Employment derivatives: Difference between revisions

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Though HR departments would [[Force-ranking|force-rank]] staff to a curve graded against an internal 5-point scoring metric employee “alpha” could still be mispriced especially over time, as a result of mediocrity drift. Barkley adjusted his model for mediocrity “smile” but the formal grade boundaries and other arbitrary “success criteria” of the HR model still led to arbitrage, especially with the rising popularity of “resource fluidity”. interdepartmental secondments were beset by diversity arbitrage and [[cheapest to deliver|cheapest-to-deliver]] scandals, especially over quarter end.
Though HR departments would [[Force-ranking|force-rank]] staff to a curve graded against an internal 5-point scoring metric employee “alpha” could still be mispriced especially over time, as a result of mediocrity drift. Barkley adjusted his model for mediocrity “smile” but the formal grade boundaries and other arbitrary “success criteria” of the HR model still led to arbitrage, especially with the rising popularity of “resource fluidity”. interdepartmental secondments were beset by diversity arbitrage and [[cheapest to deliver|cheapest-to-deliver]] scandals, especially over quarter end.


[[Reduction in force|reductions in force]] could be handled quantitatively by reference to the PIBOR forward curve rather than by business need or individual performance. This was not the last unintended consequence of the financialisation of employment.  
[[Reduction in force|reductions in force]] could be handled quantitatively by reference to the PIBOR forward curve rather than by business need or individual performance. This was not the last unintended consequence of the financialisation of the employment relationship.  


====Expansion====
====Expansion====
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====ERS mis-selling====
====ERS mis-selling====
{{Drop|B|anks even began}} selling employment derivatives directly to their employees, saving the bother of having to hedge themselves. There was an inherent conflict here, of course. How could the very person presenting the risk of the organisation be expected to assume it?
{{Drop|B|anks even began}} selling employment derivatives directly to their employees, saving the bother of having to hedge themselves. There was an inherent conflict with these “self-referencing employment derivatives”: how could the very person ''presenting'' the risk to the organisation be the one to ''assume'' it?


So began the sad chronicle of employment rate swap mis-selling. Banks realised they could separate the employee’s fixed rate, and pay that under a physical employment contract, then separately hedge out their [[π]] risk to that worker with a linked derivative. Before the emergence of ERS, the [[π]] risk was intrinsic to the employment contract and could not be abstracted and traded separately.  
So began the sad chronicle of employment rate swap mis-selling. When banks realised they could separate the employee’s wage, and pay that under a physical employment contract, then separately hedge out their [[π]] risk to that worker with a linked derivative. Before the emergence of ERS, the [[π]] risk was intrinsic to the employment contract and could not be abstracted and traded separately.  


The scandal blew up when it emerged HR departments were being incentivised to “pi-hack” their derivatives portfolios by arbitrarily placing employees on performance management, covertly arranging other firms to bid them away or just peremptorily laying them off, leaving redu, instaff holding a twenty-five year [[out-of-the-money]] employment rate swaps with no actual job, and badly exposed should [[crypto]] go [[tits up]].
The scandal blew up when it emerged HR departments were being incentivised to “pi-hack” their derivatives portfolios by arbitrarily placing employees on performance management, covertly arranging other firms to bid them away or just peremptorily laying them off, leaving redundant staff holding twenty-five year, deep [[out-of-the-money]] employment rate swaps but no actual job to hedge with it. Being the sort of people who would sling their redundancy payoffs into Dogecoin these people were doubly exposed should [[crypto]] go [[Seins en l’air|''seins en l’air'']].


Such “self-referencing employment derivatives” are now not permitted in many jurisdictions, and attract penalty risk weighing in the UK.  
Though self-referencing employment derivatives are now prohibited in many jurisdictions, no-one was brought to book for poor selling programmes. Nevertheless, interests in ERS hedging began to wane shortly afterward as other incidents came to light — some faintly comical such as when, during the [[COVID-19]] pandemic, a human resources trader at Wickliffe Hampton inadvertently opted for physical settlement by ticking the wrong box on a portfolio swap [[Confirmation - ISDA Provision|confirmation]] and had to delivered his entire HR department into an chain of patisseries that had just gone insolvent. At first, the team of thirty short-order pastry chefs that were delivered to Wickliffe Hampton’s London headquarters were struggled to orient themselves, but staff morale rapidly improved, and staff pronounced the morning teas to be “excellent”.  


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