I recently was catching up with my roommate who works at Goldman in New York. Wesley told me how Goldman just fired 20 new hires, all our age, who cheated on an internal qualification test. The story was covered in Forbes, and other places, and seemed to be a good publicity for Goldman, a finance giant showing no tolerance for cheating. Wesley agreed that the cheating was foolish, but was surprised that he also felt some sympathy for those who were fired. In the world of big finance, many people much higher up the ladder have cheated in ways much more profound and have not been fired. It seemed oddly easy and convenient to crack down on people low on the ladder.
What will happen to those 20 young employees? When are second chances appropriate?