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Management Strategies

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Is it Black Monday for Bank of America or Blue Monday for its Angry Ex-Employee?

A Bank of America whistleblower might or might not have devastating info, but one thing's for sure: he's no happy camper.

The wait is over. Several "damning" e-mails and a stamp of authenticity from a person who claims to be a former employee of an insurance company owned by Bank of America have been leaked.

So, as those behind the leaked documentation claim, is March 14 truly Black Monday for America's largest bank?

Considering the leaked e-mails and information are being parceled out by a loose-knit hacking group called Anonymous, and the former employee — who claims to have nothing left to lose — clearly has a bone to pick with the company, the answer is somewhat unclear. And whether it is the same data Wikileaks founder Julian Assange claimed to have is also hard to determine at this time.

Much of what was published on the site bankofamericasuck.com (a site that has been largely unavailable, purportedly because of high traffic) is correspondence between the former employee and a contact with Anonymous. Ultimately the leaked information is supposed to show how BofA subsidiary Balboa Insurance allegedly engaged in hiding foreclosure information.

A Google Document copy of the correspondence is readily viewable for those who either can't reach the bankofamericasuck.com site or who would rather not download a compressed file from unknown sources.

Keep in mind what was released March 14 is only part one of what could be more to come. For what it's worth, a Bank of America spokesperson told The New York Times they don't believe the allegations are terribly substantial.

Whether any of the information about Balboa will ultimately open the public's eyes to scandal, we can glean a few things about the former employee's interpretation of life within the corporate structure. The company requires its employees carry a card listing core values, management debates on its casual dress policy, interoffice relationships happen.

That's not groundbreaking stuff. Happens all over the place.

But in his work to establish credibility, another story surfaces: the story of an unhappy former employee.

The employee who provided Anonymous the information admits that after having been passed up for a work-at-home job he felt qualified for, the company attempted to destroy his career, had a hand in his losing his girlfriend and has caused him to lose the trust of his family.

And it's those things that shine through in the published correspondence between the former Balboa Insurance employee and the Anonymous group. In establishing himself as an insider, the former Balboa employee seemingly destroys his own credibility. Rather than see a practice that may or may not be legal and may or may not have played a part in the financial crisis suffered nationwide, you see the words of a troubled individual who felt hurt because he didn't fit in, because he didn't agree with corporate leadership, and who feels a need to seek revenge because, ultimately, he blames everyone but himself for the loss of his job. There is a certain pathos in his words that could make any armchair psychologist see the former Balboa employee views himself as the main character in his own Greek tragedy.

Is it the first set of cracks in the armor of an American banking giant? I'm guessing at this point, no one at Bank of America or Balboa Insurance is losing any sleep over it.

Rather than get the dirt on BofA we've all been hearing about, we get the angry words of a disgruntled ex-employee.

Such is the state of human resources in the age of Wikileaks.

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