CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin reports on Wall Street's internal debate about staying safe from coronavirus as well as the pressure to perform. The pressure to perform on Wall Street is ever present in normal times, but during the coronavirus crisis, with markets more volatile than they’ve been in a decade, some firms are turning up the heat on workers deemed critical to their operations to come to the office, despite the risk of getting sick.
Two weeks ago, on a March 25 conference call with the firm’s most important equity and equity derivatives traders, Bank of America’s Global Head of Equities, Fabrizio Gallo, laid out the stakes for those considering staying at home, especially if the crisis lasted for an extended amount of time.
“At some point in time, one has to make a decision,” said Gallo to the group assembled on the phone. “And the reason why it’s called critical function is because we have a critical requirement by senior-ups to provide proper and orderly markets. And we cannot provide proper and orderly markets if 99% of the population decides they don’t feel comfortable.”
Audio of a portion of the early evening conference call was obtained by CNBC, and features Gallo, along with, Glenn Koh, global head of equities trading and, Cyrille Walter, the firm’s global head of equity derivatives. Gallo told the group that staying home to avoid getting ill wasn’t ideal.
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