- 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 frequent within the trade. This system’s closure, nevertheless, 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 large cash. Amid the post-COVID battle for expertise, although, Citigroup tried one thing completely different, providing some junior analysts a softer schedule and a submit on Spain’s well-known Costa del Sol.
On Wednesday, nevertheless, Citi introduced it was shuttering its beachside workplace within the Andalusian metropolis of Málaga as a part of a continued push to “simplify the agency” and enhance operations. It may additionally sign how financial headwinds would possibly spur a wider push for effectivity throughout the trade, forcing younger bankers to deal with job safety slightly than sustaining a semblance of work-life steadiness.
It’s a dynamic that performs out repeatedly, Benjamin Granger, chief office psychologist at on-line survey instrument Qualtrics, advised Fortune. Throughout the pandemic, it was usually mentioned, “The battle for expertise is over, and expertise has gained.” Employers have seemingly gained a lot of that leverage again, although, a pattern that would proceed if the financial system weakens and borrowing prices are gradual to come back down.
“It’s extra of an ongoing tug-of-war,” Granger mentioned.
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 a substitute of the 80- to 100-hour weeks frequent within the trade, nevertheless, they had been promised work-free evenings and weekends.
Citi mentioned six workers from the Málaga workplace can be leaving the agency, although the greater than 220 folks working at its major Spanish location in Madrid won’t be affected.
“Our emphasis on fostering colleague mobility efforts and integrating our hubs is clear within the profitable functions by a lot of our colleagues from Málaga for positions in our London and Paris hubs,” the agency mentioned in an announcement supplied to Fortune.
A battle in opposition to burnout
Manolo Falcó, Citi’s world co-head of funding banking, had beforehand insisted this system in Málaga was no gimmick.
“We endure from numerous churn like the remainder of the trade,” he advised the Monetary Occasions in 2022. “We lose expertise to non-public fairness and tech, so we’re keen to grasp if we will cease that by providing a greater work-life steadiness.”
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% yr thus far to $26.2 billion, in accordance with preliminary information from Dealogic, in contrast with $27.9 billion in the identical interval final yr. The information confirmed charges collected by Citi, nevertheless, leaping from $1.25 billion to $1.36 billion.
Not like opponents which have pushed stringent return-to-office mandates, Citi permits most workers to work a hybrid schedule with a minimum of three days per week within the workplace. CEO Jane Fraser has reportedly mentioned the corporate’s tolerance of distant work may function a aggressive benefit and recruiting instrument.
Nonetheless, issues about trade working circumstances have been underlined by latest tragedies. Final yr, 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 comparable hours.
In 2024, an annual survey of greater than 500 bankers carried out by Wall Avenue 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 dealing with many junior bankers.
“If I labored at Citibank I wouldn’t go anyplace close to such a suggestion,” Molly Johnson-Jones, a former funding banker, wrote in a letter to the Monetary Occasions in 2022. “Maybe if extra companies embraced genuinely versatile working, and primarily based pay on output slightly than working location or hours, folks may work on their very own phrases—and companies wouldn’t must resort to such determined measures to forestall burnout.”
This story was initially featured on Fortune.com
