@jy Yep that’s exactly what I plan on doing!
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In Tech they knew as early as October 2025 who will get Laidoff in 2026.
DH and his direct reports knew who was on the Hit List since October.
@a5 MDs knew about the Jan RIF names in November
Something similar happened with me in the Risk Department.
My manager wanted me to teach other people my job along with the trade secrets, hacks, nuances and details. Her excuse/reason was that just in case I was on vacation or out sick no one else knows how to do my work.
I saw threw the BullSh!t Sh!t Show though. She was setting me up to transfer my knowledge BEFORE she Lays me Off !
I purposely held back information and just gave the absolute bare bones minimum. They knew I was doing this because they kept prying and asking me questions.
My response was always wordsmithed, articulate and variations of "I don't know." or "I'm not sure." or "Ask so-and-so maybe they know."
When or if confronted with "You're refusing to give it?" I stood firm and repeated over and over again "I don't know it."
After a while they got tired of asking and wasting their time.
I landed a better job outside of Citi. And you better believe No one in the Risk group still doesn't know my trade secrets, the nuances and how to trouble sh00t problems for the work I did ! I made sure to take all my skills and knowledge with me. Why should I help Citi when they were going to FVCK Me Over ???!!!
A warning sign was when my manager started trying to claim that projects assigned me were more naturally aligned with other managers.
He then started to panic when he delved more and saw how many tasks, processes and role assignments were on my plate.
An enjoyable aspect of getting the chop was knowing how big a mop up job was going to be needed once my knowledge went out the door.
It's is know well in advance as my mgr informed me who ... so never a surprise to as they at times have a say -who...
Some questions are pointless to ask because you won't get an honest answer. The only time you'll know before it happens is 30 minutes prior to the "catch up" call when you get the invite.
You don’t find out until you get the “catch up” calendar invite about 30 minutes before the appointed time, although there are signs beforehand, as people said. Managers know well in advance. I had an inkling in January and asked my C15 about it and he lied straight to my face.
If your boss clears their calendar of your usual check-in mtgs. with them, that's a sign.
If they've also then scheduled just one random 15 minute mtg. with you, assume you're toast.
Take the time between when you notice this happening and before the 15 minute mtg. to d-load and/or delete any info. you want to save for future reference, ie from HR (tax/insurance/health, etc. info.), your personal and professional correspondence, contacts, docs., etc. Because during or immediately after that mtg./call where you get the boot, they're likely to abruptly cut off your access to company systems.
Most times, not until that very day.
Each time it happened to me, I carried on like a regular business day. Then you get that call or that teams request for 15 minutes
You dont. My manager (C14) told me during my review that if they had to force rfank, I would be one of the top people. BS. 4 weeks later I got RIFd. I did notice in my last couple of bi-weekly check ins I got more criticizms than usual, tried to make it look like I wasnt doing my job......even though I had just gotten a 3/2. Total back stab
I knew when I got rated a 4 for the first time in a very long career. In retrospect, I appreciate the warning because it gave me time to prepare myself and plan for the inevitable.
A friend who is an MD at another bank says MDs know well in advance but immediate manager is told about one week in advance. Indeed, exactly one week in advance, my immediate manager (C14) asked me to reinstate a weekly status call that he and I used to have, so that he could become more familiar with where I was with my projects. Hmmmm. I set up that status call for 3 pm on the day that turned out to be my firing date. But since I was laid off by the MD at 2 pm, we never had the status call.