employees at the now deceased Silicon Valley Bank have had harrowing experiences following their collapse, and one recently recounted the emotional trauma they suffered the day the bank collapsed.

Nervous early days: The communication of the SVB management to both customers and employees was initially murky, said the anonymous employee Business Insider in a piece released on Saturday. The staff seemed to be struggling to understand what was happening to them and what to say to customers who had all been frantically calling the bank.

“Nobody could get any money out. We were at the forefront,” the employee recalls.

The only SVB office that reportedly remained open was in Palo Alto, California, where department heads sat down with SVB officials Federal Deposit Insurance Company banging things out.

The employee also told Business Insider that his team only found out about the FDIC acquisition during an internal team call when it was in the news. “We had no way of getting ready – they left us in the dark. So there was a shock and also some tears,” the staffer said.

Biggest frustration: The employee said the biggest frustration was management not saying what to say to customers amid the collapse. Instead of asking about their future at the bank, how they would pay off their own houses or how they would pay for their children’s college education, the bank’s employees were more concerned about their customers, the employee said.

“I ate a bagel every day and slept maybe two or three hours every night,” they recalled.

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After the FDIC takeover: The anonymous employee said that the weekend after FDIC takeover “was crazy.” After receiving a list of 13 venture capital firms who said they would sign a statement of support for the bank, SVB staff “spent an entire weekend on the phone, email, chat or otherwise interacting with the VC Contacting companies and partners from…