Mamacita linda went out with her girlfriends last night. To this day, some of her closest friends are friends from her first “real” job, many moons ago, when she worked with one of the leading banks in Peru. Not many of her friends still work at the same bank but most have moved around in various banking/finance jobs here in Cusco.

The get together last night involved pizza, a few (I’m told) adult beverages and catching up on where old friends are now working. One hot topic of conversation was how some big banks are trying to get their long-time employees to quit so they don’t have to fire them. Ever. You see, there’s apparently a rule here in Peru that employees with 12 or more years service to the same company are entitled to a significant severance pay should they ever be fired (but not if they resign on their own accord). Somewhere in the blink of an eye, middle age is sneaking up on us which means that some of Mamacita linda’s friends are coming up on 12 years with the same company.

What apparently is going on at one or more leading banks, is that the managers are looking for excuses to force long-time employees to voluntarily “resign” but continue working. Say you showed up late for work this morning, earning you an hour of docked pay or letter of reprimand. Now your manager politely suggests that if you write a “letter of resignation”, we’ll put that letter in your files and waive the docked pay or letter of reprimand. Then you continue working as normal. Until one day when the bank doesn’t need you anymore. When that day comes, we won’t have to fire you, we’ll just dig up that “letter of resignation” you wrote so the bank saves the big severance pay.

You see, we won’t fire you because you quit!

The saddest part about this is that these are supposed to be leading institutions in Peru. Care to imagine how 2nd or 3rd tier companies treat their employees?

This too is Peru