Citigroup says employees can work remotely for the last 2 weeks of the year
Citigroup Inc. told most employees they can work from anywhere for the last two weeks of the year as Chief Executive Officer Jane Fraser bucks a trend among competitors to bring office workers back to their desks full-time.
The move applies to those in hybrid roles or those already working remotely a few days a week, and workers have been told they must remain in their country of employment to reap the benefit, according to those with the matter familiar people. The bank provided staff a similar possibility in August.
A spokeswoman for New York-based Citigroup confirmed the move.
Fraser has offered most employees the opportunity to work remotely at least part of the time on a permanent basis, with most Citigroup employees expected to be in the office three days a week. The CEO said Wall Street’s insistence on full-time office attendance felt outdated, arguing in an interview with Fortune last month that workers would “vote with their feet” on such policies.
“There’s a lot of value that you get from being together and a little more spontaneity from that and the collaboration, the training,” Fraser said at the time. Still, she said: “Our junior bankers don’t have to be in the office late at night when they’re working on a deal. Once they get the job done together, they can do it at home. We know if they are doing a good job or not.”
Fraser said most traders tend to work from the office five days a week, even though they have the necessary technology to work from home if they have to attend a child’s school play or need to walk home at lunchtime, to see her family. Meanwhile, call center workers are spending more time at home, she said.
“They will come when they need training,” Fraser said. “If they’re performing poorly and need some coaching from their manager,” they can do that and then go back to working from home, she said.
remote work experiment
Office occupancy in the New York metro area has reached its highest post-pandemic level in recent weeks and is approaching 50%, according to card-swipe data from Kastle Systems.
Still, working parents across the country have increasingly complained that they must balance return-to-the-office requirements with rising numbers of influenza, Covid-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). A busy holiday travel season is likely to further complicate this picture.
“Working from home in knowledge jobs like banking is new, so everyone is learning from this experiment,” said Lynda Gratton, professor of management at London Business School and author of redesign work. “Seeing it as an event, just for the summer or Christmas, makes perfect sense. It creates free time at a time when people really appreciate it and gives leaders a chance to try the impact in a low-risk way.”
–Assisted by Matthew Boyle.
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