I Was a Banker’s Slave

I worked for seven years in the Most Successful Bank in the Universe in London — but not as a banker.

I was on a zero hours contract on the graveyard shift (midnight to eight) in the graphics center. Most of my colleagues, also on zero hours, were jobless humanities graduates. We serviced the bank and the bankers, finance graduates, by illustrating the bank’s vision in their all-important ‘books’. We were shouted at, bullied, fired overnight without cause, and not even allowed to go to the toilet (and yes, that is even worse when you are a woman, particularly one week out of four).

Our department was there 24/7 365, but as soon as the workflow dried up, we were sent home without pay. I never knew what my paycheck would be for the week.

I saw with my own eyes how the bank selected its future ‘leaders’. The most ruthless ones and the ones who both embodied and believed in the ideology of ‘winners’ and ‘losers’.

The bank believed that ‘leadership’ was a natural, in-born trait that had to be searched for and trained but it was genetic.

So there we were, genetically superior ‘leaders’ (ie senior bankers), future leaders who were put to fight each other to the top (ie junior bankers) and us, natural born losers who were treated like sub-human scum.

Every night, until morning.

This is the ideology of Wall Street that it is exporting to the rest of the world.

This is what they truly believe.

This is what they can buy with their money.

I just wanted to say that again.

I have been intimidated, laughed at, called a liar and a moron for talking about my own experience.

Sometimes I doubt myself.

I’m not tough enough, for sure.

I’m only a little person, but I know what I saw.