“The layoffs happened on the sixteenth,” recalls Tom (not his real name), a survivor of a massive blood-letting at a major financial services firm. Employees learned they were being let go in a glass-walled conference room at the back of the trading floor. “It was like a goldfish bowl. And to make matters worse, when people left the conference room, they had to walk across the trading floor — hundreds of feet — and everyone could see that telltale blue folder with the severance information tucked under their arm and would understand that person had been fired.