Sep 16, 2008 7:14 am US/Eastern
Lehman Employees Prepare To Compete For New Jobs
Reporting
Cindy Hsu
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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A man carrying a box leaves the Lehman Brothers European headquarters building in London on Sept. 15, 2008.
Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
The Wall Street crisis is throwing thousands of families into a tailspin as they try to figure out what's next for work, and how to keep things together at home.
As Lehman Brothers goes down, the employees packed up on Monday. Ray Chin had just returned to work last week, taking some time off after the birth of his daughter Zoe on Aug. 17.
"[I've] still got a mortgage to pay, car payments, insurance. There's nothing I can do," he tells CBS 2.
Chin and his co-workers tried their best to support each other as they packed up their things, but they'll soon be going head-to-head to survive.
"It's going to be rough. You've got 10,000 employees here at the headquarters laid off. You're going to be competing amongst your co-workers for a job. That's going to be real hard," admits Chin.
When Bear Stearns went under months ago, many in the industry got nervous, but employees at Lehman still held out hope.
"I don't think anyone really expected a bank as big as Lehman to be in a position that it's in now. So that's kind of a shock," an unidentified corporate auditor told CBS 2. "Even like on Friday, coming out of the office, everyone thought that we'll be ok, that something will work out in the end."
Even tourists who watched employees leave with boxes couldn't believe it.
"My heart just broke. I just felt terrible for them," said Adah Gibbs, who is visiting the city.
CBS 2 met numerous employees who didn't want to speak on the record.
One man with two young kids says his wife had just left her job earlier this year to focus on the children, since he's never home from Lehman's before 10 o'clock at night. He'll now spend his days looking for work along with countless others.
"The images of Lehman employees walking out of their offices with their careers in boxes reminds us of the human impact this has," says New York City Council Speaker Christine Quinn. "We send our thoughts to these individuals."
In the meantime, many Lehman employees are frustrated by the lack of information they're getting about what's next. Some plan to keep coming to work until they get the final word.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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