"I was paid terribly by a US bank and then my job was moved offshore"
I worked for a major US bank. The sort of bank where you hear about people earning millions. But I was not paid millions. I was paid less than $50k. I complained and now I have been fired and my job is being moved offshore.
I guess I shouldn't be surprised. In the past year, I witnessed a bank that had previously spent millions on humans working in my area of operations redirecting its budgets towards AI. We were always all paid below market rate. And now we have all been let go, with two days notice. AI doesn't complain.
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The jobs that aren't going to AI are being moved offshore. This shouldn't be a surprise either. For months, we were asked to document our processes. We were writing the instruction manual to enable cheaper overseas staff to do our jobs.
It shouldn't have been a surprise, but it was. The HR call came on a Friday and on it were 50 people with 30+ years' at the bank. They'd given their lives. They were underpaid and now their jobs are going to a machine or to someone cheaper instead.
I didn't stay on the line until the end. I'm glad to be out. Working for the bank ruined my health. Even on vacation I could never properly relax. I could never properly exhale. It took me a while to get through that.
The rock bottom wasn’t the layoff. It was every moment I chose the familiar discomfort over the unknown freedom. The layoff was just the universe closing a door I had been standing in front of afraid to walk through.
It took a while for me to heal. I moved away from my apartment in the city. I broke cycles. I learned what I was willing to tolerate and what I wasn’t. I got clear on who I am outside of a job title and a salary that never reflected my worth anyway.
And now I am building what's mine. To the other 49 people on that call, you did nothing wrong. Your worth was never determined by the bank; they'd just convinced you that it was. Now is the moment to find who you really are.
Leslie Serre is a pseudonym
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