Decimation is a much better technique

What Barclays is doing is just bound to piss people off:

Barclays Capital is forcing its IT contractors to choose between a 10 per cent pay cut or a quick exit from the company.

The decision, presumably an alternative to cutting jobs as the bank negotiates the current financial crisis, has sparked outrage amongst contract staff, who have to signal their "acceptance" of the wage cut this month.

I've gone through this with some of the companies for which I've done training over the years. Still, it's different to pull this stunt to code monkeys slaving in cubicles all day. Better to cut the number of jobs and keep wages the same.

Barclays will suffer in the long run on this, because most large companies aren't smart enough to return rates to their higher levels when there is an ecoonomic upturn. People will remember this and will bail for other jobs as soon as they can. What Barclays will be left with are those unmotivated to find something better, and that's going to hurt their overall productivity in the long run.