In 2022, as junior funding bankers complained of burnout from a record-breaking dealmaking increase, Citigroup had an answer for bringing in and retaining new expertise: a greater work life steadiness working in Spain’s Costa del Sol.
The US financial institution employed 27 analysts to work from a newly opened workplace in Málaga — a metropolis favoured by vacationers and Spaniards alike for its cocktail of solar, sea, eating places and bars — promising eight-hour days and free weekends.
Citi’s rivals labelled it a publicity stunt that may do little to vary the tradition on Wall Avenue. However Manolo Falcó, then the financial institution’s international co-head of funding banking, insisted “this isn’t a gimmick”.
Lower than three years later, the workplace is closed and most workers moved to London. A handful of workers have been let go because the solar units on an initiative designed to interrupt from the standard working circumstances confronted by the junior analysts who do a lot of the grunt work in funding banking.
Former workers who labored in Citi’s Málaga workplace, in addition to these concerned within the venture, say the truth differed to the financial institution’s pitch, with many working lengthy hours within the hopes of incomes coveted roles in cities resembling London and Paris.
“That flexibility that was marketed because the core of the providing there wasn’t actually revered,” mentioned one former worker based mostly in Málaga. “If you wish to succeed and be moved to London you couldn’t do this with out doing the identical working hours as individuals there.”
The venture was conceived by a trio of Citi executives: Nacho Gutiérrez-Orrantia, who was then Citi’s Emea head of funding banking and capital markets; María Díaz del Río, chief of workers for that enterprise; and Falcó.
The workforce seemed throughout completely different nations, together with Portugal, Poland and the Czech Republic, however landed on Spain — inspired by the mayor of Málaga’s enterprise pleasant method.
Every of the analysts employed from pool of greater than 3,000 candidates was allotted to one of many business groups in London. In the event that they carried out effectively on the finish of a two-year interval, Málaga may very well be a springboard to a job within the Metropolis.
The method was largely managed by del Río, who helped assign the junior bankers to completely different groups, and a senior supervisor was on the bottom to handle shifts in order that analysts didn’t work lengthy hours.
However former workers say the promise of a job in London, the place they may very well be on the coronary heart of the motion, made them really feel they needed to work longer hours in an effort to stand out from their friends.
“Lots of the staff in Málaga have been depressing,” mentioned one particular person aware of the initiative. “There have been a lot of guarantees however little development.”
Citi mentioned that its “emphasis on fostering colleague mobility efforts and integrating our hubs” was “evident within the profitable functions by a lot of our colleagues from Málaga for positions in our London and Paris hubs”. The financial institution has not specified how most of the Málaga workers have been moved to different places.
Junior analysts in Spain say they’d extra flexibility, however for many who needed to maneuver on it was a case of working the identical hours as their London counterparts whereas incomes half the wage.
Citi analysts in Málaga mentioned they have been provided a beginning wage of $55,000 whereas friends in main monetary centres resembling London and New York make upwards of $100,000.
“It’s very subjective on what work you have been doing,” mentioned one worker. “The extra you have been keen to decide to the trigger, the extra tasks you bought.”
If Málaga workers weren’t keen to make themselves accessible till the early hours of the morning, they could not get allotted the extra demanding mandates and that would scupper their possibilities of shifting, they added.
Banks have been grappling with tips on how to entice and retain expertise, significantly through the dealmaking increase that adopted the pandemic hunch when junior workers complained of burnout and 100-hour work weeks.
Junior bankers at Goldman Sachs described “inhumane circumstances” in a presentation deck that triggered a flurry of latest initiatives, a few of which included at the very least one weekend day without work work or a restrict to the quantity of hours workers may log.
However a greater work-life steadiness amongst junior workers stands at odds with the calls for of funding banking the place hours logged and arduous work are sometimes the foreign money to incomes a promotion.
One Citi worker in Málaga who moved to London known as the tradition contained in the workplace “actually particular” as a result of it had introduced collectively younger individuals from completely different nationalities who have been desirous to do effectively.
“I’ll most likely by no means get to work in an environment like [the] one which I bought there” once more, the particular person mentioned.
However the draw back of a brand new initiative staffed with keen 20-somethings — launched shortly earlier than chief government Jane Fraser kicked off an enormous restructuring of the financial institution — was an absence of oversight from distracted Citi managers.
Del Río’s departure as a part of the restructuring in 2024 meant there was nobody to supervise the group and workers in Málaga felt forgotten about. “It had its cons, not having your seniors there,” a former worker mentioned.
When the workplace first opened in the summertime of 2022, there was an workplace supervisor overseeing the analyst class who stayed for nearly a 12 months, they mentioned. Afterwards, there was a revolving door of senior individuals who got here out and in of the workplace and there was a protracted stretch the place there was no senior presence in any respect.
“We had a six-month span the place we have been utterly forgotten,” mentioned the previous worker.
“When there was no supervisor it was pure anarchy, there have been individuals that you just wouldn’t see for months, the morale was so low,” they added. There was poor attendance within the workplace because it grew to become more and more clear that Citi was prone to shut it down and a few workers who left for different jobs weren’t changed.
Citi mentioned in a press release final week that the choice to shut down the workplace was a part of its technique to “simplify the agency and make enhancements to how we function”.
These concerned say the Málaga workplace was a casualty of Mission Bora Bora, the interior code title used for Citi’s main restructuring. With del Río now not on the financial institution and each Falcó and Gutiérrez-Orrantia in numerous roles, there was nobody to assist the trigger.
“Individuals misplaced focus due to [the restructuring] and with out that power pushing it ahead, who’s backing this?” mentioned one other particular person concerned with the programme. “The idea was good, it was poor execution.”
For most of the analysts based mostly in Málaga, the sunshine coast was a stop-gap to a greater job in London. However for many who have been hoping funding banking may supply one thing completely different, Citi’s proposition solely put a plaster on a significant concern.
One of many workers mentioned: “They offered us the dream however the actuality was way more completely different”.
