'Phony business meetings at 7:30 am': How Goldman Sachs laid off over 3,000 employees in a day

US investment bank Goldman Sachs reportedly asked targeted employees to attend "phony" business meetings where they were told they'd been laid off.

Bankers were emailed calendar invites for a meeting with CEO David Solomon at the company's New York headquarters, with many of them having a meeting as early as 7:30 am, according to a media report.

However, after the employees arrived in the conference room, they were greeted by the head of the team telling them that they have been fired while their manager observed the proceedings, New York Post reported.

Recounting the story of a colleague who had been fired, a Goldman Sachs employee told the publication, "He got here early for the meeting and was told the news. Meeting was put on his calendar under false pretenses. Managers were sorry to do this but their hand was forced and they wished him the best of luck."

The laid off employees were given the choice to leave the office immediately or wait for colleagues to arrive so they could say goodbye. Most of the casualties chose to exit the building following a wave of axings that were done before 9 am— leaving colleagues who filtered in afterwards confused over what had happened, sources told the New York Post.

The report also highlighted that another employee was told to arrive at 7:30 am for a call with Goldman counterparts in the Asia-Pacific region and didn’t question the early meeting since those with other regions are typically during “off-hours.”

Goldman Sachs Group has reportedly laid off over 3,000 employees across the firm in January 2023.

The bank's chief executive David Solomon had earlier sent a year-end voice memo to staff warning of a headcount reduction in the first half of January, Reuters reported.

Global banks, including Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Inc, have reduced their workforces in recent months as a dealmaking boom on Wall Street fizzled out due to high interest rates, tensions between the United States and China, the war between Russia and Ukraine, and soaring inflation.

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