The News: Swine Flu and Your Career

While H1N1 has faded from the headlines lately, its significance for financial workplaces is only now ramping up.

Get ready for an escalating series of emails from corporate, (hopefully) brief but mandatory employee meetings, and - if you work in client support, trading or other roles that require a continuous presence - cross-training meant to prepare you to fill in for co-workers who get sick.

Investment News has a sober story that delves into the steps brokerage and investment advisory firms are taking to protect themselves against a possible epidemic. Efforts include both 9/11-style emergency "business continuity" plans and routine public-health edicts such as "proper coughing etiquette and giving out hand sanitizer." And of course, encouraging vaccinations.

What does this have to do with your career? Although heightened corporate attention to hygiene and contagion risk will likely fade within a couple of months, during that time it's prudent to toe the company line - for your career health as well as your physical health. So if you're usually too busy watching your convexity exposure to keep tabs on your tissue inventory, you'd do well to feign germ-phobia during this period.

Industry Prepares For Potential Swine Flu Outbreak [Investment News]

Hedge-Fund Veterans Start New Fund [WSJ]

Who's Afraid Of High-Frequency Trading? [NY Times]

RBS Says 'Restrictive' Bonuses May Prompt Staff Exits [Bloomberg News]

Wells Fargo to Shut 122 Branches in California [LA Times]

Fears Grow About Overheated US Debt Market [FT]

Avast Ye! Somali Pirates Create Exchange For Stolen Loot [Investment News]

BlackRock Completes Merger with Barclays Global Investors [BlackRock]

Bloomberg Completes Acquisition of BusinessWeek [Bloomberg LP, via PRN]

The Wunderkind Gas Trader [Fortune]