Edelweiss Capital Online Dispute: Introduction
Last week, we brought our readers’ attention to a highly entertaining public war of words between three financial services professionals working at the same firm – Swiss wealth manager Edelweiss Capital Group. The viral spat began when Daniel Favre, one of the firm’s Relationship Managers, made some controversial but impassioned remarks about the Israel-Hamas war. His colleague Paul Reiniger took offence to his words and publicly called him a “disgrace” and “anti-Semitic” before a third co-worker, Bilal Sharawy, chimed in.
The online argument sparked a strong reaction from the financial services community on LinkedIn, with thousands of likes and comments on each of their posts.
Unfortunately, their employer has deemed their behaviour inappropriate and has taken action to suspend both Favre and Reiniger for their parts in the digital furore.
Edelweiss Capital Suspensions Reason
Eva Dorries, who is Edelweiss Capital’s communications manager, said in a statement that “both Daniel Favre and Paul Reiniger engaged in online conduct that fell short of our firm’s standards of professionalism, and will be suspended until further notice pending an internal investigation.”
The firm further stated:
“Discretion and confidentiality are among the most important hallmarks in our approach to business, and our people know that they should not draw unnecessary public attention to themselves. Instead, our focus should be on our clients, and we should let our work do the talking.”
“While we believe that everyone has a right to express their views, they should exercise prudence and care in doing so whenever they are associating themselves with our firm. Because Daniel and Paul made their comments while being prominently identified as Edelweiss employees, our firm’s reputation is at stake, and we had no choice but to take action.”
At the present time, it appears that no action has been taken against Sharawy.
However, all three LinkedIn profiles have since been either deactivated or taken down.
Context of Employer Actions and Industry Trends
While Edelweiss Capital took exception to their employees’ online behaviour, the firm made no comments about the actual content of the posts. Since last year, there have been numerous reports of various employers taking action against staff members for expressing views that were sympathetic to the Palestinian cause – including American white-shoe law firms Davis Polk & Wardwell and Winston & Strawn. The fallout is not limited to the financial sector – influential magazine Newsweek has published a full list of journalists who have been fired over making pro-Palestinian remarks.