Story 144

I worked at Citi for a number of years and I feel like I will be unwinding the brain damage for years to come. I am admittedly naive when it comes to corporate culture: do the work, keep your nose clean, reap the benefits. That is, in fact, how I successfully navigated my career of promotions and opportunities until that point. I wish I could say that Citi is run by evil geniuses who are calculating every move to outsmart their employees but the truth is worse. There is a nearly criminal lack of intellect across the board that lets bad actors make bad decisions with no accountability.

I was constantly out performing, going above and beyond what was expected of me, only to be told that when it came to compensation “flat is the new up”. I watched hordes of expensive new external hires come in, get instantly disappointed, leaving me to pick up their slack, only to have my ratings and comp be dictated by a “forced curve”. I had to fight tooth and nail to get my female direct reports (top ranked despite the forced curve btw) even a smidgen of comp growth or a promoted title. I was told different absurd reasons each year of why we couldn’t reward their high performance, only to find examples contracting the reasoning immediately. It’s a masterclass of how to alienate employees and create disdain.
I sat daily in meetings with seniors (almost all white males) posturing, enjoying the sound of their own voices, and constantly regurgitating what I said as if it was their own commentary. For much of my time there I learned to disassociate, since the reality of how the business was run was frankly too preposterous. Again, no MENSA level thought leadership…just big egos, with confirmation bias, making decisions off of vibes.
The last straw for me was finding my responsibilities were given to a male colleague with no experience in the role rather than to my team while I was on family leave. This was a permanent change. No reasoning or excuse offered, and HR brushed off my many attempts to point out that it’s not only irresponsible but bizarre.

After all of this it became painfully clear – Citi’s main position is “yeah? What are you going to do about it?” And the answer for most of us, sadly, is usually nothing.