NOT all DBS employees are disgruntled at being given the axe.

Joe (not his real name), a former relationship manager in his 20s, said he had already been thinking about calling it quits before he was given the pink slip by DBS.

He said he became a relationship manager because of the money, but it did not give him job satisfaction.

Has he felt the heat from the structured products?

'I feel I've done my job ethically. The products I sell are all properly documented and explained to my clients,' he said.

'The financial crisis is beyond our control. It's other people's money, and we don't play around with it.'

Joe said he is not planning to get another job in the banking sector as he feels that only back-end jobs would be available now.

He would not reveal how long he was working with DBS.

Like Alvin, it came as a shock to Joe too. But Joe said he understands why DBS has to let go of workers.

'They are not doing as well as before, so they have to cut costs and lay people off,' he said.

'I'm young, and I don't have many commitments, so I don't need the job that much.'

Joe lives with his parents. He declined to disclose how much he earned a month but said that it was 'comfortable enough'.

His only concern was that the retrenchment exercise was not as transparent as he'd hoped it would be.

This article was first published in The New Paper on December 11, 2008.