London Banter - What did Mr Shemtob do?

"Paul Corfield" wrote:

On Fri, 11 Nov 2011 19:47:32 +0000, Basil Jet
wrote:

The online news is a bit thin on details, except that he was a senior
manager at TfL, and that TfL have forbidden their staff from discussing
the incident...

They have? Says who?

Report from the Independent:
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/6260528.html

Excerpt:
---quote---
A senior Transport for London (TfL) manager has died after falling
from the top floor of its headquarters. There are claims that it
happened soon after Jack Shemtob, 53, was told he was among several
hundred staff to lose their jobs.

Police are helping a coroner determine the circumstances in which the
married father-of-two died. He was seen falling six storeys and
landing in the lobby of TfL's new offices in Greenwich, south-east
London, by horrified colleagues last Friday. He was pronounced dead at
the scene by attending paramedics; his death is not being treated as
suspicious.

The company refused to confirm or deny whether Mr Shemtob, who had
worked for TfL for about 30 years, fell to his death after being told
he was to be made redundant.

However, it is understood he was in the "re-deployment unit" and had
applied for about 10 other posts.
[...continues...]
---quote---

Other online news stories:
www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24008386-.do
http://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/9358958._/
http://www.wharf.co.uk/2011/11/tfl-worker-plunges-to-his-deat.html
http://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/9358577._/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2060044/

Only in the last story from the Mail does it say:
"Workers leaving the glass building yesterday said they had been told
not to comment on the terrible incident at lunchtime last Friday."

I know everything is best explained by reference to a dark conspiracy
in Basil Jet's world, but to be blunt I'd think such an instruction to
staff in such circumstances would hardly be unusual in most
organisations - that's not to say that the situation is in any way a
usual or common one though. Apart from anything else, I'd suggest it's
just a simple matter of respect for his bereaved family and friends.

As to the subject line, 'what did he do' - well, he was in the
redeployment unit, which is I think a kind of waiting room for staff
pending a potential redeployment elsewhere in the organsation, or
otherwise it would seem their being made redundant.

Times are tough for a great many people at the moment. RIP Mr Shemtob.