I Never Thought I’d Write This
A few months processing my “skin-scrawling” time at Citi have fundamentally shifted how I see workplace dynamics—and how toxic leadership spreads.
My manager didn’t arrive unscarred to USCC Risk.
He’d carried behavioral baggage from a previous job—pent-up aggression that had him put on notice.
I met his wife once at a function: a strong, dominant, willful lady who seemed to insist on getting her way. Coming to the job with the frustrations of a man seemingly castrated at home, he walked into an equally toxic environment.
He reported to an abusive, controlling leader who wielded her corporate title like a cudgel, demanding the blind implementation of her will rather than empowering her team. She didn’t develop people; she subjugated them.
Unable to assert himself with her—and deeply insecure facing an older, much more experienced professional with social abilities and emotional intelligence he lacked—my manager redirected his pent-up aggression downward.
He went to great lengths to bully, undermine, marginalize, and erase my contributions with the complicit endorsement of his boss, herself a well-documented toxic personality with a history of bullying, retaliation and discrimination.
I’ve heard it said that bullies have weak managers. That wasn’t true here, but the N+2 certainly was—and she was well aware of past incidents.
Abuse is never a one-off. Bullying and harassment cannot be accepted as workplace culture. They are symptoms of leadership failure, weak accountability and poor governance.
A healthy workplace does not normalize abuse. It confronts it. Silence may protect the bully today, but speaking up can protect someone tomorrow.
It’s striking how much professional courtesy Management shields this toxic MD with, when she’s shown none to the people she’s forced out.
What matters now: multiple people have come forward with similar claims. This was a systemic pattern. And Citi will have to reckon with it.