Hot on the heels of the now somewhat famous op-ed/resignation letter written by Greg Smith (late of Goldman Sachs) in the New York Times, is a satirical resignation letter
from Darth Vader, directed to the Emperor. In the real world, Smith resigned Wednesday 14th March 2012 from his job as a Goldman Sachs executive, saying he could no longer stay on in good conscience
Paint me as a bit cynical, as I know from my own experience that it certainly doesn’t take 12 years to get real clarity on the underlying values of an organization — more like 12 months. Or course, having said that, the whole investment banking world has gone through a pretty rude awakening over the past 4 years (or at least many of us would like to believe that they have been awakened, but that is still to be proven) and so perhaps Mr. Smith’s own personal awakening should really be dated from only about 4 years ago…and maybe that is a valid time frame for him to learn about the real culture, as apparently when he started as an intern he was unable to find the washroom or tie his shoes. So we can at the very least celebrate the fact that he has come a long way in his education (he doesn’t actually state whether he can now tie his shoes however I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt).
But I digress. I don’t know Mr. Smith at all and I don’t deal with Goldman Sachs so I don’t know what the ultimate repercussions will be. But Mr. Vader leaving the empire is big news. And frankly, the empire is much diminished without him. Come back, Mr. Vader. If you do, we promise to re-embrace pure evil…!!
