Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.'s employees worldwide are clearing their desks, waiting to hear if they'll be paid, and starting to look for work after the investment bank filed for the biggest bankruptcy in history.

``Everyone's talking on their cell phones, talking to headhunters,'' said Duo Ai, a bespectacled 26-year-old employee in fixed income quantitative research, as he stepped outside Lehman's Canary Wharf offices in London today. ``It's kind of chaotic. The only question remaining is whether we will get this month's pay check.''

The 158-year-old bank filed today for bankruptcy after Bank of America Corp. and Barclays Plc pulled out of rescue talks because the U.S. government balked at funding a bailout. That's left Lehman's 25,000 employees worldwide fearing for their livelihoods and some blaming Chief Executive Officer Richard Fuld for Lehman's collapse. Lehman's workers also own about a third of the bank's shares.

``People are angry,'' Ai said, clad in a beige shirt and dark blue tie. ``They thought the management messed it up. Any outcome would be better than this.''

Lehman employs about 6,000 in Europe, and today about 40 reporters, 10 camera crews and more photographers descended on the bank's 32-story glass and steel headquarters building, grabbing employees as they left.

A London-based Lehman spokeswoman declined to comment.

A 21-year-old Lehman graduate trainee in London, who declined to be identified by name, said he and 90 to 95 colleagues were called in by the human resources department and made redundant. They started work a week ago.

Beer Glasses

By four o'clock, a copy of the inch-and-a-half-thick ``Lehman Brothers Corporate Graduate Trading Program Manual 2008'' sat on a table at the ``All Bar One'' pub opposite the bank's office. Beside it lay an empty packet of Lambert & Butler cigarettes, and several empty beer glasses.

``It's terrible,'' said Kirsty McCluskey, 32, as she crossed the road outside Lehman's office. ``Death. Like a massive earthquake.'' She said she works on the trading floor.

Workers were scrambling to complete their expenses claims, she said. Others were seen leaving the office carrying personal possessions in crates, refusing to give their names. Some could be seen from below, staring out of windows as they spoke on their cell phones.

``The Fed didn't bail us out,'' said Khash Sajadi, 32, a vice president in Lehman's mortgage capital division in London. `That's the right decision. As a taxpayer, rather than a Lehman employee, you shouldn't have to foot the bill for someone else's decision. It's a sad story for me and very many others.''

`Hugging Each Other'

Sphinx Patterson, who takes a so-called body-pump and step class every Monday afternoon at Lehman's seventh-floor gym, said the complex was shut today, and the piles of towels had gone.

``People were hugging each other in the corridor,'' said Patterson, 35, who's worked at the gym for five years. ``I saw girls crying. They don't know what to do,'' he added.

In Paris, camera crews and journalists milled outside of Lehman's office, which it shares with Apple Inc. About a year ago some 150 workers moved to the address, which includes a private hanging garden with view on the Paris skyline. Workers walking out from the building at lunch time declined to respond to journalists' requests for comment.

Lehman's European workers were following colleagues worldwide. In New York, the day before, hundreds of people wearing Lehman badges were seen entering the building at 745 7th Avenue carrying empty bags. The same employees later left the building with bags now full of files and personal belongings. Some were carrying plants and paintings.

Packing Up

According to a worker who left Lehman's New York headquarters with a box full of files yesterday, employees were telling one another that the bank was about to go bankrupt and that they'd be locked out by today.

Lehman's offices were full of people packing up, said an employee who identified herself as a junior analyst who joined the company two months ago. A few cried and hugged each other on a late summer afternoon. Most declined to comment.

In Tokyo, a woman who identified herself only as a Lehman employee, said that people were packing up and taking personal belongings away. Another Lehman executive in Hong Kong, dragging a suitcase, said he had decided to take his possessions home, even though no one was sure whether the company's Asian subsidiary was also declaring itself bankrupt like the U.S. parent.

Great Depression

Lehman shares have lost 94 percent of their value since the beginning of the year due to its exposure to the subprime debt crisis. After surviving the railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s and the collapse of Long-Term Capital Management a decade ago, Lehman today filed a Chapter 11 petition with U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had indicated that he didn't want to use U.S. taxpayer money to facilitate a sale of the company.

Last week, the company started as Wall Street's fourth- largest investment bank and ended smaller than Raymond James Financial Inc., a regional securities firm, which has a market capitalization of $3.74 billion. Lehman shares closed Friday at $3.65, down 74 percent from Monday, with a market capitalization of $2.53 billion.

Marcus McCrea, who works for the U.S. government's veteran's administration, paused yesterday afternoon as he passed Lehman's New York office, where tourists, New Yorkers and journalists formed a crowd.

``Bye-bye, Lehman,'' he said. ``It was nice knowing you.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Crowley in London at kcrowley1@bloomberg.net; Thomas Penny in London at tpenny@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 15, 2008 12:03 EDT