Weather Tonight: 9°c Light showers Morning: 14°c Overcast

HEADLINES:
Venetia Thompson
"Six-hour lunch": Venetia Thompson

Cantor's sacked 'Posh Bird' hits back

Robert Lea
07.03.08

A City trader who was sacked by Cantor Fitzgerald for revealing life in her office as macho, drink-fuelled and racist has hit back.

Venetia Thompson, known at the interdealer broker as Posh Bird, was fired after she wrote an article for The Spectator magazine lifting the lid on life — invariably funded on expenses — at Cantors.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph today, two weeks after she was first suspended, she says: “Pulling a colleague off their chair in a headlock, calling someone Ferg' or wiki' [terms of racial abuse], hurling a keyboard in fury or getting so drunk at lunchtime that you have to have your car keys wrestled away from you are, it seems, all acceptable forms of behaviour. Writing about it is apparently gross misconduct.”

Thompson, 23, says she was disciplined by Cantors after the firm's head of human resources took her to task for her references in the article to the casual racial abuse she had witnessed in her job. Today, she insists such abuse was more prevalent than she had initially disclosed.

Public-school girl Thompson who happily admits to also being known at the firm as Airbags — “on account of my breasts” — was also accused of fabricating anecdotes that chronicled her experience of drunken, sleep-deprived traders, whom she refers to as “marauding barrow boys” and “my much-loved Essex boys”.

She tells of one “six-hour lunch” at which a colleague told the sommelier to keep the wine flowing so long as it was under £600 a bottle.

Thompson, who admits to being drunk at her desk at 7am, breaking off trades with clients to be sick and to falling asleep in the staff bathroom in the afternoon, says: “I was addicted to the adrenalin, the noise, the aggression and, of course, the entertaining.”

She now admits her decision to pen the original article was “my City suicide note”. Cantors declined to comment.

Reader views (0)

 Add your view

No comments have so far been submitted.


Add your comment

 

Your email address will not be published

Terms and conditions make text area bigger You have  characters left.


 

Don't Miss

Promotions

Environmental Initiatives

Find out how you can help to meet the challenges of climate change in London.


The Open University

Every year The Open University helps thousands of professionals progress in their careers.


Breast Cancer Care

Donate £1 and leave a message of support for a loved one in the Swarovski Garden of Wishes.


Win an iPodTouch

With Courvoisier when you share your thoughts on this week's cocktail.


Win the Best Seats

In London theatre when you vote for your favourite celebrity spec wearer.