Thread regarding Citigroup Inc. / Citibank / Citi layoffs

I hope they start trimming away at HR. Talk about a useless group.
They worked really hard to not have to interact with people and when they do, they so begrudgingly with smugness give you the bare minimum vague direction.

The other posters are correct. They already use a chatbot, take it to the next level and replace them with AI.

This is a wise choice should they go this route, to cut HR deeply that is.

I’ve heard from several people HR is to be cut deep soon.

HR should be the next to go.

This is true.
Most HR questions are directed to either chatbots or a general FAQ links and canned emails. If you do speak to an HR person, it is met with snarkiness and smugness.

Why not just replace the bulk of HR with AI if at all possible. Most of their work is template driven anyway with no true decision making.

The HR smugness will not be missed.

I doubt if they’d cut HR first but rather last if at all.
That said, yes, they do need to be cut rather deep as ineffective as they are.

I so hope that HR is cut deeeeeeppppp.
I’ve seen them so mater of factly deliver bad news with such a smug attitude, they deserve it. They can go somewhere else and be useless there.

Now this is odd. I just had a team meeting and naturally the discussion swayed to the upcoming layoffs. There were several people who also suggested that Citi HR be the first to go. It seems that no one at Citi cares that much for HR at all.

Some HR folks are extremely rude at Citi.

Replace HR with AI.
The reason I say that as they already function off of a chatbot. They already usually only provide canned email responses. They usually only provide FAQ links and\or mostly links that are broken.

All of this, as lame as it can be, can be done by AI. Why pay for an HR staff when this can all be done via AI.

If the goal is to streamline things, get rid of the excess and get rid of non essentials, then HR would be stop number one. The 4 interactions I’ve had with them, they were very smug and offered no help or answers. I definitely walked away with the feeling they conveyed of “su-ks to be you”.

I hope they show some wisdom and realize that HR needs to be trimmed back.
If gauged upon helpfulness and\or employee interaction, yes, they would be considered rather fat and need to be cut by at least half. Those guys in HR seem to work harder on avoiding interaction with employees as if its part of their yearly goals. I guess thats a good question.

Does HR get penalized for interacting with employees?
Is that part of their goals, to avoid employee questions?

I know those questions sound silly but given the experiences by most, they are valid to ask.

this is a sentiment about HR that’s shared across the board.

HR has been laughing all the way to the bank for years now on cashing in that easy pay. HR positions at Citi is like a golden parachute. Getting paid to ignore request for help, assistance and guidance. Anyone can do that. Its like an exclusive club, the trick is getting in and once you’re in, you’re set for life. What purpose do they truly serve other than ticking a box saying “we have this many HR employees for ‘x’ number of employees”.

Seriously what’s the difference between having 1 HR rep per 1000 employees not helping and having 1 HR rep for all Citi employees and not helping. You get nada either way.

Get rid of HR FTE’s and outsource what you need with a flexible contract that you can cut your outsourced HR staff at will depending on demand.

Couldn’t agree more.

Citi HR, nope, don’t see a lot of value there.

The company that I came from, HR was freaking awesome. 1 on 1 interaction. Answers and direction never took more than 2 days. They’d follow up after the fact. Getting a hold of someone from HR for a conversation was never a problem.

I hired on to Citi and in comparison….Citi HR=lame.
No use to relate as to how they are lame as most of its already been mentioned by other posters. So yes, cut Citi HR who would notice, on that I do agree.

Agree 100%, HR needs to go.
They’ve worked very hard over the years to cultivate a culture of non-response, busted links, and if responded at all its with extreme vagueness. They’ve ridden the gravy train and gotten paid for nothing for many years now. They don’t even work with or respond to managers effectively. Given this, why keep the number of HR personnel that we have. Chop them in half, they can go somewhere else and do nothing there. Like someone already said, you could get rid of half of them and no one would even notice.

They are making big cuts in HR. Do you know every person in HR? No, you don't.

Stop crying about HR.

The real issue is the traders, private bankers etc. who clearly aren't good enough at their jobs to make the bank money like it should be! Get your sh-t together and earn!

We should write to Boston Consulting and share our ideas with them. Name the HR people too. 🧹

Way over bloated with HR, PMs and risk. You could cut half of HR right now and who would know.

HR not answering your questions
vs
HR not really really not answering your questions

The end result is the same. Cut HR in half.

How about we let Jane and her consulting cronies go?

They already have layoff templates in place, its almost automated. You can cut back on 50% of HR and the layoff process itself can be triggered by anyone of the HR staff you have left. Go ahead and cut them now and get it over with.

If the consultants advising us have their act together, HR will likely be decimated after the first big round of layoffs. Citi will need HR staff to help manage the departures…and then that’s it.

If you want to trim the low hanging fruit, start with HR.

The competitors are all using third party hr firms. Citi promotes them to MD while they refuse to do their job.

I’ve always thought it was funny when you ask a HR question and they give you a link to a FAQ site which does not answer your question. Given this, yeah, I gotta agree, HR is useless.

Grow up 😂

Start with DEI staff.

This has come up as a topic in many meetings and is actually not a bad idea at all.