- Citi initially employed 27 junior bankers to work at its beachside workplace on Spain’s Costa del Sol in 2022, providing much less pay however a softer schedule than the 80- to 100-hour weeks widespread within the business. This system’s closure, nonetheless, alerts how leverage could also be shifting from junior expertise again to employers.
Younger funding bankers have lengthy been confronted with a tradeoff: Work punishing hours for massive cash. Amid the post-COVID battle for expertise, although, Citigroup tried one thing completely different, providing some junior analysts a softer schedule and a publish on Spain’s well-known Costa del Sol.
On Wednesday, nonetheless, Citi introduced it was shuttering its beachside workplace within the Andalusian metropolis of Málaga as a part of a continued push to “simplify the firm” and enhance operations. It might additionally sign how financial headwinds may spur a wider push for effectivity throughout the business, forcing younger bankers to give attention to job safety relatively than sustaining a semblance of work-life stability.
It’s a dynamic that performs out repeatedly, Benjamin Granger, chief office psychologist at on-line survey instrument Qualtrics, advised Fortune. Through the pandemic, it was typically stated, “The war for talent is over, and talent has won.” Employers have seemingly gained a lot of that leverage again, although, a development that would proceed if the financial system weakens and borrowing prices are sluggish to come back down.
“It’s more of an ongoing tug-of-war,” Granger stated.
Hoping to battle worker burnout and attrition, Citi initially employed 27 analysts from greater than 3,000 candidates in 2022 for the Málaga program, in accordance to the Monetary Occasions. On the time, their pay was about half the $100,000 beginning wage acquired by friends in main hubs like New York, London, or Frankfurt. As an alternative of the 80- to 100-hour weeks widespread within the business, nonetheless, they had been promised work-free evenings and weekends.
Citi stated six workers from the Málaga workplace could be leaving the agency, although the greater than 220 individuals working at its major Spanish location in Madrid is not going to be affected.
“Our emphasis on fostering colleague mobility efforts and integrating our hubs is evident in the successful applications by many of our colleagues from Málaga for positions in our London and Paris hubs,” the agency stated in a press release supplied to Fortune.
A battle in opposition to burnout
Manolo Falcó, Citi’s international co-head of funding banking, had beforehand insisted this system in Málaga was no gimmick.
“We suffer from a lot of churn like the rest of the industry,” he advised the Monetary Occasions in 2022. “We lose talent to private equity and tech, so we are eager to understand if we can stop that by offering a better work-life balance.”
However effectivity can also be in focus, particularly as tariff uncertainty threatens the rebound in M&A and IPOs many anticipated within the early days of the Trump administration. World funding banking income has fallen 6% 12 months to this point to $26.2 billion, in keeping with preliminary knowledge from Dealogic, in contrast with $27.9 billion in the identical interval final 12 months. The info confirmed charges collected by Citi, nonetheless, leaping from $1.25 billion to $1.36 billion.
In contrast to opponents which have pushed stringent return-to-office mandates, Citi permits most workers to work a hybrid schedule with no less than three days per week within the workplace. CEO Jane Fraser has reportedly stated the corporate’s tolerance of distant work might function a aggressive benefit and recruiting instrument.
Nonetheless, issues about business working circumstances have been underlined by current tragedies. Final 12 months, ex–Military Inexperienced Beret Leo Lukenas III died of a blood clot following a number of 100-hour-plus weeks as an affiliate at Financial institution of America. Then in January, Carter Anthony McIntosh, a 28-year-old affiliate at Jefferies, died from a suspected drug overdose after reportedly working related hours.
In 2024, an annual survey of greater than 500 bankers performed by Wall Road Oasis discovered first-year analysts clocked a mean of 74 hours per week.
When Citi opened its Málaga workplace in 2022, some argued it was removed from a real resolution to the daunting schedule going through many junior bankers.
“If I worked at Citibank I wouldn’t go anywhere near such an offer,” Molly Johnson-Jones, a former funding banker, wrote in a letter to the Monetary Occasions in 2022. “Perhaps if more firms embraced genuinely flexible working, and based pay on output rather than working location or hours, people could work on their own terms—and firms wouldn’t have to resort to such desperate measures to prevent burnout.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
