset and concerned we all were.

This unsettling situation seems to be on hold for the time being. We are working under the threat of redundancy and suffering abuse from stressed customers. I can understand the customers' frustration and worries but very few realise that actually most of the staff could be out of a job.

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