To continue on #71, this feels all too familiar. The internal process at Citi when someone submits an anonymous complaint is to escalate it to the group head. This is literally how the process is organized. Step one for HR is to contact the head of the group from which complaint came, make them aware of the situation and asks them to assist with the investigation. What do you think happens next? Story 71 does.
I’ve spent more than twenty years on Wall Street, and what surprises me is not that inequities exist, but how persistent and deeply embedded they remain. For all the progress that’s been discussed—and occasionally celebrated—the day-to-day reality tells a different story. The industry still operates, in many ways, as a closed circle, where informal networks…
1/2 At Citi, “manager” doesn’t mean leader. It means patriarch. All-knowing. Always right. Beyond reproach. Technical incompetence gets masked by authoritarian management styles. Citi lists “challenge” as a core value. In practice, challenging leadership is career suicide. The system aligns with power. The system will never find against them. Negative feedback is treated as insubordination,…
This story is about a senior woman in Citi’s Commercial Bank, whom I met through a women’s network there. At a professional gathering, a male colleague grabbed her and force-kissed her. Drunk. No ambiguity about what happened. The next morning he came in, sat down, and said nothing. Not an acknowledgment. Not an apology. Just…
The Head of Wealth at Citi—somewhat ironically given his reputation also the head of the women’s network—hosted a Women’s Day event with Martina Navratilova. It’s a visible gesture, but my day-to-day reality remains walking into meetings with 30+ men and being the only woman in the room who is drowned out on the daily. It…
I worked at Wells Fargo for 27 years. I left much earlier than planned, because I could no longer tolerate being overworked, under-recognized, and treated as the woman who could carry everything while our only male team member was valued above everyone else, even though his contribution was laughable. I saved Wells Fargo more than…
I worked in a senior role at Citi delivering programs that supported thousands of employees. Over time, my workload increased significantly while opportunities for advancement and recognition stalled. The narrative around my performance began shifting in ways that did not reflect the work being delivered. Decisions affecting my role were increasingly made without transparency. Eventually…