Lehman Brothers' Last Weekend

Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on Sept. 15, 2008, jolting the firm's 28,000 employees. A decade later, former employees remember the collapse and reflect on what it meant for them.

More from the Wall Street Journal:

[peterlewellyn]

I was a Lehman Brothers pilot for almost five years. The good part for me was, I didn't have my retirement tied up in Lehman Brothers stock or their 401k, since the aviation division was managed by an outside contractor. The bad part was, it was the best flying job I ever had. I was treated very well.

[allthestroke]

No matter what your job is, losing your job sucks.

But being oblivious to the state of your company is something completely different.

[esquire]

The worst part about the Lehman bankruptcy is The Bull (nickname for their CEO) knew of the pending problems and had opportunities to sell his firm to multiple bidders for 6 full months prior to the bankruptcy. The price offered was never high enough for The Bull. Now, The Bull works for a podunk firm doing podunk work. Everyone, even the regulators were trying to convince him to sell and he wouldn't do it. He thought his firm would weather the storm, the government would have to save them, and Lehman was too big to fail. They made an example out of Lehman and him, the rest of the banks suddenly became cooperative. Sometimes a head needs to roll to get capitulation.

[beatenbytheclown]

I was working as a credit derivatives trader at another bank 3yrs out of college during 2008. A lot of Lehman employees got picked up by Barcap in NY and Nomura in Tokyo. I’m not saying they didn’t go through something traumatic but if you didn’t have to go into the office and trade those markets for the next three months you were lucky. Sep-Nov 2008 is just a blur to me now, going onto that trading floor every day literally trading for the survival of your firm and career with little sleep and then having to go home and hear everything over again on the news. I had a tooth extraction done during that period and I distinctly remember heading to the dentist for an hour in the middle of the day glad to be off the floor, when I got there I told him ‘no need for anaesthetic, I’m numb already’.

[chidimwakayeyi]

8:50 hahahahahaha, in the United States of America even the homeless keep up to date with financial news

[holgermayer]

I would prefer interviews with the low paid staff. They probably have a different story to tell.

[emilysix]

This fails to mention the total recklessness Lehman was engaged in.

[loszhor]

I graduated in 2008, thanks for crashing the economy a few months beforehand!

[blackice]

I was sweating bullets asking a girl I liked to the Fall Formal in 8th grade a storm that week was sep 14 2008

[derkhaslol]

In the first minute you can see exactly the reason why it was possible that Lehman Brothers fell. The whole bank is in hazard and yet most executives are just watching a tennis game at the u.s. open..

[JeffreyOsb]

Odds are that Lehman Brothers paid for the tickets to the US Open. I wonder how that conversation went down...
"We may be going bankrupt soon... I know, let's go buy tickets to the most expensive tennis match in the world!"
Board: "Sounds good! I enjoy a good weekend!".

[lpwhatlp]

Wish they discussed how long it took for each one of these folks to land on their feet and what they’re doing now. Seemed more like a sappy nostalgia story covering a really unethical company.

[sominboy]

That lady whos first day was sep 15, i really hope she got some good karma afterwards, if anybody derserved it at that point it was her.

[dergluckliche]

I was working in San Francisco for a competing investment bank when Lehman went down. I went into work that morning and asked the receptionist if _we_ were still in business. All through the previous weeks I'd see people leaving the building (BofA building / 555 California) carrying a box or two with that defeated look (or relieved, as I was when I was finally laid off in 2009 with a nice severance). By the time I got canned I HATED my job so was glad to be outta there. I didn't hate the company or my coworkers but my boss...I enjoyed what I did at the firm but I'd grown to DESPISE the person I was doing it for.

[Herman]

In the mentioning of principles guiding Lehman Brothers, there is no mention of integrity, no mention of ethics, no mention of morality. Yet surely all of this is more important than profit for investors and shareholders, and working in a friendly environment.

[kurtalder]

I'm loving these interviews about 2008 WSJ. Like a horror movie

[dwyper]

I spent 5 years cleaning up the junk paper Lehman sold and marketed "same as cash." They may have been a family but there were a lot of bad apples in that family

[mohnjayer]

I lived in Nashville, TN back then and strangely, I was playing golf at a local course sometime in late 08/early 09 and I found a golf ball with Lehman Brothers stamped on it. I knew it would be sort of a unique relic and I’ve kept it for all these years. Just my little weird connection to Lehman’s failure.

[Adyingcolonialism]

Its amazing how they try to rehabilitate lehman right at the end lol

[conjurerwoman]

The Banks got a Bailout and they took the money and started giving each other bonuses, while refusing to help homeowners save their homes.