I consulted at a Fortune 100 investment bank in New York City 15 years ago. It's difficult to hide that layoffs are coming - managers are pulled into meetings to rank their employees, they tell their friend, word gets around.

Someone set up a digital timebomb on the systems. They were one of the people let go, and a few weeks later, things crashed all over the place.

One amusing bit - a few months later, another digital time bomb went off. He had hidden another one that they had not found, even knowing of the first one.

Despite laying off about 10% of the staff, management had a good idea of who it was, but they had been clever so it was difficult to get evidence it was them.

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